This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Former Iowa and Utah head football coach Ray Nagel has died at age 87.
The University of Iowa says Nagel died Jan. 15 in San Antonio. His daughter Nancy Nagel confirmed her father's death when reached by phone Wednesday.
The Los Angeles native played quarterback for UCLA and began his coaching career there as an assistant.
Nagel coached and played for the NFL's Chicago Cardinals in 1953 and worked as an assistant coach at Oklahoma from 1954 to 1957.
He was head coach at Utah from 1958 to 1965 and at Iowa from 1966 to 1970.
Nagel led Utah to a victory over West Virginia in the 1964 Liberty Bowl, the first collegiate bowl game ever played indoors and Utah's signature win for at least 30 more years, until the 1994 Freedom Bowl. While at the U., he also gave the first-ever jobs to longtime NFL coaches George Seifert, Lynn Stiles and John Pease.
"He was a guy who invested in his own people that he brought in, which was a real credit to Ray Nagel," Stiles told The Tribune on Wednesday night. "We will always be indebted to him for his kindness and giving us the opportunity."
His son, Ray Nagel Jr., told The Tribune on Wednesday night that services had not yet been planned.
Nagel went on to serve as athletic director at Washington State and Hawaii, executive vice president of the Los Angeles Rams and executive director of the Hula Bowl before retiring in 1995.
He was inducted into the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006.