The last 20-plus years have been a golden age for Delaware Valley football.
DelVal has gone 183-49 since 2002. The Aggies have won five straight outright MAC titles. DelVal advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals in November. Alumnus Rasheed Bailey has won two Grey Cups.
Yet as good of a coach as Duke Greco is, and his outstanding record speaks for itself, he will be hard pressed to top the resumes of two of his early decorated predecessors. One of them is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A second is in the College Football Hall of Fame and also holder of one of the most unique distinctions in all of American sports. Both men paced DelVal’s sidelines.
The Aggies first took to the gridiron in 1948. For the 1949 season, DelVal was coached by Hugo Bezdek. Born near Prague in Bohemia and raised in Cleveland, Bezdek is the only man in history to have both coached an NFL team and managed in the major leagues. Bezdek skippered the Pittsburgh Pirates for parts of three seasons; when he took over the team in 1917, he briefly managed Honus Wagner in the Flying Dutchman’s swan song.
A Pirate organization that lost 103 games in 1917 produced a winning record in 1919 under Bezdek’s eye, thanks to a strong pitching staff and team leading power hitting from outfielder Casey Stengel. Yet it was coaching football where Bezdek earned his cred.
Bezdek took over the University of Arkansas Cardinal football program in 1908. Two years later, after leading his undefeated team to a thrilling win at LSU, Bezdek announced “we played like a wild bunch of Razorback hogs.” The nickname stuck to this day.
Bezdek had success wherever he went. He went 29-13 at Arkansas, won the 1916 Rose Bowl with his undefeated Oregon team and took Penn State to the Rose Bowl six years later. He also won the 1918 Rose Bowl with the Mare Island Marines, making him the only coach to ever take three teams to the Granddaddy of ’Em All.
Bezdek spent nearly 20 years at State College as athletic director; his 1920 and 1921 Nittany Lion teams were also undefeated. In 1929, Bezdek retired from coaching so he could focus on running the athletic department. He left Penn State in 1937 for the chance to coach the new Cleveland Rams in the NFL.
The coach was 63 when he arrived in Doylestown for his final stop. In his lone year, Bezdek’s Aggies (then known as National Agricultural College) went 3-5; their opening 12-0 win over Montclair State was DelVal’s first program victory over a non-JV, junior college or freshman team. The College Football Hall of Fame inducted Bezdek in 1954, two years after he passed away.
It can be forgiven if the program Bezdek was building in 1949 in Doylestown was overshadowed by the goings on in nearby Shibe Park. The Philadelphia Eagles were en route to winning their second straight NFL title. While the NFL’s best rushing attack and defense were the Birds’ strength, a promising end out of Indiana University was keeping defenses honest.
Pete Pihos co-led the team in catches on his way to being named a first team All-Pro; he’d claim that honor four more times in his storied career. A 1945 draft pick who missed two NFL seasons due to military service, Pihos was even statistically better the year before and his best was yet to come. Pihos led the 1953 NFL in receptions, yards and touchdowns, the first of three consecutive seasons where he caught more balls than anyone in the league. Pihos even cracked the 1,000-yard mark in 1953 – a rarity.
“Although Pihos lacked great speed, he was a consistently outstanding pass receiver with sure hands, clever moves, and courage,” wrote the Pro Football Hall of Fame. “Any defender who battled Pete for a pass was bound to get the worst of it physically.” Pihos’ receiving stats would have been gaudier but in the 1951 and 1952 seasons, he switched over to the defensive side to focus on end.
“He was one of the very few individuals to make All-Pro as an offensive man and then as a defensive man,” said Howard Brown, his presenter. “He truly belongs in the Hall of Fame.” Pihos was inducted into Canton in 1970.
Pihos had served DelVal as an advisor in 1955, his final year of playing. He retired from the Eagles and accepted a job with the Aggies both coaching and teaching business law. He led DelVal’s football program for three years, going 14-7-1. His 6-1 season in 1957 was the Aggies’ highest winning percentage for the next 47 seasons.
In 1959, Pihos left Doylestown to take an assistant coaching job at Tulane. He coached several more years before entering the business world.
Sadly, Pihos, who passed away in 2011 at age 87, died from football-induced dementia. Yet he lives on in South Philly as an inaugural member of the Philadelphia Eagles Hall of Fame, as well as with the all-time greats in Canton. While the current DelVal program is building a championship legacy now, it can also look proudly at its past and two early coaches who were true football icons.
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