It was the first of five national championships the Hurricanes won over the ensuing two decades (with another three nearly theirs as well). During that period, Miami dominated and even defined college sports, infusing them with the brashness that anticipated Michigan’s Fab Five and Johnny Football. The Hurricanes were also guilty of scandals both imagined (they wore camouflage to a bowl game to play to their bad-boy image) and real (under-the-table cash, drug use, violence).

But Schnellenberger, having kicked off this phenomenon, departed before it flowered. After that Orange Bowl, he left to go flirt with the United States Football League. He nearly coached the New Jersey Generals — their owner, Donald J. Trump, still calls Schnellenberger “my coach” when they see each other, Beverlee Schnellenberger said, which most recently was last New Year’s Eve at Mar-a-Lago. Schnellenberger’s plan to coach and partly own a Miami U.S.F.L. franchise fizzled.

Instead, he was lured home to coach Louisville, at the time essentially a commuter school known for its basketball team, with minimal football tradition. He positioned the floundering program to build an on-campus stadium and land in a major conference. The Florida Atlantic job — conjuring a program from nothing and taking it to a bowl game in his fourth season — was his swan song; he stepped down in 2011, at 77.

“I had to be the sage,” he said. “I’ve got to be the — what was his name? — Saint Paul, was it, the guy who was selling Jesus Christ?”

Schnellenberger’s résumé includes two unequivocal failures. He was the Baltimore Colts’ head coach in 1973 and for the first three games of 1974. Robert Irsay, the owner then, fired him after a sideline disagreement over who should play quarterback. Schnellenberger wanted to stick with the more established Marty Domres; Irsay wanted him to put in the rookie (and future Pro Bowler) Bert Jones. And he was coach of Oklahoma for one season, 1995, before a 5-5-1 record and what he characterized as the rumor-mongering of entrenched interests forced his resignation.

These also happened to be the two times Schnellenberger was put in charge of pedigreed powers. They weren’t the underdogs, hungry for even a modicum of success, where his P. T. Barnum-esque salesmanship sold well.