CU Chancellor Bud Peterson, a former Kansas State receiver who played against the Buffaloes in Crowder’s last game as coach at Colorado, said Crowder “helped me greatly in understanding the Colorado sports landscape. I will miss his sage advice, his enthusiasm and his love of all things CU, as will our entire community.”

Crowder turned around a moribund Buffaloes program, compiling a 63-33-2 record after two years of rebuilding. One of his biggest wins came in 1970, when the Buffs ended Penn State’s 31-game unbeaten streak. His best season came in 1971, when the Buffaloes went 10-2 and finished third in the national polls behind fellow Big 8 conference members Nebraska and Oklahoma.

“College football has lost one of the great ones,” former broadcaster Keith Jackson said. “I had a lot of fun with Eddie, whether it was talking football or life. And he knew both well.”

In an era known for dictatorial coaches stomping up and down the sideline, Crowder was the exception, hardly ever raising his voice.

“Eddie got a lot done with a very even temper,” Jackson said. “He always gave me the feeling that if you don’t go out and give your best, you’re selling out. If the kids didn’t go out and play their hardest, they would have offended him. That was the way he controlled his team. He wasn’t a shouter, a yeller or a screamer.”

Several members of his coaching staff went on to have successful head coaching careers themselves, including Jim Mora, Don James and Les Steckel.

Born Aug. 26, 1931, in Arkansas City, Kan., Crowder was raised in Muskogee, where he won a state championship in 1949. He was a backup quarterback on OU’s first national championship team in 1950 and guided the Sooners to a 16-3-1 mark as a starter in 1951-52.

After a senior season in which he earned All-America honors, Crowder was drafted by the New York Giants in 1953 but declined because of a nerve problem in his throwing arm.

He served in the Army Corps of Engineers, playing quarterback on the Fort Hood team in ’53 and serving as a backfield coach in ’54 before returning to Oklahoma and earning his bachelor’s degree in 1955. Colorado athletic director Harry Carlson hired him to coach the Buffaloes in 1963, when Crowder was 31.

Crowder is survived by his wife, Kate, two children, two stepchildren and three grandchildren.