bulldog10jw
April 27th, 2006, 04:44 PM
http://www.nhregister.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=16523794&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=517515&rfi=8
It was the night before former Yale football coach Carm Cozza was to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2002.
Cozza was out to dinner in South Bend, Ind. — home of the College Football Hall of Fame — with a group of family and friends. Included in the group was Rich Diana, one of the best players in the 32-year Cozza era at Yale and a major reason the Bulldogs won three straight Ivy League championships from 1979-81.
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"I know he was thrilled to be getting in and everyone was enjoying dinner when he leaned over to me," Diana recalled. "He said, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if I was sitting here with you the night before you got inducted?’"
Diana agreed but soon dismissed the notion, admitting recently he never thought he could be considered for the prestigious honor. So when Diana got the call last month that he was one of 77 former players and seven former coaches nominated for the Hall’s 2007 class, he was quite shocked.
"It was an incredible surprise," Diana said.
Also on the ballot this year are Dick Jauron, a Yale All-American in 1972 and new head coach of the Buffalo Bills, and former Southern Connecticut State athletic director Darryl Rogers, nominated for his coaching success at Michigan State, San Jose State and Fresno State in the 1960s and ’70s.
The team will be announced May 16 in New York, inducted at the National Football Foundation’s awards dinner in New York on Dec. 5, and officially enshrined in South Bend in the summer of 2007.
A player must have been a first-team All-American to meet the criteria to be nominated for the College Football Hall of Fame. It’s the reason why such Yale greats as Brian Dowling and Calvin Hill have never been nominated.
Diana earned his first-team All-America distinction as a senior in 1981, when he rushed for a Yale single-season record of 1,442 yards and scored 14 touchdowns. The Bulldogs went 9-1 that season, but it’s the one blemish in the loss column that haunts Diana.
"For those who are perfectionists, we forget the wins and remember the losses," Diana said. "We were 8-0, had this wonderful season going and were ranked 20th in the nation (before there was a distinction between Division I-A and I-AA).
"Well, we led Princeton by three touchdowns at halftime, and we felt like we couldn’t be beaten. But they came back to beat us (35-31 on Nov. 14, 1981 at Princeton) in the second half."
Cozza remembers the day Yale landed Diana, a Register All-State running back at Hamden High in 1977, beating out the likes of Boston College, Penn State and the entire Ivy League. And he recalls the privilege of coaching Diana, who combined his athletic talent with intelligence.
"He was what I call the total package," Cozza said. "He was a strong runner, an excellent blocker and had real good hands. When he was a junior, we beat the Air Force Academy, and when he was a senior, we beat the Naval Academy. But besides being a superb player, he was a guy who really knew the game, who was just a real smart football player."
Diana was a winner at Yale who basked in a golden era at Yale Bowl and also across Derby Avenue at Yale Field, where the Bulldogs play baseball.
Yale was 25-4 in his three football seasons — freshmen couldn’t play per Ivy rules at the time — and he was also a member of two Ivy League baseball championships. Diana left Yale as the career leader in home runs and RBIs — records that have since been broken — after playing three seasons for coach Joe Benanto.
The Miami Dolphins selected Diana in the fifth round of the 1982 NFL draft. He played one season under coach Don Shula before enrolling at Yale Medical School in 1983.
"If he wanted to, barring injury, he could have had a successful career in the NFL," Cozza said. "But I would have talked him out of it. He wanted to go to medical school, and he made the right decision."
Diana is one of the top orthopedic doctors and surgeons in the region and has stayed involved in football by working with several area high school and college programs, including Yale. The only wish he has is that he could have been both a pro football player and a doctor.
"I often wished I had two lives: One that played football for 10 years and then went on to be a coach," Diana said. "But, in the grand scheme of things, the way my body feels now, I’m glad I didn’t play 10 more years of football. And football was a lot different then. You made $50,000 a year in the NFL, and the guys I went to school with were making more money right out of school and had better futures."
Diana certainly made his mark on the football field at Yale and could soon be recognized for that as a College Football Hall of Fame memb er. But he’s quick to point out that of the 4.4 million former college football players, only 796 have been inducted into the Hall.
"I’ve found that if you have expectations in things like this, you come away disappointed," Diana said. "It’s really just an honor to be on the ballot."
