Person Record

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1 of 1977 Joe Fred Bedenk

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Name

Bedenk, Frederick Joseph

Othernames

Joe Bedenk
Fred Joe Bedenk

Genealogy ID

88718

Born

14 JUL 1897

Birthplace

Williamsport, Lycoming, PA

Deceased

02 MAY 1978

Deceased where

State College, Centre PA

Cemetery

State College

Education

Mansfield High School 1917
Mansfield State Normal School 1919
Penn State

Occupation

Athletic Coach, State College

Titles & honors

Private
World War One Memorial Wall
https://bwi.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1517824

Coaching career (HC unless noted)
Football
1924–1926 Rice (assistant)
1927–1930 Florida (assistant)
1949 Penn State
Baseball
1925–1926 Rice
1931–1962 Penn State

Military

World War One

Father

William Bedenk

Mother

Rosa Tern

Spouse

Lola Trapnell

Children

Joann Bedenk
Jerry Bedenk

Reference

Obit SSDI

Notes

Army
Served 14 Oct 1918 - 11 Dec 1918

One of the most successful coaches in MSNS history, Kichline was the athletic department at MSNS from 1916-1921. During his tenure, Kichline served as the head football coach, basketball, baseball and track coach. His football teams posted a 21-9-2 record over that span and he also coached the first state championship basketball team. Among the athletes developed by Kichline were MU Hall of Fame members and former major league baseball standouts Joseph Shaute and Mike Gazella as well as Fred Bedenk who later went on to star on the gridiron at Penn State and served as head football and baseball coach for the Nittany Lions.

Death: May 2, 1978
Pennsylvania, USA

Penn State Football Head Coach 1949. Walter Camp First Team All American Guard 1923. Penn State Baseball Coach 1931-1962.
Selected to the (defunct) College Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966. He played football at Penn State from 1921 to 1923 (and baseball in 1922 and 1923) and was selected as a second team All American in 1921 and a first team All American in 1923 by Walter Camp and played in the 1923 Rose Bowl. He was an assistant football coach at Rice under John Heisman and then at Florida but returned to his alma mater in 1929 as line coach, which position he held until 1952, excepting his one year as head coach. He also took over the baseball coaching reins at Penn State in 1931. He relinquished his position as Penn State head football coach in 1949 after only one season, which led to the arrival of Hall of Fame coach Rip Engle from Brown with his newly graduated assistant coach--Joe Paterno. He led his baseball teams to the College World Series in 1952, 1957, and 1959, finishing third, second, and fourth, losing to the eventual national champions each time. He is the all-time leader in wins for Penn State at 380. He retired in 1962.

From Clippings, date and newspaper not indicated
Bedenk "Almnus of the Year" At Mansfield State College
Alumni of Mansfield State College today hailed fellow alumnus F. Joseph Bedenk, State College, long a familiar figure in intercollegiate athletics, as the "alumnus of the year" and awarded him the annual Alumni Citation for his "outstanding contributions to society."
Bedenk, an emeritus professor at Penn State, is already one of America's living legends of intercollegiate sports. After finishing where he achieved early fame as a member of both Grantland Rice's and Walter Camp's All-American Football Teams in the same year (1923). After receiving his baccalaureate degree from Penn State in 1924, he launched his twin careers of teaching and coaching at Rice University in Houston, Tex. Three years later he became professor of physical education and athletics at the University of Florida, where he served also as assistant football coach and head coach of baseball.
In 1930, Bedenk was named professor of physical education and assistant football coach at Penn State. During a career at Penn State spanning 32 years, Joe Bedenk, as he was widely and intimately known, served as head coach of both the football and baseball varsities.
In 1947, he was elected national president of the Baseball Coaches Association and in 1966 was named to the Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame.
Since 1948, Mr. Bedenk has been a director of the Mansfield State College General Alumni Association. This year he became the first alumni advisory representative to the college's board of trustees.
(Photo)

