Thomas George Dimitroff (June 6, 1935 – January 20, 1996) was an American gridiron football player and coach.

Playing career

Dimitroff was a two-time All-

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great L ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

and defensive back at

Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public research university in Oxford, Ohio. The university was founded in 1809, making it the second-oldest university in Ohio (behind Ohio University, founded in 1804) and the ...

Oxford, Ohio Oxford is a city in Butler County, Ohio, United States. The population was 23,035 at the 2020 census. A college town, Oxford was founded as a home for Miami University and lies in the southwestern portion of the state approximately northwest ...

. He passed for 1,096 yards and 11 touchdowns, and ran for 542 yards. As a kicker, he converted on 22 extra-point attempts and had a punting average of 36.2 yards. He played on two MAC championship football teams under

Ara Parseghian Ara Raoul Parseghian (; hy, Արա Ռաուլ Պարսեղյան; May 21, 1923 – August 2, 2017) was an American football player and coach who guided the University of Notre Dame to national championships in 1966 and 1973. He is noted for br ...

and

John Pont John Pont (November 13, 1927 – July 1, 2008) was an American football player and coach. He served as head coach at Miami University, Yale University, Northwestern University and Indiana University. Early life Pont was born on November 13, 1927 ...

. He was selected by the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (A ...

in the 25th round of the 1957 Draft, but instead signed with the Ottawa Rough Riders

Interprovincial Rugby Football Union The East Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League, its counterpart being the West Division. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the East Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagues. T ...

. On August 23, 1958, Dimitroff started for Ottawa in the first regular-season game in

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

history. In May 1959, Dimitroff was traded along with Larry Hayes, Jim Marshall, Frank Fraser, and Karl Hilzinger to the

Saskatchewan Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded in ...

for quarterback

Frank Tripucka Francis Joseph TripuckaProfile
, polishsportshof.com; accessed December 28, 2015.

. Dimitroff retired shortly after the trade, never playing a game for Saskatchewan. In 1960, Dimitroff came out of retirement to play for the newly formed American Football League (AFL). He signed with the New York Titans, but did not appear in any games for them. He later signed with the Boston Patriots and appeared in three games, throwing two incomplete passes.

Coaching career

After serving as an assistant coach at Barberton High School and

Wadsworth High School Wadsworth High School is a public high school for grades 9 through 12 in Wadsworth, Ohio, United States. It is the only high school in the Wadsworth City School District. ...

, Dimitroff returned to Miami, where he was an assistant from 1969 to 1972. After one season at

Kansas State Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

, Dimitroff joined former Rough Rider teammate

George Brancato George Brancato (May 27, 1931 – October 22, 2019) was an American/Canadian gridiron football player and coach. Both an offensive and defensive player in college, he played five games for the Chicago Cardinals during the 1954 NFL season. He rus ...

in Ottawa. From 1974 to 1977, he served as the Ottawa Rough Riders quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator, helping coach Ottawa to victory in the 1976 Grey Cup, the final Grey Cup victory in Rough Riders history. In 1978, he became the head coach of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He was fired after five games and replaced by John Payne. Following his departure from Hamilton, Dimitroff coached the

Guelph Gryphons The Guelph Gryphons are the athletic teams that represent the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. The university's varsity teams compete in the Ontario University Athletics conference of the U Sports(OUA's), and, where applicable, in ...

football team, where his son Randy was quarterback from 1982 to 1985. Dimitroff left coaching in 1984 to serve as Director of Player Personnel for the Ottawa Rough Riders. In 1986, he was named the team's interim head coach after the firing of

Joe Moss Joseph Charles Moss (April 19, 1930 – January 31, 2023) was an American gridiron football player and coach. He played college football at the University of Maryland and professional football in the National Football League (NFL) with the Washi ...

. The Rough Riders were 0–4–1 under Dimitroff and in 1987 he joined the

as a college scout.

Family and death

He was the father of former Atlanta Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff. Dimitroff died on January 20, 1996, in

Strongsville, Ohio Strongsville is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States, and a suburb of Cleveland. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 44,750. The city's nickname 'Crossroads of the Nation,' originated from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dimitroff, Tom 1935 births 1996 deaths American football quarterbacks American Football League players Boston Patriots players Cleveland Browns scouts Hamilton Tiger-Cats coaches Kansas State Wildcats football coaches Miami RedHawks football coaches Miami RedHawks football players New York Titans (AFL) players Ottawa Rough Riders coaches Ottawa Rough Riders players High school football coaches in Ohio People from Strongsville, Ohio People from Barberton, Ohio

Playing career

Coaching career

Family and death

See also

References