Paul Dietzel: 1924-2013

[53n206]

Started college at Duke. Drafted. Pilot WWII. Graduated U. of Miami (Ohio?) Coached national championship at LSU. I always have been enamored by his unit called "Chinese Bandits".

[JBDuke]

Here's a summary of his career from USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2013/09/24/lsu-coach-athletics-director-paul-dietzel-dies/2861125/

[Olympic Fan]

Not a big fan ...

Dietzel is the man, more than any other, who pushed South Carolina out of the ACC. When he took over at Columbia, he convinced the school's big wigs that if they could get out of the ACC and escape the league's academic restrictions, he could win national championships in Columbia. He finally got Frank McGuire on board and they left the ACC. It's turned out that Dietzel's promises were baloney -- he never achieved anything on the football field at SC (42-53-1 in nine seasons) ... and leaving the ACC doomed the school to two decades of athletic irrelevance before the SEC expanded and that landed in that league (they still haven't won anything, except baseball, in the SEC although Spurrier has improved their football.

But I think the real key to his character was when he replaced Marvin Bass as football coach at South Carolina. Bass had just won a share of the 1965 ACC title along with Duke. He inherited a 5-5 (4-2 ACC) team and promptly went 1-9 (1-3 ACC). There was a lot of grumbling in Columbia until the AD -- who just happened to be Dietzel -- found out that Bass used two ineligible players in 1965. They were two really marginal guys, who barely played, but Dietzel got the ACC to invalidate Bass' last season. Unlike UNC or Georgia Tech, which recently had its games (with far more prominent ineligible players) vacated, the ACC forced South Carolina to forfeit its 1965 wins.

Here's the kicker -- Dietzel's exposure of Bass' "cheating" cost Duke a share of the ACC title. Duke had beaten South Carolina in '65 so forfeiting its wins didn't help Duke. But N.C. State and Clemson, which both finished 3-2 on the field in the ACC both lost to South Carolina, so when the forfeits were figured in, they were 4-1 and awarded the ACC title.

I've always blamed Dietzel for doing that. His reputation wasn't the cleanest and his exposure of Bass' dirty laundry was part of his agenda to make Bass look bad and take the heat of himself for doing a lousy job with the '66 team.

[Indoor66]

RIP Pepsodent Paul

[AtlDuke72]

Not a big fan ...

Dietzel is the man, more than any other, who pushed South Carolina out of the ACC. When he took over at Columbia, he convinced the school's big wigs that if they could get out of the ACC and escape the league's academic restrictions, he could win national championships in Columbia. He finally got Frank McGuire on board and they left the ACC. It's turned out that Dietzel's promises were baloney -- he never achieved anything on the football field at SC (42-53-1 in nine seasons) ... and leaving the ACC doomed the school to two decades of athletic irrelevance before the SEC expanded and that landed in that league (they still haven't won anything, except baseball, in the SEC although Spurrier has improved their football.

But I think the real key to his character was when he replaced Marvin Bass as football coach at South Carolina. Bass had just won a share of the 1965 ACC title along with Duke. He inherited a 5-5 (4-2 ACC) team and promptly went 1-9 (1-3 ACC). There was a lot of grumbling in Columbia until the AD -- who just happened to be Dietzel -- found out that Bass used two ineligible players in 1965. They were two really marginal guys, who barely played, but Dietzel got the ACC to invalidate Bass' last season. Unlike UNC or Georgia Tech, which recently had its games (with far more prominent ineligible players) vacated, the ACC forced South Carolina to forfeit its 1965 wins.

Here's the kicker -- Dietzel's exposure of Bass' "cheating" cost Duke a share of the ACC title. Duke had beaten South Carolina in '65 so forfeiting its wins didn't help Duke. But N.C. State and Clemson, which both finished 3-2 on the field in the ACC both lost to South Carolina, so when the forfeits were figured in, they were 4-1 and awarded the ACC title.

I've always blamed Dietzel for doing that. His reputation wasn't the cleanest and his exposure of Bass' dirty laundry was part of his agenda to make Bass look bad and take the heat of himself for doing a lousy job with the '66 team.

This is not the appropriate time to vent your spleen.