Condit Woodhull Dibble (October 23, 1876 – September 14, 1948) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

player and coach. He played as a halfback at

Lawrenceville School The Lawrenceville School is a coeducational preparatory school for boarding and day students located in the Lawrenceville section of Lawrence Township, in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. Lawrenceville is a member of the Eight Schoo ...

, a prep school in New Jersey, and briefly for

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...

Williamstown, Massachusetts Williamstown is a town in the northern part of Berkshire County, in the northwest corner of Massachusetts, United States. It shares a border with Vermont to the north and New York to the west. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolit ...

. As a coach, he was in charge of the 1897 Buffalo football team. At Lawrenceville, Dibble was one of the school's greatest ever football players because of his prowess and speed, qualities which earned him the nickname "Flash". His success was celebrated in an Owen Johnson novel about Lawrenceville entitled ''The Varmint''. In the fall of 1896, Dibble entered Williams College. During an October 3, 1896 game against

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, was apparently kicked in the head. Two weeks later, he lost consciousness and diagnosed with a brain abscess. So severe was his illness that he was feared to have permanently lost his sanity. In the event, he recovered, but he subsequently suffered from episodes of amnesia that robbed him of the ability to remember anyone from his home town apart from his closest family. His medical situation made national news. Dibble was treated by a

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

doctor and cured in June 1897. In 1897, he enrolled at the

University of Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

. Although still wanting to continue to play football, he wisely agreed to coach instead. The Buffalo team finished the season undefeated at 7–0. He left the school the following year. Due to his head injury, Dibble never returned to Williams College and never graduated from college. He worked in banking for most of his life in

North Adams, Massachusetts North Adams is a city in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its population was 12,961 as of the 2020 census. Best known as the ...

. He died on September 14, 1948."Condit Dibble.," ''Wyoming (NY) County Times'' - September 30, 1948.

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dibble, C. W. 1876 births 1948 deaths 19th-century players of American football Buffalo Bulls football coaches Williams Ephs football players People from North Adams, Massachusetts People from Perry, New York Players of American football from Berkshire County, Massachusetts Coaches of American football from Massachusetts