***Update January 14, 2014*** Joseph Sullivan, Assistant Managing Editor and Sports Editor for The Boston Globe, responded to my request that The Globe correct at least some of the numerous errors in its December 29, 2013 article, writing, “None of your points warrant a correction. It’s time to move on.” This is further evidence of why newspapers, such as The Boston Globe, are in such sad shape today.
Ninety-eight years ago today, Lone Star Dietz was toasted by football fans across the country after defeating Brown University on New Year’s Day in Pasadena, California. This great victory in an historic game not only established the Rose Bowl and all the others that followed but put long inferior West Coast football on an even footing with the East Coast powers. In recent years, media activists bent on changing the Redskins’ name have found it convenient to assassinate Dietz’s character. Many thought Lone Star’s long awaited and much deserved 2012 induction into the College Football Hall of Fame would end this disrespectful treatment.
Instead, their hatred appears to have intensified based on the scurrilous opinion piece—the article is so riddled with errors and half truths it can’t be considered news—by The Boston Globe staff writer Kevin Paul Dupont for the December 29 edition.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2013/12/29/redskins-wonder-what-name-the-answer-traces-back-boston/GmfYbPTnHx1Ht5NgqN1EOM/story.html
To some extent, Lone Star is collateral damage because George Preston Marshall is activists’ primary target. However, they apparently think it’s necessary to smear Dietz in order to get Marshall. Their strategy has been, and still is, to destroy Marshall’s claim that the team was named in honor of its coach and (four) players who followed Dietz from the government Indian school at Lawrence, Kansas to Beantown. Simply put: assassinate Dietz’s character, eliminate Marshall’s premise, and forget the Indian players.
Much of this latest smear takes a different tack from earlier ones by posing the point that it was less expensive for Marshall to change the team’s moniker to Redskins than to some other non-Indian-related name. Central to Dupont’s argument is a point he made no less than four times in that piece: Marshall was sitting on a pile of perfectly good uniforms and saved a bundle by continuing to use them. The major problem with this, apparently unresearched, argument is that Marshall bought a whole new set of jerseys for his 1933 team!
<to be continued>
Tags: Boston Braves, George Preston Marshall, Kevin Paul Dupont, redskins, The Boston Globe
Tom Benjey's Weblog 
January 6, 2014 at 11:36 pm |
Someone will have to explain to me how Lone Star knew back in 1909 when he enrolled in Carlisle that he was lying about being an Indian just to get out of a war the US wouldn’t enter for another eight years …
January 7, 2014 at 9:58 am |
That train of thought has been used other times. For example, Lone Star has also been accused of pretending to be an Indian just to gain entry to Carlisle Indian School when he started claiming to be part Indian as early as 1904 and possibly before. The irony in this is that, throughout Dietz’s life, he was a man of quick decisions and action. It didn’t lay out strategies that took years to implement.
May 31, 2014 at 8:18 am |
Hi there, I wish for to subscribe for this website to
get latest updates, thus where can i do it please help
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May 31, 2014 at 8:44 am |
This is embarassing to say but I don’t know how to subscribe to blogs. I know it’s possible because some people subscribe to mine but I don’t know how to do it.
December 7, 2014 at 11:55 am |
My grand father played for Haskell form 1925 to1929 his name is Eugene fritz . He was captain in 1928. I have some pics with names of you would like to see.
December 7, 2014 at 12:12 pm |
Thank you for writing, Karl. I would love to see the photos.