Muddy Waters (American football)

Waters was born in Chico, California and grew up in Wallingford, Connecticut. He attended Pawling School in Pawling, New York. He was both football and track captain at the Choate School, from which he graduated in 1943, and where he was inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame in 2004. He played fullback for Michigan State from 1946 to 1949 under coaches Charlie Bachman and Clarence Munn.

His Hillsdale Chargers teams won 34 consecutive games from 1953 to 1957 while participating in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association. In 1955, his 9–0 team refused to play in the Tangerine Bowl when game officials prohibited the team's black players from participating. He was named NAIA Coach of the Year in 1957, a year in which the team played in the Holiday Bowl and was chosen by the Washington D.C. Touchdown Club as the best small college team in the country. In his final year at the school, its stadium was renamed "Frank 'Muddy' Waters Stadium."

After leaving Hillsdale with a 138–47–5 record, Waters went on to serve as the first head coach of the Saginaw Valley State University Cardinals from 1975 to 1979, posting a 25–26–2 record and capturing a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title in his final season.

In 1980, Michigan State hired Waters as head football coach after an NCAA probation. Waters coached for three seasons, but got fired after a 10–23 record in three seasons.^[1] Despite his firing just before the last game of the season, Waters was popular enough with players and fans to be carried off the field after his final 24–18 loss to Iowa.

After leaving MSU's head coach position, Waters continued to live in East Lansing and participated as a member of the MSU community for the next two decades. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000 in the Small College category. Waters died of congestive heart failure at age 83 in Saginaw, Michigan.

• Muddy Waters at the College Football Hall of Fame