Leading up to a 2018 matchup with hated rival Nebraska, Colorado brought a special guest to the weekly news conference.

Bill McCartney hadn’t coached the Buffaloes in 24 years, and CU hadn’t played the Cornhuskers in eight years, but his passion still burned.

“I’d rather be dead than red!” McCartney said that day in September of 2018, repeating a phrase he made famous during his legendary coaching tenure at CU from 1982-94. “It’s more important than any other game, with all due respect. This is the game.

“I’d like to have a shot at (talking to) the players; give me two minutes with them, because we’re all counting on them, we’re all depending on them. Sleep good this week and then bring your ‘A’ game. And when you do, we will carry you off the field. That’s how I look at it.”

Naturally, CU, led by then-head coach Mike MacIntyre, closed that week with a 33-28 victory in Lincoln, Neb.

McCartney, who died on Friday night at the age of 84, sparked a rivalry with Nebraska during his tenure through his remarkable ability to motivate those around him. He is renowned by former players for a knack to get them fired up to play.

In 2015, when BuffZone covered the 25th anniversary of the Buffaloes’ 1990 national championship team, Garry Howe, a defensive tackle on that squad, recalled a game against Iowa State on Oct. 13, 1990.

A week earlier, on Oct. 6, 1990, CU had escaped with a 33-31 win at Missouri, scoring on the final play on a fifth-down play.

The Buffs slipped two spots in the national rankings, to No. 14, and some around the nation felt they should be stripped of their win at Missouri because of the fifth down.

McCartney used that as motivation as his team hosted Iowa State, playing into the villain role.

“McCartney came in and he goes, ‘They want to call us the bad guys, we’re coming out in all black!’” Howe recalled. “It was the first time we ever came out in black jerseys, black pants. That set a big precedent. That started it all off.”

CU beat the Cyclones 28-12 to win their fourth game in a row during what became a 10-game winning streak en route to the national championship.

“McCartney always pulled stuff out,” Howe said. “That guy was such an awesome motivator. He always knew how to bring out something from his players in each and every game he knew was critical.”McCartney’s expertise in motivation started on the recruiting trail.

When he came to CU in 1982, he faced an uphill battle in recruiting some of the elite athletes to Boulder. In 2015, an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary titled, “The Gospel According to Mac,” chronicled how he built the Buffs from the ground up. In that documentary, McCartney spoke of the need to recruit “the great Black athlete” to a predominantly white city and university.

McCartney was successful in doing just that, bringing CU legends such as Eric Bieniemy, Darian Hagan and Rashaan Salaam from California, Kanavis McGhee and Alfred Williams from Houston, Kordell Stewart from Louisiana, and Michael Westbrook from Detroit.

“First of all, he was a big-time motivator,” Bieniemy told BuffZone during an interview in 2016. “What he did for our program, recruiting all the different people from all the different parts of the United States, bringing us together collectively as young men, and getting us to understand his vision and making everything that he said that would happen come to light … Being with Coach Mac was a special time in all of our lives.”

It wasn’t an easy time, though, as some of the Black players had to adjust to a culture change in Boulder, while Boulder had to adjust, as well. Always loyal to his players, McCartney was at the forefront of change within the community, laying a better foundation for Black players in those years and beyond.

“Coach Mac, he was getting involved with the campus police, city police,” Hagan told BuffZone in 2015.

“In order for us to be successful at the University of Colorado, we first had to be successful in Boulder. We had to be able to walk around our community and be involved in our community without being targeted.

“We had to transform; (the community) had to transform, and as a result, Boulder is what it is today because of it.”

Throughout his life, McCartney had his own trials but battled through them and became an inspiration to others. McCartney inspired players on the field and off. He inspired countless others through his faith, co-founding Promise Keepers and staying active in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

“Coach Mac was the ultimate motivator that I’ve ever been around,” Chris Naeole, an offensive lineman at CU from 1993-96, told BuffZone upon his induction in the CU Athletic Hall of Fame in 2021. “You would run through walls for that man. He could tell you, ‘Hey son, run through that wall’ and I’d run through that wall for that man.”