1933: Lone Star Dietz Becomes Head Coach of Braves/Redskins

The franchise currently known as the Washington Redskins started out in 1932 as the Boston Braves, coached by Lud Wray and playing at Braves Field. As was common among early pro football teams, they often adopted the name of the major league baseball franchise that they shared a venue with, and that was the case with co-owner George Preston Marshall’s new club. The team went 4-4-2 and had the NFL’s leading rusher in rookie tailback Cliff Battles. It also lost $46,000 and Marshall’s three partners bailed out, leaving him as sole owner.

On the evening of March 7, 1933 it was announced that the Braves would have a new head coach in William “Lone Star” Dietz, as Wray was leaving to become head coach and co-owner of the newly-created Philadelphia Eagles. In short order, the team shifted its home field to Fenway Park and, with a name change necessary, the club was rechristened the Redskins.

The 48-year-old Dietz (he turned 49 prior to the ’33 season) was certainly an interesting and multi-talented character as well as a college football coach who had enjoyed success. While raised by white parents (his father was German), he was certain that his birth mother was Native American (specifically, Oglala Sioux) and adopted the name Lone Star (newspaper reports at the time of his hiring by the Redskins erroneously indicated that he was a full-blooded American Indian; his actual origins became a source of controversy both during his lifetime and for many years afterward). He attended the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania where he played tackle on the football team that was coached by Glenn “Pop” Warner and featured the legendary Jim Thorpe at running back.

From Carlisle, where he remained as an art instructor for a time (and met his first wife), he went into college coaching, becoming head coach at Washington State College (now University). The football team gained national prominence during Dietz’s tenure, most notably winning an upset victory over Brown in the 1916 Rose Bowl. While in California following that contest, Dietz arranged for the players to be hired as extras for the movie “Tom Brown of Harvard” which launched a separate film career for the flamboyant coach (who became a critic of the film industry’s portrayal of American Indians). Fond of fancy clothes, he sometimes wore formal evening wear while coaching the team – photos of him nattily attired in spats, a tuxedo, and top hat on the sidelines made it into newspapers across the country. Occasionally, he would be accompanied by a Russian wolfhound on a leash.


Beneath the trappings, Dietz had a good football mind. He had a thorough knowledge of Warner’s single-wing offense and was also considered to be an excellent defensive strategist. Most of all, he was an outstanding motivator and often was successful with underdog squads.

During World War I Dietz coached a service team of Marines that also reached the Rose Bowl, but became embroiled in controversy when he was brought up on bogus charges of impersonating an Indian in order to avoid the draft. The first trial ended in a hung jury, but he was indicted again on a similar charge and, his money running out, he pleaded no contest. He served a month in jail, a blot on his record that ended his career at Washington State, where his teams had gone 17-2-1 over three seasons and outscored their opponents by 497-38.

From 1921 to ’26 Dietz was head coach at Purdue, Louisiana Tech, and Wyoming before rejoining his mentor Warner, head coach at Stanford, as coach of the freshman team in 1927. His last stop before coming to the NFL was Haskell Institute in Kansas from 1929 to ’32.

Taking over the Redskins (who may or may not have been so named in his honor), Dietz was joined by five Native American players on the roster. The publicity-minded Marshall had the entire team pose in headdresses and war paint on the first day of practice, and he made much of Dietz’s heritage. There was certainly talent available, with Battles and FB Jim Musick in the backfield and star OT Turk Edwards anchoring the line. Dietz had a penchant for using trick plays which often didn’t work and were resented by some of the players (most notably Battles).

The team again broke even at 5-5-2 to finish third in the Eastern Division in what was the first year of divisional play in the NFL. Musick and Battles finished first and second in the league in rushing with 859 and 767 yards, respectively. They also topped the NFL in yards-per-carry, but in reverse order with Battles averaging an impressive 5.4 yards and Musick 4.7. But in this first year of liberalized passing rules (and a more streamlined ball), the Redskins ranked eighth of the ten teams in passing offense.

Expectations were higher for 1934 thanks to an influx of promising rookies, and there were hopes of challenging the Giants for the division title. But the team again went .500 with a 6-6 record. Musick sat out the season and, while Battles again received All-Pro recognition, he gained fewer rushing yards (480). Edwards was still a bulwark on the line, but overall the team underachieved.

While the club did better at the gate, owner Marshall chose to make a change after the season, dismissing Dietz in favor of former Harvard star Eddie Casey. It didn’t work out – the Redskins dropped to 2-8-1 in 1935.

Dietz returned to college coaching, again reuniting with Warner, now at Temple University, in 1935 and then as head coach at Albright College in ’37. He stayed there until 1943, when the football program was suspended during World War II. It marked the end of a coaching career that produced an overall record of 70-47-6 at the college level and 11-11-2 in the NFL. Counting all levels of football, he was 170-71-11.


Dietz was also a talented artist who produced many portraits and illustrations that typically pertained to either Native American themes or football. He founded an art school in Pittsburgh following his coaching career that eventually failed, forcing him into poverty as a result. Still, he was an interesting and accomplished character who numbered Knute Rockne, George Halas, ex-teammate Jim Thorpe, and Walt Disney among his friends, raised show dogs, and was known for his artistic as well as sports achievements.

In more recent years, long after Dietz coached the Redskins and the team moved to Washington, legal action was taken against the club to attempt to force a change of the nickname. The belief that the team was named Redskins in honor of Dietz reopened the question of his actual origins. While it is still a subject of debate (a recent and thorough biographer has concluded that he was indeed half Native American), there can be no question that Lone Star Dietz was one of the most fascinating individuals to coach a NFL team, even if not the most successful.

