While eating breakfast at a remote hotel in New Mexico about 10 years ago, I did a double take at the man who had just walked into the restaurant. My eyes weren’t deceiving me: it was indeed Bob Weber, the former University of Louisville football coach. He and his dad were also vacationing.
Weber was happy to hook up again with people from Louisville, wanting to catch up on how things were going at UofL. Still able to turn the head of every woman in the room, he was the same laid back guy we remembered from 1980 to 1984. While there weren’t many highlights during those years, there were some significant victories and he was pleased to be reminded.
There was, for example, the surprising 17-9 win at Kansas in his first season, a huge win at the time. While not a major football power, Kansas was a big name school, which rarely found its way to the UofL schedule. One of my favorites was an unbelievable 13-10 win over ninth-ranked and undefeated Southern Mississippi the day after Thanksgiving in 1981. There was also a come-from-behind 30-28 win over a good Oklahoma State team at Fairgrounds Stadium in 1982. His teams were 3-1 against Memphis State, which, at the time, was a few light years ahead of U of L in football.
Weber showed no hint of bitterness about being fired by the school after five years with a 20-35 won-lost record. He had minimum support and resources from James Grier Miller’s administration and the program was on the edge of extinction in the pre-Schnellenberger era. He remembered only the good times at Louisville.
The son of a Russian immigrant and raised on a small farm in Colorado, Bob Weber died of pancreatic cancer at 75 last weekend at his home in Tucson, Arizona. A memorial service will be held Wednesday, Nov. 15 at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, 1200 N. Campbell Avenue, in Tucson.
Yes, I remember those impressive wins and I remember the humiliating losses – we were at every one back in the days when a few thousand of us in the stands would try to get a wave started…..win or lose, Bob Weber was a class act. I wonder what he could have done IF U of L had been more committed to football back then. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. Thanks for the memories Bob and thanks for being part of the U of L family for a little while.