Carrying his weight

The Spassov family has confirmed a visitation at Cook-Walden Funeral Home Saturday, Feb. 18, between 11 a.m.-1 p.m. for those who wish to pay respects to Angel. The funeral home is located at 6100 N. Lamar in Austin, 78752 (512-454-5611). Angel's wife, Galia, and daughters Kalina and Boriana appreciate the outpouring of support.

In addition, an on-campus memorial service is scheduled Saturday, March 11, at 2 p.m. in the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture of Sports in the Red McCombs Red Zone (north end of Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium). Terry Todd, Jan Todd and Jeff Moore are hosts, and light refreshments will be served.

Angel Spassov was unique, and Webster tells us the word "unique" doesn't need any added superlatives. You can't be "very" unique, or "especially" unique. Unique stands alone.

And so did Angel Spassov.

Spassov, who served Texas Longhorn Athletics from January 1989 through August of 2011 as an assistant strength and conditioning coach, lost an extended battle with cancer on Saturday.

If the phrase "world class" ever fit anybody, it fit Angel Spassov. He was widely recognized as one of the world's top strength and conditioning specialists. In more than 46 years of coaching, he participated in seven Olympic Games and mentored countless athletes from all over the world.

He wrote eleven books and more than 70 articles on strength and conditioning. He lectured all over the world.

But while his travels were stunning and his speeches amazing, it will be the personal touch for which he is remembered. Joe Gallinghouse, one of Austin's leading cardiac arrhythmia doctors, first met Angel when his son, Joe III, was in the sixth grade. Today, he is playing college football at Davidson.

"Angel and his family became part of our family," said Gallinghouse, who has started a GoFundMe account for an educational fund for Angel's two daughters, who are 12 and 15. "He was amazing. He took a scrawny kid and made him into an offensive tackle who started at Westlake High and now is playing offensive tackle in college."

At Texas, Spassov worked primarily with women's sports, but his efforts extended into every area, touching athletes in nearly every men's and women's sport.

If his life was rooted in the strength and conditioning area of all corners of the world, his legacy became - not the teaching of the trade - but the touching of the heart.

"He was far more than just a strength coach," said Gallinghouse. After a workout, it was nothing for him to spend hours talking to the kids about life. He was a well-read, brilliant man. His stories were of his travels, of the countries in which he had lived, of World War II.

"He could talk about music and culture as quickly as he could talk about the weights on a lifting bar," Gallinghouse said.

A native of Bulgaria, he spent 25 years as a professor of strength and conditioning at the National Sports Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria, before eventually relocating to the United States in 1990.

He was in the midst of a lecture tour speaking to 1,700 coaches and athletes from the United States and Canada when he connected with The University of Texas. And with that, a tour became a destination. He was hired, first as a consultant, and then as an assistant in the UT strength and conditioning area.

But as good as he was at what he did, Gallinghouse remembers, Angel Spassov was always about the young people with whom he worked.

He never took credit, and his stories were never about what he had done in his chosen field. They were, instead, about where he had been, and what he had seen, even though his personal accomplishments were considerable.

As a young man, Angel competed at the highest level in the sport of weightlifting and placed fifth at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. He graduated from the National Sports Academy in Sofia in 1966 with a major in "Scientific Basis of Sports Training". He earned his Ph.D. in 1972 with a dissertation on the topic of "Pre-competitive Warm-up for Elite Athletes". His second dissertation for D.Sc. (Doctor of Science) was presented in 1981 on the topic of "Some Physiological Evaluations of the Periodization, Volume, and Intensity of World Class Athletes".

He never told those stories to the young men and women he trained, nor did he tell them about being recognized as Honor Coach of the People's Republic of Bulgaria - a title bestowed upon him from the Bulgarian Parliament and Bulgarian Union for Physical Culture and Sport.

His experience also included coaching the Bulgarian National Weightlifting Team for seven Olympic Games ('68, '72, '76, '80, '84, '96) winning seven gold, eight silver, and five bronze medals. He also was the head coach for the Egyptian national team in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

In addition, he guided several male and female athletes from a variety of sports and nationalities to 22 gold, 18 silver, and 21 bronze Olympic medals, and he served as a strength expert for the Olympic Solidarity Commission of the International Olympic Committee (1988-2017).

At Texas, he spent twenty-two years from January of 1989 through August of 2011 working with the soccer, basketball, volleyball, diving, tennis and football programs, as well as with countless professional athletes from various sports. Following his time at Texas, he founded the Tangra Elite Athletics speed and strength conditioning program in Austin.

Gallinghouse said Angel had battled cancer for some time, but on Friday, February 10, his conditioned worsened suddenly.

It was fitting, Gallinghouse said, that Spassov passed away with his daughters, Kalina (15) and Boriana (12) each holding one of his hands. He is also survived by his wife, Galia.

So, he left us, surrounded by his family and friends. And young people.

Gallinghouse started the GoFundMe account to help the daughters. In two days, over $20,000 had been raised.

"The outpouring has been tremendous," Gallinghouse said. "It has included tributes from all over the world, and from some of the world's finest athletes and coaches. Angel never asked for much, and he and his family lived a simple life. He was devoted to those people he was training, and he never worried about himself."

A visitation is scheduled for Saturday, February 18, between 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Cook Walden Funeral Home, 6100 North Lamar Boulevard in Austin. Tentative plans are also in the works for a memorial service to be held on the UT campus at a later time.

The University of Texas at Austin Athletics