Playing career

Dimitroff was a two-time All-

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Its members co ...

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

and

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public university, public research university in Oxford, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1809, it is the second-oldest List of colleges and universities in Ohio, university in Ohi ...

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

. 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 (; ; May 21, 1923 – August 2, 2017) was an American football coach and player who coached the University of Notre Dame to national championships in 1966 and 1973. He is noted for bringing Notre Dame's Fighting Irish footb ...

and

John Pont John Pont (November 13, 1927 – July 1, 2008) was an American football player and coach. He served as head football coach at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, from 1956 to 1962, Yale University from 1963 to 1964, Indiana University Bloomington ...

. He was selected by the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. The Browns compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team is named after ...

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

Ottawa Rough Riders The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded on September 19, 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup cham ...

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; , LCF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and f ...

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 19 ...

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 The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, AFL–NFL merger, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Foot ...

(AFL). He signed with the New York Titans, but did not appear in any games for them. He later signed with the

Boston Patriots Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and financial center of New England, a region of the Northeastern United States. It has an area of and a ...

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 inst ...

, 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 The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a professional Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are currently members of the East Division (CFL), East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The Tiger-Cats play their home game ...

. 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, i ...

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 Wash ...

. 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 The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The Falcons were founded o ...

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 2020 census, its population was 46,491. The city's nickname, Crossroads of the Nation, originated from the intersection between the Baltimore a ...

References

External links

* {{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 Sportspeople from Strongsville, Ohio Sportspeople from Barberton, Ohio Guelph Gryphons football coaches

Playing career

Coaching career

Family and death

See also

References

External links