1933: Bears Edge Giants in First NFL Championship Game

For the first thirteen years of its existence, the National Football League (American Professional Football Association originally) had no designated game to determine the annual champion. While season record was the determining factor, this occasionally led to controversy, especially when the teams didn’t play fixed schedules. In 1932, the clubs tied with the top winning percentage, the Chicago Bears and Portsmouth Spartans, arranged a game to determine the league champion – while this is sometimes referred to as the first NFL title game, it was not in fact a postseason contest, since the result figured in the season won-lost records (the Bears won).

Several innovations were put into effect for the 1933 season, including rules changes to promote scoring such as using hashmarks, allowing forward passes to be thrown from anywhere behind the line of scrimmage (as opposed to five yards behind), and moving the goal posts up to the goal line (where they would remain until moved back in 1974). There were also structural innovations that included breaking the league up into Eastern and Western divisions and creating a designated postseason championship game to be held between the division winners.

On December 17, 1933 the first official NFL Championship game occurred between the New York Giants, champions of the Eastern Division, and their hosts, the Western Division-champion Chicago Bears.


The Bears, defending league champs, were once again coached by team owner George Halas, who had stepped away from the sideline after the 1929 season for three years in favor of Ralph Jones. They won their first six games, briefly slumped during a midseason road trip to the East with two losses and a tie, and then finished up with four more victories to easily top the Western Division with a 10-2-1 record. Chicago was strong in all facets of the game, with FB Bronko Nagurski (pictured at right) providing the power running, QB Keith Molesworth leading the league by averaging 8.7 yards per pass, and end Bill Hewitt playing well both offensively and defensively.

New York was coached by Steve Owen and had dominated the Eastern Division with an 11-3 tally. Rookie tailback Harry Newman proved to be a top passer and FB Ken Strong, obtained after the Staten Island Stapletons folded, was a good runner and placekicker. Ends Red Badgro and Ray Flaherty and wingback Dale Burnett made for a capable receiving corps. The line was anchored by center Mel Hein and the Giants had proven their defensive prowess already in a shutout win over the Bears during the season.

There were some 26,000 fans in attendance at Wrigley Field on a foggy day with some light rain during the first half. The Giants drove to the Chicago 15 yard line and came up empty. With Nagurski running effectively, the Bears responded by driving into New York territory and scored the first points of the game on a 16-yard field goal by their outstanding placekicker, Jack Manders. Early in the second quarter, Manders booted a second field goal, from 40 yards, and the hosts were ahead by 6-0.

Late in the first half, FB Kink Richards broke off a 30-yard gain for the Giants and Newman threw to Badgro for a 29-yard touchdown. Strong was successful on the extra point attempt, and New York took a narrow 7-6 lead into halftime.

Manders put the Bears back in front in the third quarter with a 28-yard field goal, but the Giants came right back behind Newman’s passing on a 73-yard drive that ended with blocking back Max Krause plowing over from a yard out for a touchdown.

With the score 14-9, it was the turn of Chicago to make a big play. Facing a third-and-long situation, the Bears were set to punt but passed instead of kicking. HB George Corbett threw to QB Carl Brumbaugh for a 67-yard gain to the New York eight yard line (Brumbaugh shown running at top during the title game). From there, Nagurski took the handoff and headed for the line but held up and tossed a jump pass into the end zone. End Bill Karr hauled it in and Chicago regained the lead at 16-14.

Moving into the fourth quarter, once more Newman moved the Giants as he completed all four of his passes. At the Chicago eight, Strong took a handoff on a reverse and, seeing no running room, he lateraled back to Newman. Running to his right and hemmed in for a possible loss of yardage, the tailback saw that Strong had kept on going uncovered into the end zone and completed a TD pass to him. In the back-and-forth rhythm that the contest had settled into, New York was once more on top by a 21-16 tally.

It seemed as though that would be enough, but with time running down a shanked punt by the Giants that traveled only eight yards gave Chicago the ball in good field position at the New York 47. Molesworth passed to Brumbaugh for nine yards and then Nagurski ran for four. The Bears once again resorted to Nagurski on a jump pass (one of their most effective plays). This time the throw was to Hewitt for 14 yards, but when Dale Burnett closed in to make the tackle, he tossed the ball to Karr who ran the rest of the way for a 33-yard touchdown.

The outcome was still in doubt right down to the final play as Newman threw to Burnett in the open field, but DHB Red Grange, once a great running halfback but now better as a defensive back, was able to hold him up (and prevent a possible lateral) and the Bears won the NFL Championship by a score of 23-21.

The first postseason title game had been exciting, containing six lead changes, and highlighted the greater emphasis on passing in the pro game as opposed to college football at the time. As the report by the Associated Press put it, “The struggle was a revelation to college coaches who advocate no changes in the rules. It was strictly an offensive battle and the professional rule of allowing passes to be thrown from any point behind the line of scrimmage was responsible for most of the thrills.”

Total yards were almost even, with the Bears holding a slight edge of 311 to 307. Chicago gained most of its yardage on the ground (161 to 99) while the Giants went more often to the air (208 to 150). New York had the edge in first downs, 13 to 12. Notable individual performances were turned in by Bronko Nagurski, who ran for 65 yards on 14 carries, and Harry Newman (pictured below), who completed 12 of 17 passes for 201 yards and two touchdowns.

The Bears and Giants were still the best clubs in their respective divisions in 1934 and met again for the NFL title, this time at the Polo Grounds in New York and with a decidedly different result.