Promise Keepers founder Bill McCartney dead at 84

(RNS)—Bill McCartney, a former college football coach who became one of the most influential religious figures in American life during the 1990s after founding the Promise Keepers movement, died Jan. 10. He was 84.

“It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Bill McCartney, beloved husband, father, grandfather, and friend, who left this world peacefully at the age of 84 after a courageous journey with dementia,” his family said in a statement.

In March of 1990, not long after his University of Colorado Buffaloes missed a chance at the national championship by losing to Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl, McCartney hopped in a car with a friend, Dave Wardell. They drove from the university’s campus in Boulder to Pueblo, Colo., where he was scheduled to give a speech at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes banquet.

While on the road, McCartney talked about his concerns that American men were losing their faith in God, and as a result, the nation’s families were suffering. During that drive, the idea of Promise Keepers was born.

Within a year, McCartney had grown Promise Keepers from a relatively small group of followers to a gathering of 4,000 men at the University of Colorado’s basketball arena. Along the way, he also led the Buffaloes to a national championship after beating Notre Dame in a rematch.

Promise Keepers drew tens of thousands to events

A few years later, Promise Keepers was drawing tens of thousands of worshippers to arenas and stadiums around the country—and eventually more than half a million men to the National Mall in Washington in 1997.

The group’s prominence sparked a national debate about the role of faith in public life and the evolving relationship between men and women, especially in religious communities.

During Promise Keepers gatherings, McCartney preached a mix of traditional Christian gender roles, known as complementarianism—with men as the spiritual leaders of their homes and societies—and a softer, kinder approach to masculinity, where men did the dishes, listened to their wives and were known for kindness rather than toughness.

“A real man, a man’s man, is a godly man,” McCartney said in a 1995 press conference before a packed-out event in Washington, D.C., The Washington Post reported. “A real man is a man of substance, a man that’s vulnerable, a man who loves his wife, a man that has a passion for God, and is willing to lay down his life for him.”

Butler said McCartney’s message resonated with both evangelical men and women—as it portrayed what the movement hoped to be at its best—but often clashed with the broader culture, especially with those who saw the group’s message as an attack on women’s rights.

“The Promise Keepers speak about taking back America for Christ, but they also mean to take back the rights of women,” Patricia Ireland, then president of the National Organization for Women, told The Washington Post in 1997, when Promise Keepers was at the height of its popularity.

“Their call for submission of women is one that doesn’t have a place in either the pulpit or the public sphere in the 1990s.”

Promise Keepers also was known for opposing LGBTQ rights, which also made McCartney controversial.

Strong emphasis on racial reconciliation

But the movement also stirred dissension in Christian circles for focusing on racial reconciliation, often in blunt terms.

“Racism is an insidious monster,” McCartney said in a 1996 rally for clergy in Atlanta, in announcing Promise Keepers’ move to focus on issues of race. “You can’t say you love God and not love your brother.”

He preached a similar message the following year before the rally in Washington, linking religious revival in the country with racial reconciliation.

“The church has been divided, and a house divided cannot stand,” he said, according to Religion News Service reporting at the time.

The movement faltered in the late 1990s, in part due to a move away from stadium events to smaller rallies in more places, which led to financial woes, as the income from the stadium events had paid the organization’s bills for years.

Less than a year after the “Stand in the Gap” event at the National Mall, the group laid off most of its staff. A move to focus on racial reconciliation proved less popular with evangelicals than the focus on how to be a good dad or husband, with some Christian leaders labeling it as “divisive.”

The group went through several attempts to reinvent itself—including a partisan turn during the Trump era—but has long failed to regain its former influence.

‘A shift in the American religious landscape’

Paul Emory Putz, assistant director of Truett Seminary’s Faith & Sports Institute at Baylor University, and author of The Spirit of the Game, said that there had long been a connection between Christianity and football.

 But until McCartney, few sports figures from the charismatic movement in evangelicalism had much of a public presence. But McCartney, who had been part of a charismatic Catholic parish and called himself a “born-again Catholic” and was later part of a Vineyard church, brought that community into the sports world.

“He marked a shift in the American religious landscape where that form of faith became more mainstream,” Putz said.

Putz also said McCartney lived out his beliefs, leaving the University of Colorado in order to pay more attention to his family

Born Aug. 22, 1940, McCartney grew up in Riverview, Mich., where he played football, basketball and baseball in high school, before getting a scholarship to play football at the University of Missouri.

After graduating from Missouri in 1962, McCartney coached high school in Joplin, Mo., before becoming coach of the basketball team at Holy Redeemer High School in Detroit and then football coach at Divine Child High School in Dearborn, Mich.

His success at the high school level led to an assistant coach job at the University of Michigan. In 1982, McCartney, known as “Coach Mac,” was named the football coach at the University of Colorado, where he led the team to 10 winning seasons in a row and made the Buffaloes a national powerhouse.

He resigned as coach in 1994, in part due to his wife’s ill health. He would step down as leader of Promise Keepers in 2003 but returned for a while in 2008.

His last season with the Buffaloes was 1994, when the team went 11-1 behind a roster that included Kordell Stewart, Michael Westbrook and the late Rashaan Salaam.

That season featured the “Miracle in Michigan,” with Westbrook hauling in a 64-yard touchdown catch from Stewart on a Hail Mary as time expired in a road win over the Wolverines, according to The Associated Press. Salaam also rushed for 2,055 yards and won the Heisman Trophy.

Praised as coach and role model

A conversion experience in his 30s changed the course of McCartney’s life, his family said in announcing the former coach’s death, and led him to devote the remainder of his life to living out his Christian faith.

Former colleagues and players testified to McCartney’s impact on their lives as both a coach and a role model.

“Coach Mac was an incredible man who taught me about the importance of faith, family and being a good husband, father and grandfather,” Rich George, University of Colorado athletic director, said on the university’s website.

Alfred Williams, a star player for the Buffaloes who later went on to win Super Bowls in the NFL as a member of the Denver Broncos, also paid tribute to McCartney.

“His unwavering faith and deep love for his family were the foundation of his life—values that always mattered more to him than the game itself,” Williams posted on X. “Coach Mac will be forever missed and deeply loved by all who had the privilege of knowing him.”

McCartney has been mostly out of public view in recent years. His family announced in 2016 that he had been diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s.

“Coach Mac touched countless lives with his unwavering faith, boundless compassion and enduring legacy as a leader, mentor and advocate for family, community and faith,” the family said.

“As a trailblazer and visionary, his impact was felt both on and off the field, and his spirit will forever remain in the hearts of those he inspired.”

McCartney remains the winningest coach in Colorado history, with a record of 93-55-5. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2013.

He was preceded in death by Lynne, his wife of 50 years, who died in 2013. Survivors include four children, 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.