Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1917-12-07
COACH D|ETz HAS
REMARKABLE RECORD
came TO W. $. G. With PURPOSE
and Has Overcome Every OBJ
stacle-Had Romantic
Childhood


brown University, o." Those simple
words flashed over the telegraph
wires to every nook and Granny OF
the nation on the evening of January
Il 1916. and carried in flaming lei
ters at the head of the sporting page
of practically every daily newspaper
in the United State, meant far more
than that the State College of Wash
ngton had defeated Brown Univers-
ity at football by two touchdowns,
on that eventful day on sportdom's
calendar. They meant that the east,
producer Of football and other ath-
letic teams always before rated in a
class by themselves, had met and
been conquered by the west in a test
of intersectional athletic supremacy
on the football gridiron at Pasa-
dena, California. Thcy meant that
the best in the west had been proved
as good or better than the best in the
east from an athletic standpoint;
that the vast gulf which had before
separated the athletic world of the
east from that of the west, through a
feeling of superiority on the part of
the former and of inferiority on the
part of the latter, had been spanned
by a single contest.
From that day sportdom has been
forced to recognize the fact that the
new west, with it's wealth of sturdy,
clean-lived college men, can turn out
athletic teams, under the right coach
ing, that are just as determined, Just
as scientific and stronger physically
than those which represent the great
educational institutions of the east
and middle west.
Naturally the question arises
"Who or what was the most potent
factor in placing the west on the
athletic map of the nation?" An an
swer that did not include the name
of Coach William H. (Lonestar)
Dietz, for the past three years foot
ball coach at the State College OF
Washington, would be an unfair one
and far from complete.
To him must go the credit OF
transforming, in a few weeks train
ing, a squad of husky and willing
men, but wholly unframed in the
style of football they were called up
on to play, into football machine
that moved down all it's conference
rivals as though they had been high
school teams, and closed the season
in a blaze of glory with its signal
victory over the great eastern eleven
which had traversed the continent tc
represent the east in the first real
test of football strength between the
two sections. Since that time other
Northwest teams have met and de-
feated eastern elevens of prominence
but the State College of Washington
coach was the first to conceive the
belief that the sea of athletic aloof-
ness which separated the east from
the west was unwarranted, and tc
bend to the task of disproving the
popular idea of eastern supremacy.
With the blue blood of the abor-
iginal Sioux coursing through his
veins from the maternal side, Coach
DietZ, whose tribal name was Lone
star" came to the State College OF
Washington in the fall of 1915 tC
take charge of the football team
Possessed of an ancestral spirit OF
determination and of pride IN his
own accomplishments and those oil
his friends, he gave his entire atten-
ton to the great task before him.
He at once gained the confidence and
close friendship of his players. he
imbued them with the spirit which
he had brought. They put torth
their greatest efforts to assist IN
bringing about a realization OF the
ambitions of their new coach, to dc
credit to the institution which they
represented.
After a few weeks of intensive
training the squad had mastered the
Carlisle system of play, absorbed IN
its entirety by Coach Dietz whlle
playing for three years as tackle
on the great Indian team during It's
balmiest days, and later taught by
him at Carlisle as assistant TO Coach
Glenn Warner, recognized as one OF
the greatest football wizards In the
coaching game today. The first game
on the conference schedule, against a
formidable rival, was won by an
overwhelming score. DeYeloplhs
strength as it proceeded, the great
football machine of the State College
of Washington overthrow every rival
piling up "a composite score OF Eva
points to 10 for its seven opponents
Northwest papers were filled with ac-
counts of the wonderful accomplish