In addition to the festivities at Williams-Brice Stadium, Dietzel will hold two book signings while he is in town that will feature his new book, �Call Me Coach: A Life In College Football�. The first book signing will be held at the office of Tommy Suggs at 700 Huger Street in Columbia on Friday, November 7, at 3:30PM. Suggs was Dietzel�s starting quarterback when USC won the 1969 ACC Championship. This book signing is open to the public. Following the book signing at Suggs� office, Coach Dietzel will head over to Williams-Brice Stadium for a 5:30 PM signing in the new Champions Club. This event is open to Gamecock Club members (Silver Spur and up), but Coach Dietzel�s former players are encouraged to attend either event.

Coach Dietzel�s book, published this year, marks the 50th anniversary of his 1958 National Championship while he was Head Football Coach at LSU. Of particular interest to South Carolina fans and players is that it also features the names of each USC Letterman who played during Coach Dietzel�s years at South Carolina in a listing at the back of the book.

Paul Dietzel was born September 5, 1924, in Fremonth, Ohio. His career in football began in typical fashion, as a player, when he played one year for Duke University before serving in the US Army Air Corps during World War II. Following the war, he went on to earn distinction as an All-American center at Miami University of Ohio. After graduating in 1948, Dietzel served as an assistant coach under Red Blaik at Army and the legendary Paul �Bear� Bryant during his early years at the University of Kentucky.

In 1955, Dietzel landed his first head coaching job at LSU. His first three years were tough ones, with none of his teams finishing with a winning season. All of that changed in 1958, however, when Dietzel devised his unique three-team platoon system that revolutionized LSU football. It consisted of three eleven-player teams that were designed with the intention of keeping his players as fresh as possible during an era in football when most players played both offense and defense. Instead of replacing one player at a time, which was the norm in the 1950s, Dietzel would replace the entire team with another team. The teams were called the White Team (the first-team offense and defense), the Gold Team � or the Go Team (the second-team offense), and the Chinese Bandits (the second-team defense). As history has recorded it, the system was a huge success, and LSU went undefeated and won their first National Championship in 1958. The Chinese Bandits, considered a less talented � but ferocious � defensive unit at the time, became enormously popular with LSU fans and continue to be a favorite story within LSU football history.

Following Dietzel�s National Championship season when his team finished 11-0-0, he had two more great seasons at LSU before making the decision to leave for the Head Football Coach�s position at Army. He was the first non-Army graduate to hold the position, and remained there until 1966, when he left to join the University of South Carolina as Head Football Coach.

Dietzel served as Head Football Coach at USC from 1966 � 1974. Among his career highlights was his 1969 ACC Championship while at USC, but he was unable to match his earlier great success at LSU during his years at either Army or USC.

Dietzel left coaching in 1975 and became commissioner of the Ohio Valley Conference for a year before moving to Indiana University as Athletic Director; he returned to LSU in 1978, where he served as Athletic Director from 1978 � 1982.

Anyone who ever played on a Dietzel team would probably agree that Coach Dietzel had a gift for drawing � his practice schedules and game schedules always featured some pretty impressive and artistic borders � certainly not the norm in the USC Roundhouse or any other locker room across the country. So it must have come as little surprise to any of his former players that after retiring to the North Carolina mountains in the early 1980s, Dietzel decided to pursue a lifelong interest in watercolor painting; in doing so, he discovered another career � artist.

Coach Dietzel, now retired and living with his wife in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, still paints. He holds occasional showings of his artwork, and many of his former players still show up to get reacquainted with this man who played such a large role during their younger, formative years when they were selected to play on one of his teams.

Coach Paul Dietzel will be honored at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia during the USC � Arkansas game on Saturday, November 8, as Honorary Captain. He will toss the coin before the game and will be a university guest in the President�s box during the game. All former players and �Black Hats� are invited and encouraged to visit with Coach Dietzel at some point during the day.

For more information about Coach Dietzel�s USC visit, please contact Tyler Hellams (Defensive Back during Coach Dietzel�s later years at USC and part of the 1969 ACC Championship Team) at [email protected].

(Image provided by Paul Dietzel. )

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