And maybe Cozza will be able to return the favor and have dinner with Diana the night before the former players’ induction ceremony.
It was the night before former Yale football coach Carm Cozza was to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2002.
Cozza was out to dinner in South Bend, Ind. — home of the College Football Hall of Fame — with a group of family and friends. Included in the group was Rich Diana, one of the best players in the 32-year Cozza era at Yale and a major reason the Bulldogs won three straight Ivy League championships from 1979-81.
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"I know he was thrilled to be getting in and everyone was enjoying dinner when he leaned over to me," Diana recalled. "He said, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if I was sitting here with you the night before you got inducted?’"
Diana agreed but soon dismissed the notion, admitting recently he never thought he could be considered for the prestigious honor. So when Diana got the call last month that he was one of 77 former players and seven former coaches nominated for the Hall’s 2007 class, he was quite shocked.
"It was an incredible surprise," Diana said.
Also on the ballot this year are Dick Jauron, a Yale All-American in 1972 and new head coach of the Buffalo Bills, and former Southern Connecticut State athletic director Darryl Rogers, nominated for his coaching success at Michigan State, San Jose State and Fresno State in the 1960s and ’70s.
The team will be announced May 16 in New York, inducted at the National Football Foundation’s awards dinner in New York on Dec. 5, and officially enshrined in South Bend in the summer of 2007.
A player must have been a first-team All-American to meet the criteria to be nominated for the College Football Hall of Fame. It’s the reason why such Yale greats as Brian Dowling and Calvin Hill have never been nominated.
Diana earned his first-team All-America distinction as a senior in 1981, when he rushed for a Yale single-season record of 1,442 yards and scored 14 touchdowns. The Bulldogs went 9-1 that season, but it’s the one blemish in the loss column that haunts Diana.
"For those who are perfectionists, we forget the wins and remember the losses," Diana said. "We were 8-0, had this wonderful season going and were ranked 20th in the nation (before there was a distinction between Division I-A and I-AA).
"Well, we led Princeton by three touchdowns at halftime, and we felt like we couldn’t be beaten. But they came back to beat us (35-31 on Nov. 14, 1981 at Princeton) in the second half."
Cozza remembers the day Yale landed Diana, a Register All-State running back at Hamden High in 1977, beating out the likes of Boston College, Penn State and the entire Ivy League. And he recalls the privilege of coaching Diana, who combined his athletic talent with intelligence.
"He was what I call the total package," Cozza said. "He was a strong runner, an excellent blocker and had real good hands. When he was a junior, we beat the Air Force Academy, and when he was a senior, we beat the Naval Academy. But besides being a superb player, he was a guy who really knew the game, who was just a real smart football player."
Diana was a winner at Yale who basked in a golden era at Yale Bowl and also across Derby Avenue at Yale Field, where the Bulldogs play baseball.
Yale was 25-4 in his three football seasons — freshmen couldn’t play per Ivy rules at the time — and he was also a member of two Ivy League baseball championships. Diana left Yale as the career leader in home runs and RBIs — records that have since been broken — after playing three seasons for coach Joe Benanto.
The Miami Dolphins selected Diana in the fifth round of the 1982 NFL draft. He played one season under coach Don Shula before enrolling at Yale Medical School in 1983.
"If he wanted to, barring injury, he could have had a successful career in the NFL," Cozza said. "But I would have talked him out of it. He wanted to go to medical school, and he made the right decision."
Diana is one of the top orthopedic doctors and surgeons in the region and has stayed involved in football by working with several area high school and college programs, including Yale. The only wish he has is that he could have been both a pro football player and a doctor.
"I often wished I had two lives: One that played football for 10 years and then went on to be a coach," Diana said. "But, in the grand scheme of things, the way my body feels now, I’m glad I didn’t play 10 more years of football. And football was a lot different then. You made $50,000 a year in the NFL, and the guys I went to school with were making more money right out of school and had better futures."
Diana certainly made his mark on the football field at Yale and could soon be recognized for that as a College Football Hall of Fame memb er. But he’s quick to point out that of the 4.4 million former college football players, only 796 have been inducted into the Hall.
"I’ve found that if you have expectations in things like this, you come away disappointed," Diana said. "It’s really just an honor to be on the ballot."
And maybe Cozza will be able to return the favor and have dinner with Diana the night before the former players’ induction ceremony.