Baseball Coach Dies

F. Joseph Bedenk '24 Com, one of the nation's "winningest" baseball coaches during his thirty-two years at Penn State , died May 2 in State College after a long illness. He was 80.
Born in Williamsport and reared in Mansfield, he was an All-American football guard while an undergraduate as well as being a member of the varsity baseball team. Lion's Paw and Phi Kappa Theta fraternity.
Following graduation, he coached at Rice Institute and the University of Florida before returning to his alma mater as football line coach in 1929. He continued in this capacity until Bob Higgins'18 died, and Bedenk was named to succeed him as head coach for the 1949 season. The following year, Rip Engle took over and Joe returned to his first love, baseball.
During his tenure as Nittany Lion baseball coach, 1931-62, Bedenk compiled an enviable record of 410 wins, 161 losses and 6 ties. He also saw his teams play in nine NCAA tournaments and suffer only one losing season in twenty-seven years before he retired from the University in 1963.
Survivors include his wife, the former Lota Trapnell '34, '41 MA Ed; daughter Mrs. Joanne Warren '58 PhEd of Harvard, Mass; and two grandchildren.
(Photo)

F. Joseph Bedenk Alumnus of Year
Alumni of Mansfield State College today hailed fellow alumnus F. Joseph Bedenk, State College, long a familiar figure in intercollegiate athletics, as the "alumnus of the year" and awarded him the annual Alumni Citation for his "outstanding contributions to society."
The award ceremony was part of the college's annual Alumni Day festivities which saw also the chartering of nine new alumni clubs representing, in the words of Mansfield President Lawrence Park and Alumni Association President Warren L. Miller," the beginnings of the first truly functional geographical alumni organization in the history of the college."
President Park addressed the more than 500 alumni assembled for the annual meeting and luncheon on the "The State of the College." Reunion classes were unusually well-represented this year and were cited by Charles Weed, a faculty alumnus and chairman of the 1970 reunion class committee.
Bedenk, an emeritus professor of the Pennsylvania State University, is already one of America's living legends of intercollegiate sports. After finishing at Mansfield, than a normal school, he went on to Penn State where he achieved early fame as a member of both Grantland Rice's and Walter Camp's All-American Football Teams in the same year (1923). After receiving his baccalaureate degree from Penn State in 1924, he launched his twin careers of teaching and coaching at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Three years later he became professor of Physical education and athletics at the University of Florida where he served also as assistant football coach and head coach of baseball.
In 1930, Bedenk was named professor of physical education and assistant football coach at Penn State. During a career at Penn State spanning 32 years, Joe Bedenk, as he was widely and intimately known, served as head coach of both the football and baseball varsities.
In 1947, he was elected national president of the Baseball Coaches Association and in 1966 was named to the Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame.
Since 1948, Mr. Bedenk has been a director of the Mansfield State College General Alumni Association. This year he became the first alumni advisory representative to the college's board of trustees.
The new clubs, representing Pennsylvania's Northern Tier counties of Bradford, Clinton, Lycoming, McKean, Potter, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga and Wyoming, were cited for charters by J. Horace Strunk, director of the college's Office of Public Relations and Alumni affairs. Charters were presented by Association President Miller. Accepting the charters on behalf of the new clubs, for the counties indicated, were Bradford-Richard W. Marvin, district superintendent, Athens Area Schools; Clinton-Ray Kodish, teacher and coach, Lock Haven High School; Lycoming-Arnold B. Sundberg, principal ,Jersey Shore Junior High School; McKean-Edward E. Harrington, elementary supervisor, Otto-Eldred School District; Potter-Lowell S. Carpenter, for William Stavisky, assistant county superintendent of schools; Sullivan-Mrs. Kenneth B. Lee, Eagles Mere; Robert M. Kemp, district attorney of Tioga County; Loren D. Butts, teacher, Tunkhannock Area High School.
(Photo)

