Dick Mannini was a two-way starter (fullback on offense, linebacker on defense) on three championship football teams from 1956-58 at Cal Poly.

Those three teams compiled a 24-5 win-loss record, including 8-1 in 1957 and 9-1 in 1958. He was named the 1958 team's best offensive back (Clarence Brown Award), most inspirational (Charles Hardy Memorial Award) and earned the Bob Mott Award as the most outstanding physical education graduate.

Mannini began his coaching career at Chowchilla High School before becoming defensive coordinator at Hancock College (23-6 in three seasons), assisting John Madden. Mannini also was head coach at Santa Maria High School (three league titles and a 27-5 record), then built the football program from scratch at Rio Hondo College, winning four consecutive league titles in eight seasons and reaching the state playoff semifinals twice.

He was defensive coordinator for three years at San Jose State before serving eight years as head coach and associate director of athletics at Saint Mary's College, compiling a 45-23-1 record. He has been inducted into the Saint Mary's Athletics Hall of Fame after an undefeated, untied season in 1982.

Mannini went on to coach under Jack Elway and Dennis Green at Stanford, coaching five NFL draftees, before he was head football coach and athletics director at San Francisco State before retiring in 1997.

Mannini was invited by Madden to his NFL Hall of Fame Induction and is a life member of the American Football Coaches Association.

Click here for a story published in the Woodland Union-Democrat on Mannini.