MINNEAPOLIS — Murray Warmath, the football coach who led the Minnesota Gophers to a national championship and back-to-back Rose Bowls, has died at age 98.

Warmath died Wednesday night in Bloomington of natural causes, the university said. The Gophers have not won a Big Ten title since Warmath led them to a share of the crown in 1967.

“Murray Warmath is one of the great coaches and leaders in the history of Gopher sports, and indeed, intercollegiate athletics,” Minnesota President Robert Bruininks said Thursday in a statement.

Warmath was hired in 1954 and went 87-78-7 in 18 seasons at the helm in Minnesota. After the Gophers finished in last place in the Big Ten in 1959, angry fans tossed garbage on his front lawn and hung the coach in effigy.

But it was just a year later that Warmath led Minnesota to the national championship.

“He persevered through losing seasons and harsh criticism to coach his team to a national championship and a Rose Bowl victory, but he should perhaps be best remembered for his efforts to recruit outstanding African-American student-athletes in the 1950s and ‘60s, which helped to break down the color barrier at universities across the country,” Bruininks said.

Warmath was born Dec. 26, 1912 in Humboldt, Tenn. He played for the Volunteers under legendary coach Bob Neyland from 1930-34. He served in the Navy during World War II and later held assistant coaching positions at Tennessee and Army, under coach Red Blaik and alongside Vince Lombardi, and was the head coach at Mississippi State (1952-53).

His coaching style has been described has hard-nosed and disciplinarian, but he was also remembered as a man committed to social change. At a time when segregation was still the norm in the South and many Northern schools still refused to recruit black players, Warmath started one of his black recruits, sophomore Sandy Stephens, at quarterback.