Harold "Hal" McAfee is a former American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 coach. He served as head coach at Tarleton State University

Tarleton State University

Tarleton State University is a public, coeducational, state university located in Stephenville, Texas. It is the largest non-land-grant university primarily devoted to agriculture in the United States....

 from 1988-92. McAfee compiled a 36–18 overall record, including a 11–1 season in 1990, the first ever undefeated regular season in school history.

McAfee was an All-Southwest Conference linebacker at the University of Arkansas

University of Arkansas

The University of Arkansas is a public, co-educational, land-grant, space-grant, research university. It is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a research university with very high research activity. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and is located in...

. He helped the Razorbacks to a 31-10 win over Georgia

University of Georgia

The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...

 in the 1976 Cotton Bowl Classic, earning him the game's Defensive Most Valuable Player award. McAfee would eventually be named to the Cotton Bowl Classic Hall of Heroes for the 1970s and the Houston Chronicle

Houston Chronicle

The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...

All-Time Cotton Bowl Classic team.

He started his coaching career as a defensive graduate assistant

Graduate assistant

A graduate assistant is a position who serves in a support role at a university, usually while completing post-graduate education. The individual typically assists professors or with instructional responsibilities as teaching assistants, coaches with an athletic team, or university department...

 at his alma mater before moving on to the high school level

High school football

High school football, in North America, refers to the game of football as it is played in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both of these nations....

. He became defensive coordinator

Defensive coordinator

A defensive coordinator typically refers to a coach on a gridiron football team who is in charge of the defense. Generally, along with his offensive counterpart, he represents the second level of command structure after the head coach...

 at the high school in Marlin, Texas

Marlin, Texas

Marlin is a city in Falls County, Texas, United States. The population was 6,628 at the 2000 census, but decreased to 5,967 by 2010. It is also the county seat of Falls County, and has been so since 1851...

, before moving on to his first head coaching job at Harmony Grove High School in Camden, Arkansas

Camden, Arkansas

Camden is a city in and the county seat of Ouachita County in the southern part of the U.S. state of Arkansas. Long an area of American Indians villages, the French also made a permanent settlement here because of its advantageous location above the Ouachita River. According to 2007 Census...

.

Returning to the collegiate level

College football

College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...

 in 1986, McAfee was hired as defensive coordinator by Bill Pringle at Tarleton State University

Tarleton State University

Tarleton State University is a public, coeducational, state university located in Stephenville, Texas. It is the largest non-land-grant university primarily devoted to agriculture in the United States....

. The Texans won consecutive TIAA

Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association

The Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association was an NCAA-affiliated Division III college athletic association for schools in Texas from 1976 to 1996....

 championships in 1986 and 1987, finishing seasons 9–1–1 and 9–3, respectively.

In 1988, McAfee succeeded Pringle as head coach at Tarleton State and spent the next five years leading the team. TSU won two TIAA championships (1989 & 1990) and made it to the NAIA

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics is an athletic association that organizes college and university-level athletic programs. Membership in the NAIA consists of smaller colleges and universities across the United States. The NAIA allows colleges and universities outside the USA...

II National Quarterfinals twice (1989 & 1990) in those five years.

McAfee died on November 22, 2008 of a massive heart attack while exercising on a treadmill in Arkadelphia, Arkansas where he lived. He was 55 years old.