Former Missouri football coach Gary Pinkel is facing a class B misdemeanor after a July 7, 2025, arrest in Camden County, and court documents say the stop began with Pinkel himself waving down a trooper for help.
A probable cause statement filed in court and reviewed by the Tribune says the officer saw Pinkel flagging him down around 11:30 p.m. in the parking lot of Big O Tires on Bagnell Dam Blvd. in Lake Ozark. Pinkel was outside a tire shop after blowing a tire on his car.
The trooper wrote that the back right tire on the SUV had blown and had been driven on the rim “for a significant distance based on the damage.”
After asking how the tire blew, the officer reported a “strong odor of an intoxicating beverage emitting from (Pinkel’s) breath and person” and said Pinkel’s speech was slurred and he was swaying as he talked.
Pinkel first told the officer he had “just a very small drink” and had stopped drinking three hours before the tire blew. He later said he had “like two drinks” and that his last drink was two hours earlier.
The probable cause statement says Pinkel then went through field sobriety tests and could not recite the alphabet beginning at the letter E and stopping at the letter R. He also could not count backwards from 78 to 62. The trooper also noted “lack of smooth pursuit” when asking him to follow a finger with his eyes.
A preliminary breath test showed a blood alcohol concentration of 0.128%. Missouri’s legal limit is 0.08%. Pinkel was arrested, held at Camden County jail and later released.
Pinkel is 74 and coached Missouri from 2001-15, winning multiple Big 12 North and SEC East division titles. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2022.
This was not Pinkel’s first DWI case. Court records show he previously pleaded guilty to a DWI in Boone County after a Nov. 16, 2011, arrest.
He has been summoned to appear in Camden County on July 28, 2026, and plead to the charge.
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