Former Arizona State coach Snyder Dies of Skin Cancer

Bruce Snyder never stopped learning and teaching. That’s why after he retired from football coaching, Snyder traveled to the Libyan desert in 2006 to view a total solar eclipse. And why after being diagnosed with Stage IV melanoma, a form of skin cancer, less than a year ago he agreed to discuss publicly the challenge and write an online journal about it. “I’ve got a lot to do,” Snyder said in October before his induction into the ASU Athletic Hall of Distinction while planning for a walking tour of Ireland and trip to Antarctica. “But I do believe this: If all of a sudden I’m gone in a year, it’s been a damn good life.” Snyder, 69, died Monday at his home in Phoenix. He is remembered by those who played for him at Arizona State from 1992-2000 for “turning a lot of us into men,” said Keith Poole, a wide receiver under Snyder. “The rules you teach your son, he taught us.” Snyder’s 21-year head-coaching career peaked at ASU, where he was consensus national Coach of the Year in 1996. That’s when the Sun Devils went 11-1, stunning two-time defending national champion Nebraska and coming within 19 seconds of a 1997 Rose Bowl win over Ohio State that would have clinched the school’s first football national championship. – Arizona Republic

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West Virginia Coaching Salaries Top $3 million

As the price of success keeps rising, West Virginia’s football program is paying to keep up with the elite of college football. When the Mountaineers put together a new football staff with plenty of name clout and state and WVU ties following the exit of Coach Rich Rodriguez to Michigan 16 months ago, the school allowed new Coach Bill Stewart to spend bigger bucks. In retaining holdover assistant coaches Jeff Casteel and Bill Kirelawich and hiring seven new aides, WVU then spent $1.975 million - up from a combined salary of $1.235 million for nine assistants in Rodriguez’s final season (2007). Times are tight … but obviously not as tight as an offensive linemen’s jersey. Now, thanks to 7.4 percent raises for most assistants during last season, a contracted hike in Stewart’s pay and $8,500 Meineke Car Care Bowl bonuses for each assistant, WVU has passed another notable threshold in football coaching salaries. That’s $3 million. The nine assistants are getting a combined $2,172,857. – Charleston Daily Mail

Dallas trying to steal College Football Hall of Fame from South Bend

A group of area political and civic leaders, as well as football legends such as Roger Staubach and Deion Sanders, are pursuing relocating the College Football Hall of Fame from South Bend, Ind., to downtown Dallas. The group, which includes Mayor Tom Leppert and billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens, says it’s willing to pay for the entire cost of relocating, building and launching the facility, which would be slated for construction next to a planned Dallas Convention Center hotel at Young, Market and Lamar streets. “This is a great football city. Dallas would be a great place for it. We’re a much more accessible city,” Leppert said. “They’ve been very open to the ideas that we’re putting forward.” The Dallasites pursuing the College Football Hall of Fame say they’re in the process of crafting a formal proposal, which they expect to be finished later this year. – Dallas Morning News