Former LSU football coach Paul Dietzel dies at 89

NEW ORLEANS -- Paul Dietzel, who led the LSU Tigers to their first football national championship, died early Tuesday. He was 89.

Dietzel died after a brief illness, said LSU sports spokesman Kent Lowe. He did not provide any other details.

The family posted a notice online saying Dietzel died 19 days after his 89th birthday and one day before the 69th anniversary of his wedding to Anne Dietzel.

"Coach died peacefully and is at his heavenly home," the notice said.

Dietzel coached LSU from 1955 until 1961, leaving for Army and South Carolina. He also broadcast Southern Conference football games and helped create Samford University's athletics department before returning to LSU as athletic director from 1978 until 1982.

Dietzel was the last living member of the staff that guided LSU to an undefeated season and national championship in 1958. The Tigers beat Clemson in the 1959 Sugar Bowl.

Dietzel's memoir, "Call Me Coach: A Life in College Football," was published in 2008 by Louisiana State University Press.

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier met Dietzel when Dietzel returned to South Carolina last year for a football function.

"First order of business is to say coach Dietzel was a heck of guy. One of the best to coach college football I guess," Spurrier said Tuesday.

The undefeated season in 1958 ended 62-0 at Tulane before 83,221 people, then an SEC record. LSU then beat Clemson 7-0 at Tulane Stadium in the Sugar Bowl.

Dietzel is survived by his wife, daughter Kathie DuTremble, son Steve, daughter-in-law Judy Dietzel, and grandsons David DuTremble and Paul Dietzel II, who is running for Congress out of Baton Rouge.

Funeral services are scheduled Friday at 11 a.m. at First United Methodist Church in Baton Rouge. In lieu of flowers, Dietzel's family has asked that donations be made to the Baton Rouge Chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Visit fcabr.org/donate for more information.