Gary Pinkel retiring due to battle with lymphoma

The University of Missouri has just confirmed that Gary Pinkel is retiring due to health reasons.

Pinkel's decision is health-based, as he was diagnosed in May of 2015 with lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer of the blood.  He received multiple treatments in May and June, and after doctors indicated that the treatments wouldn't interfere with his coaching duties, he decided that he would continue to coach the Tigers in 2015.

"I made the decision in May, after visiting with my family, that I wanted to keep coaching, as long as I felt good and had the energy I needed," Pinkel said.  "I felt great going into the season, but also knew that I would need to re-assess things at some point, and I set our bye week as the time when I would take stock of the future.  After we played Vanderbilt (Oct. 24), I had a scheduled PET scan on Oct. 26th for reassessment, and then visited with my family and came to the decision on October 27th that this would be my last year coaching.  I still feel good physically, but I decided that I want to focus on enjoying my remaining years with my family and friends, and also have proper time to battle the disease and give full attention to that," he said.

Pinkel retires as the all-time winningest coach at two different schools -- Missouri and Toledo. He went 117-71 at Missouri, with four conference title game appearances (two in the Big 12 and two in the SEC) and engineered five top-20 finishes and two top-5 finishes.

Pinkel will coach through the end of the year, with his resignation taking effect on December 31. He is expected to take a role within the athletic department.

More to come, obviously.