Penn State's Joe Bedenk Succumbs at 80
Joe Bedenk, one of Penn State's finest athletes and coaches, died at the Mountainview unit of the Centre Community Hospital yesterday afternoon.
Bedenk owned one of the best baseball coaching records in college circles and his teams were perennially among the best in the East.
In 32 seasons as head baseball coach at Penn State, he compiled a mark of 410-161-6.
Ed Czekaj. Penn State athletic director, said Bedenk was a legend as coach and as a player.
Czekaj, who played football for Bedenk in 1946 and 1947, added: "He was a Penn State institution and will be sorely missed by everyone in the community and all of his friends throughout intercollegiate athletics."
Coach Joe Paterno echoed Czekaj's feelings tis morning, saying that Bedenk certainly was one of the
Great figures in Penn State athletic history-as a player and coach.
Bedenk was 80.
The Nittany Lions moved to the front as a baseball power in 1949 when they won a District 2 title. Bedenk took the Lions into nine NCAA tourneys and three times (1952,1957 and 1959) they qualified for the College World Series in Omaha.
His 1957 team, which won 21 straight games en-route to a runner-up spot in the College World Series, was perhaps the best of many top=flight teams he developed. California beat State in the NCAA title game, 1-0, to give the Lions a 22-2 record.
Bedenk, one of the early promoters of a College World Series was a charter member and one of the founders of the American Association of College Baseball Coaches and served as its president in 1949.
While baseball was always his favorite sport, it was as a football player that Bedenk achieved his greatest prominence. He entered Penn State in 1920.
Glenn Killinger, Lighthorse harry Wilson, Charley Way, Hinkey Haines and Joe Lightner were numbered among his teammates in the years from 1921 to 1924 when Penn State was in the throes of its so-called golden era.
Bedenk played guard and was credited with leading the way for Wilson on his many touchdown scampers. Walter Camp, father of All-America football selections, named Bedenk to his 1923 team. Bedenk was unable to play in the 1923 Rose Bowl game because of an arm injury. Bedenk served as captain of Coach Hugo Bezdek's '23 team.
Bedenk succeeded the late Bob Higgins as head football coach at Penn State in 1949 and led the Lions to a 5-4 record. Rip Engle became State's head coach the following year.
Engle , who retired as head coach after the '65 season, was very sorry when he learned of Bedenk's death.
"He was a great guy. He was a very strong person. I admired him very much, He deserves a lot of admiration from a lot of people," Engle said this morning.
Bedenk served as line coach under John Heisman and head baseball coach at Rice University after college. He left the Houston, Tex., school for a similar position at the University of Florida three years later.
At Penn State, Bedenk served as line coach under Bezdek for one season and then moved into the same position under Higgins. He succeeded Bezdek as head baseball coach in 1931.
Bedenk, born in Williamsport and raised in Mansfield, coached two baseball All-Americans at Penn State-pitcher Ed Drapcho in 1957 and infielder Larry Fegley in 1960.
Drapcho, a teacher at Penns Valley and a resident of Pleasant Gap, said last night that "Joe Bedenk was certainly a friend."
Drapcho, who pitched in the minor leagues following graduation, continued: "Through Joe, I was able to play ball and go through four years of college. He was always nice to me. "He was strict, yet he was fair. He told you what he thought."
Drapcho pitched for the Clarence American Legion team which reached the state finals in 1951.
"Ira Viehdorfer of Snow Shoe introduced me to Joe," said the former southpaw. "They were good friends."
Gerald (Peany) Gates of State College, former schoolboy coach, played the outfield for Bedenk in 1939, 1940 and 1941.
"He had one philosophy I'll always remember," said Gates, "And that was to always take a strike, and especially if the team was losing. I remember my sophomore year we played Princeton. I was the leadoff man. I hit the first pitch for a double. When I got back to the dugout, he chewed me out but good. I never swung at the first pitch again." "But he was quite a coach. He got everything out of his players, plus a little more. He made sure the outfielders shagged fly balls for hours. It seemed as though we ran 10 miles a day. And if you bunted, you ran it out, no matter if the ball rolled foul."
Gates was a speedster in his days and was known for his base stealing. "I was on my own," said Gates. "I didn't have to wait for a signal from Joe."
John McMullen , also a teacher at Penns Valley and a resident of Centre hall, played for the Nittany Lions in the late 1950s.
"He was a great coach," McMullen said last night. "He was very competitive. He didn't pull any punches. Off the field he was very personable. On the field he was all business. I had him for several classes and he was a great teacher ,too."
Don Robinson, Bellefonte's head baseball coach, played third base and second base under Bedenk in the early 1960s. "He gave me the opportunity to play college ball." Robinson said," and it was a great experience. He was a great disciplinarian and I've tried to carry over the things I learned from Coach Bedenk and apply them to our program at Bellefonte."
"He liked kids who hustled, and to this day, I try to impress on the players the importance of hustle and being on time. If Joe said the bus left at 9 a.m., the bus left at 9 a.m."
Hal Hackman of State College played ball for Bedenk in the late 1940s. "No doubt he was a great coach," Hackman said. "I was from Madisonburg and he gave me a chance. He taught me everything. As long as he was on your back you knew you were doing a good job."
Another State High product, Don Stickler, caught for the Nittany Lions in the late 1950s. "He had a great deal of influence on my life," Stickler commented last night." I learned many lessons from him. At the time they didn't mean that much. But many, many years later they all come back.
"His idol was Casey Stengel. We wore coats and ties on all road trips."
Bedenk always got a kick out of ribbing certain players whenever they pulled a boner on the field.
Added Stickler; "I think in 1957 that six of the nine Penn State starters played County League ball at one time."

