Chuck Amato, a college football coaching lifer perhaps best known as architect of some of Bobby Bowden’s top Florida State defenses and his own seven-year run at North Carolina State, has died at the age of 80.
An Easton, Pennsylvania, native who played linebacker at NC State under Earle Edwards and was part of the Wolfpack’s 1965 ACC title squad.
Amato also was a member of the NC State wrestling program during his days as a student-athlete who earned an undergraduate degree in mathematics education and a master’s in education.
A football team captain in his 1967 senior year, Amato also was a two-time ACC individual wrestling champion in the heavyweight division.
By 1969, Amato launched his football coaching career at the high school level when
he returned home to Easton Area High School as an assistant coach.
Following two seasons, Amato returned to his alma mater as a graduate assistant – igniting what became a collegiate coaching career spanning parts of five decades until his retirement after the 2017 season.
Known affectionately as ‘Chuck the Chest’ for his physique and with an unmistakable raspy voice, Amato revealed a throat-cancer diagnosis in 2009 and later shared with the public in 2010 that he had overcome the disease.
On the gridiron, Amato served at Bowden’s side while turning Florida State into an enduring powerhouse from 1982-99.
That 1999 season was the second national championship for Florida State with him under Bowden and marked Amato’s final season as Bowden’s defensive coordinator and assistant head coach..
In 2000, Amato began his seven-season run atop North Carolina. He guided the program to 49 wins – a run that peaked in 2002’s 11-win campaign that saw NC State close as the nation’s No. 11 team in the US LBM Coaches Poll.
Amato returned to work for Bowden at Florida State for three more seasons, exiting the Seminoles program at the same time that Bowden retired following the 2009 season.
His final foray into coaching, fittingly, meant joining another Bowden coaching staff. Amato worked the final six seasons of his coaching career, 2012-17, as defensive coordinator and assistant head coach for Terry Bowden at Akron.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Former NC State coach, Florida State assistant Chuck Amato dies at age of 80
