The Carlisle Days and The Rose Bowl

Codi recalls how Jim Thorpe, known as the “World’s Greatest Athlete” for his Olympic victories, visited Dietz and the Lions at Albright. Dietz had played tackle on the famous Carlisle Indian Industrial School team, clearing the way for Thorpe to score.

Dietz and Thorpe were coached at Carlisle by another legend, Glenn “Pop” Warner. It was from Warner that Dietz learned the single wing formation, which he used with great success.

That Carlisle football program was the unlikely birthplace of modern football, according to Tom Benjey, author of the first biography of Dietz, Keep A-goin’: The Life of Lone Star Dietz.

After attending Carlisle, Dietz worked there as an assistant football coach and art instructor. He married Angel DeCora, director of the Carlisle art department and a top American Indian artist. This creative partnership, and his illustrations on the cover of the school’s literary magazine, The Red Man, earned him national attention as an artist. “Lone Star and Angel were like rock stars in Carlisle,” says Benjey.

When the Carlisle football program went downhill due to government funding cuts, Dietz accepted a position as head football coach for Washington State College.

Dietz rose to national fame on New Year’s Day 1916, when he led WSC to victory in the first modern Rose Bowl. Washington managed to shut out a much favored Brown 14-0 during a messy game in the mud. Over three seasons, Dietz coached WSC to a 17-2-1 record, and is a beloved figure among Washington State fans.

A Flair for the Arts

In addition to leading his players to victory, he led them into a movie. Dietz negotiated a deal with a film company for the WSC players to appear as extras in the football movie, “Tom Brown at Harvard,” in which he also played a small role. Each player received $100 for 14 days of work, which was a lot of money in 1916. This was one of several Hollywood movies in which Dietz appeared.

““He had dramatic flair,” says Benjey, whose book is available in the Albright bookstore or online at www.lonestardietz.com. “In the first half of the 20th century, he was a household name. He was bigger than life.”

Dietz was an outspoken critic of Hollywood’s representation of American Indians. A feature article about Dietz in the Reading Eagle on Nov. 16, 1941, quoted him saying: “The motion picture has never given the Indian a square deal. It almost without exception portrays him as a savage, burning white folks at the stake, committing hideous crimes. The least interesting thing about the Indian is the savage side of him. The Indian of Cooper and Longfellow – his poetry, romance, religion and beauty – that’s the side of the Indian that is fascinatingly interesting. Americans should know the original American as he really is.”

This portrait of the legendary All-American Dick Riffle ’38, star of the 1937 Albright Lions football team, painted by Dietz in 1957, is also in the Bollman Center. photo: Ryan McFadden

Harry Van Tosh ’39 played football for Dietz for two years. He recalls his love of theatrics and of his Indian heritage.

“If any charity asked him to, or any talent show, he would put on his Indian attire and put on a show, singing and dancing Indian songs,” says Van Tosh, 88, of Wyomissing. “He loved any kind of crowd and he loved to perform.”

Five of Dietz’s colorful paintings grace the Albright campus: an Albright Lion; a portrait of All-American Dick Riffle ’38; “The Pursuit of Knowledge: A College Fantasy;” and a portrait of Professor Lewis E. Smith. A portrait of an unidentified man was recently discovered in storage. It will be displayed on campus after it is identified.

Trying Times

Some of the worst lows in Dietz’s life occurred soon after the historic Rose Bowl victory. World War I shut down football at WSC. Dietz found a job coaching football for the Marines. Dietz and DeCora divorced in 1918. She died in the influenza epidemic in 1919.

At the height of his coaching career, a controversy threatened to destroy his reputation. Dietz had registered as a non-citizen Indian, and some doubted his Indian heritage. He was tried for draft evasion in 1919. The trial resulted in a hung jury. The government reindicted him on almost identical charges. His financial resources were exhausted from the legal battle. Dietz pleaded no contest and was sentenced to one month in jail.

Despite this blemish on his resume, Dietz “kept a goin’, in the spirit of the poem written by Warner. Benjey chose this poem as the title for his book because Dietz was holding a copy of it when he died, and because it epitomizes his resilient character.