Pat Dye

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Pat Dye (November 6, 1939 – June 1, 2020) was an American football player, coach, and athletic administrator. He played at the University of Georgia from 1957 to 1960 as an offensive guard and linebacker, earning All-American honors, and later played for the Edmonton Eskimos in Canada before serving in the Army.

Dye began his coaching career as an assistant at Alabama under Bear Bryant in 1965, where he helped recruit Alabama’s first Black players. He later became a head coach at East Carolina University (1974–1979), Wyoming (1980), and Auburn University (1981–1992). At Auburn, he won four SEC championships (1983, 1987–1989) and was named SEC Coach of the Year three times. He coached stars such as Bo Jackson and helped lead Auburn to top national rankings in the early 1980s. Dye also served as Auburn’s athletic director from 1981 to 1991.

Pat Dye Field at Jordan-Hare Stadium was named in his honor in 2005, and he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame the same year. He passed away on June 1, 2020, in Auburn, Alabama, from kidney and liver failure after a kidney-related illness. He left behind four children and nine grandchildren and spent his later years on his farm in Notasulga, Alabama.