(Photos)

Joe Bedenk Wins MSC Alumni Citation

F. Jospeh Bedenk of State College was awarded the annual "Alumni Citation" as "alumnus of the year," at the MSC Alumni Association's annual dinner Saturday.
The young and the "not-so-young"-over 509 strong-gathered at Manser Hall to meet old classmates and chew over old times. The age range was well , Mansfield, Class of 1893 to Miss Jacqueline Zeller, a third grade teacher in Elmira Heights and member of the class of 1969.
The Alumni Citation is given for "outstanding contributions to society." Bedenk, and emeritus professor of the Pennsylvania State University was a member of the Class of 1919 at MSC. In 1923, he was a member of both Grantland Rice's and Walter Camp's All-American football teams. Upon receipt of his baccalaureate degree from Penn State in 1924, he taught and coached at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
Other positions Bedenk held were: Professor of physical education, head baseball coach and assistant football coach at the University of Florida; professor of physical education and assistant football coach at Penn State. In his 32 years at Penn State ,he also served as head coach of both baseball and football.
In 1947, he was elected national president of the Baseball Coaches Association and in 1966 was named to the Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame. Since 1948, Bedenk has been director of the MSC General Alumni Association. During this past year, he was named the first alumni advisory representative to the college's board of trustees.
Other events included the chartering of nine new alumni clubs in Pennsylvania. Reunion classes were unusually well-represented this year and were cited by Charles Weed, a faculty alumnus and chairman of the 1970 reunion class committee.

(Photo)
SSDI, 1935-2014
F. Bedenk - b. 14 July 1897; d. May 1978; Last Residence - State College, Centre County, PA; SSN issued PA before 1951

Find A Grave
Frank Joseph "Joe" Bedenk - b. 1897; d. 2 May 1978, PA; Burial - Centre County Memorial Park, State College, Centre County, PA; Plot - Inside old mausoleum

BEDENK, Frederick Joseph [SRGP 88718] - State College, PA - F. Joseph Bedenk, Penn State baseball coach from 1931 through 1962 and head football coach in 1949, died Tuesday at the Mountainview Unit of Centre County Hospital. He was 80. Bedenk, a standout football guard at Penn State in 1923, compiled a 32-year record as baseball coach of 410 wins, 161 losses and six ties. He had only one losing season in the last 27 years as baseball coach, and his teams participated in nine NCAA tournaments. He also served as football line coach for 24 years and became head coach for one season in 1949 after the death of Bob Higgins. He was followed as Nittany Lion grid coach by Rip Engle, retiring from football coaching in 1950 to devote full time to teaching and baseball coaching. - Standard Speaker, Hazleton, PA, 3 May 1978, Wednesday, p.2