Football Coach. A successful leader at several schools, he is remembered for guiding the Louisiana State University (LSU) Tigers to the 1958 NCAA Championship. Raised in northwestern Ohio, he was a star athlete in high school and attended Duke University for one year before serving as a US Army Air Corps pilot in the Pacific during World War II. After the conflict, he finished his education at Miami University of Ohio where he was an All-American Center. Dietzel began his coaching career as an assistant at Army, moved on to Cincinnati and Kentucky, then returned to Army before accepting the head coaching position at LSU in 1955. Though his teams did not do well initially, he was able to recruit good players and in 1958 fielded an undefeated squad that featured Heisman Trophy running back Billy Cannon and a substitute defensive crew called the Chinese Bandits. The Tigers went 11-0, beat Clemson 7-0 in the Sugar Bowl, captured LSU's first national title, and earned him Coach of the Year honors. Dietzel had highly ranked teams in two of the next three seasons and won an Orange Bowl but in 1962, though he had said "I'll never leave LSU", took the head coaching job at Army, becoming the first non-West Point graduate to lead the Black Knights. He moved to South Carolina as both head coach and athletic director in 1966, and though he won the 1969 ACC title, his overall record was disappointing and he resigned following the 1974 season, finishing with a lifetime coaching record of 109-95-5. Dietzel served as athletic director at Indiana, LSU, and Samford before retiring in 1987; he lived out his days in Baton Rouge, served as president of both the American Football Coaches Association and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, became a noted watercolor painter, authored a 2008 autobiography entitled "Call Me Coach", and died of the effects of advanced age. As of the date of his death, LSU had claimed three national titles and Dr. Billy Cannon remained the school's only Heisman winner.