Dwight "Dike" Beede
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Dwight "Dike" Beede (1903-1972) served as the first head football coach of Youngstown State University (then Youngstown College). In the course of his coaching career at Youngstown, which spanned from 1937 to 1972, Beede counted 147 career wins. In 1941, he introduced the penalty flag, now a common fixture of American football.
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[edit] Formative years
Beede was born in Youngstown, Ohio, a steel-manufacturing center located near the Pennsylvania border. He attended the city's South High School, where he was class president and played football. In his senior year, Beede received a football scholarship to Newberry College, in South Carolina. He later transferred to Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), where he studied structural engineering and played football.
As a standout player with Judge Wally Steffan's Carnegie squad in the 1920s, Beede made football history when he introduced the famous "spinner play." He served as captain of the football team and also played basketball.
[edit] Coaching career
Upon graduation, Beede turned down an offer to teach mathematics at Carnegie Tech and, in 1926 accepted a coaching position at Westminster College. He held this position for five years, coaching an outstanding team that tied Duquesne University for the tri-state championship. Beede then coached at Geneva College, from 1934 to 1936. The following year, he came to Youngstown College. He retired from Youngstown State University on Nov. 18, 1972. Not long after, Beede died on his farm in Elkton, Ohio, located in nearby Columbiana County.
[edit] Father of penalty flag
Beyond his contributions at the regional and college levels, Beede influenced the game in both national and professional contexts. His most celebrated innovation was the penalty flag, which he created and introduced on October 17, 1941. The flag was first used in a game against Oklahoma City University at Youngstown's Rayen Stadium. Prior to the introduction of the penalty flag, officials used horns and whistles to signal a penalty. This made it difficult for fans and media to recognize an infraction on the field because they often failed to hear the signal.
At the 1941 contest at Rayen Stadium, Oklahoma City Coach Os Doenges and four game officials--Hugh McFee, Jack McFee, Bill Renner, and Carl Rebele--agreed to use the flag as an experiment. Jack McFee later employed the penalty flag at the Ohio State-Iowa game, during which league commissioner Major John Griffith was present.
Beede's wife, Irma, was often jokingly referred to as the "Betsy Ross of Football," because she sewed the first penalty flag. Beede asked her to fashion a flag that was brightly colored with white stripes. Irma Beede reportedly used lead sinkers her husband's fishing tackle box to weight it down. The original flag was 16" square with weight all at one end. The penalty flag has been modified over the years, and today, it is a yellow cloth that is filled with sand to weigh it down.
