Hall of Fame
Intensity and dedication made Richard S. “Dick” Caputo a standout defensive lineman for the Vulcan football team from 1961-63 who also served as an assistant coach at Cal U from 1977 through 1988.
Playing under revered head coaches Ted Nemeth and Bill Hepner, Caputo helped the Vulcans achieve three straight winning seasons with a 15-5-2 cumulative record and a 12-4-2 cumulative PSAC-West mark.
After earning his bachelor’s degree in secondary education from then-called California State College in 1964, Caputo began a distinguished and multi-faceted 31-year career at Beth Center High School, where he began as a history and special education teacher. He went on to earn his mater’s degree in education from Duquesne University.
Caputo credited Hepner, also a longtime faculty member at Cal, for helping him as a young man and setting examples he would follow through his own professional careers.
“Bill Hepner just did everything for me,” Caputo said. “When I needed something I would call him and he would lead me in the direction. I had a great relationship with him and tried to emulate him when I became a coach. You have to be there for your kids like he was for me and they have to know that you are there for them.”
Caputo was an assistant football coach at Beth Center for 11 years and the junior high school head coach for two years before returning to Cal in 1977. He served under coaches Hal Hunter and Jeff Petrucci, handing the roles of defensive coordinator and then defensive line coach.
In 1984, Cal won its first PSAC football championship in 16 years after closing the season with seven consecutive victories. In the 21-14-title game win over Bloomsburg, Caputo’s defensive line limited the Huskies to minus 18 rushing yards and 33 total second half yards. The previous year, Cal achieved its first winning season (7-3) in 13 years.
Looking back on the 1984 season when the Vulcans, seemingly against all odds, overcame a 1-3 start, Caputo believes the blueprint for success was simple
“Those kids were very tough natured kids that played on defense,” he said. “They liked to have a good time after the game and often I would stay with them to try to keep them in line. They just did an outstanding job. Everybody just pitched in for one cause and that was winning. There was always a back-and-forth dialog and competitiveness between the offense and defense. That bantering made for some heated practices, which made us better in the games. They just played hard and with a purpose.”
While coaching football at Cal, Caputo also became one of the WPIAL’s most successful head wrestling coaches. He guided the Beth Center Bulldogs for 17 years with a 159-11-2 cumulative dual meet record. Beth Center won the WPIAL Class AA championship in 1978. Caputo was honored as the WPIAL Class AA Coach of the Year in 1978 and 1984. He was selected to coach the Dapper Dan Wrestling Classic’s 1978 WPIAL team and both the WPIAL and Pennsylvania tournament teams in 1984.
As successful as he was as a wrestling coach, Caputo’s passion for coaching football remains evident.
“I preferred football because it is more of a total team sport,” he said. “Wrestling is more individual but they are not all the same type of individual and you have to coach each of them separately. I thought we did a good job but in football they are more of a unit and have to work together on the field.”
Caputo also served as Beth Center’s athletic director from 1982 until his retirement in 1994 as well as being the school’s facilities coordinator. He is a past President of the Tri-County Athletic Director’s Association and was recognized as that organization’s Athletic Director of the Year in 1993-94, when he was presented with the Dick Kohl Memorial Award.
Whether dealing with football players, wrestlers or challenged students, Caputo finds working with young people quite rewarding.
“What they were never mattered to me because they were my kids,” Caputo said. “At Beth Center I always had the special education students involved with our wrestling program. Working with young people and getting them motivated has always fired me up. It’s a great thing to be able to do.”
Originally from Belle Vernon, PA, Caputo is a Bellmar High School graduate who was a star lineman under legendary head coach Bap Manzini. During his senior year of high school, Caputo received “Lineman of the Week” honors from WTAE Television.
He was inducted into the Belle Vernon Area Football Hall of Fame in 2001, the Beth Center Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Washington-Greene County Chapter of the Pennsylvania Hall of Fame in 2005. He is past membership chairman of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Directors Association and served as an assistant football coach at several area high schools, including Charleroi and Albert Gallatin.
Though he has deservedly received many individual accolades, Caputo is thrilled to be part of this year’s Cal U Hall of Fame Class and is proud of the football team’s recent unprecedented success under head coach John Luckhardt.
“I used to watch California play as a kid and this is a great honor that’s really more about all of the people that I was fortunate to be associated with here,” said Caputo. “Over the years Coach Luckhardt always told me that he would always have a place for me and it’s nice to see them doing so well. He’s a good man and a heck of a coach.”
Caputo, who regularly participates in Cal’s annual football alumni festivities, resides in West Brownsville with his wife, Janet ‘82. The couple has two grown daughters—Jennifer and Denise ‘87.
Almost at a loss for words to explain his own honor, Caputo had plenty say about Cal U in general and what it has meant to his family.
“The best part for me is that my wife and daughter both did great work here that provided the path for wonderful teaching careers,” he said. “This is a great place and I don’t know what would have happened without Cal.”
