Lone Star Dietz to be Inducted Into the Albright College Hall of Fame

Carlisle, PA, October 16, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Albright College, the last stop on Lone Star Dietz’s football career, will induct him posthumously into its hall of fame Friday, October 17, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. Dietz’s biographer, Tom Benjey author of Keep A-goin’: the life of Lone Star Dietz, will be present to accept the ward in Lone Star’s honor.

Lone Star Dietz led the Albright College Lions to their first undefeated season in his first year at that institution, 1937. He finished his coaching career in 1942 when college athletics were interrupted for WWII. Prior to coming to Albright College, Dietz had a long and controversial career. He is still considered the most colorful coach the game has ever known. Dietz first came to Pennsylvania in 1907 to attend the Carlisle Indian School. At Carlisle he played tackle on the legendary football teams for three seasons and assisted Pop Warner coach the team for three more.

Dietz left Carlisle to coach Washington State College, a team that had fallen on hard times for some seasons. He led them to an undefeated season and was rewarded with a New Year’s game in Pasadena, CA. By upsetting a fine Brown University team, he put West Coast football on the map, created the New Year’s Day football tradition, and established the Rose Bowl as a continuing event. He followed that with a career won-loss record worthy of induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Dietz was much more than an athlete and a coach. He illustrated Carlisle’s publications and his paintings still hang on the walls of Albright College. He was also a builder of men as his players and their children can attest.

Keep A-goin’: the life of Lone Star Dietz
Tom Benjey
Tuxedo Press (2006)
ISBN 0977448606, 356 pages, softcover, $19.95

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