Pat PanekOne of the state's most beloved coaches, the late Pat Panek compiled an impressive 328-117-29 overall football coaching record over 52 years of coaching in Colorado and Nebraska. In Colorado, his teams at Denver East and Machebeuf won 306 games over 38 years, the most by a coach in Colorado.
His 52 years as coach ranks him second only to the legendary Amos Alonzo Stagg's 57 years at the national level.
His Denver East teams won 16 league championships and two state championships (1949 and 1962). While at Machebeuf, his teams won a pair of conference titles.
He still ranks among the winningest coaches in the nation and is a member of four other halls of fame, including the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame and the Nebraska Sports Hall of Fame into which he was inducted this past September.
Panek not only fielded a strong football program, but he built a reputation that far surpasses his accomplishments as a coach. Perhaps the finest thing that could ever be said about a coach was said about Panek.
His contemporaries have said that Panek is not measured by the number of his victories, but rather by his influence on the thousands of players he coached over his 52 years.
Ironically, Panek was noted more for his basketball coaching abilities than his football skills when he arrived in Colorado in 1938. He guided St. Paul, NE, basketball teams to two state championships and twice his teams played in Chicago, IL, at the national basketball tournament.
