Photograph: Joe Tuminello was team captain and played the offensive and defensive end positions on the first LSU football team coached by Paul Dietzel in 1955. (Submitted photograph signed to Joe Tuminello by Coach Dietzel.)
BOBBY ARDOIN
Editor/Consulting Writer
Former LSU football standout Joe Tuminello, who served as the head coach of St. Landry Parish high school programs at the Academy of The Immaculate Conception and Port Barre, died Saturday at the Oak Lane Wellness and Rehabilitation facility in Eunice, according to family members.
Tuminello, 90, was a member of the LSU Sports Hall of Fame and was chosen by teammates as permanent team captain of the 1955 LSU football team.
In addition to serving as head football coach at AIC from 1958-65 and Port Barre from 1967-77, Tuminello later became the principal at Melville High School. After leaving Melville, Tuminello served as the personnel director for the St. Landry Parish School District.
At LSU Tuminello was team captain and played the offensive and defensive end positions. Tuminello captained the first LSU team coached by Paul Dietzel in 1955.
LSU records show that during his career at the school, Tuminello caught 43 passes for 502 yards during an era when teams preferred the running plays out of the straight-T and Wing-T formations.
After playing and lettering four years at LSU, Tuminello, who had played football at Brookhaven (Miss.) High School, coached the LSU freshman team which contained the nucleus of players that won the 1958 national championship.
A 1958 Daily World article provided by Joey and Al Tuminello, sons of Joe Tuminello indicates that their father inherited the 1958 AIC team with just seven lettermen that included returning standouts Ronald White, Dale Ortego and John Graves.
“My dad has such great memories of coaching in the parish and at AIC. He had a great number of accomplishments, but he was always humble about them. Whenever we would spend time with him recently, what he talked about most was football, especially AIC and LSU,” Joey Tuminello said in an interview.
“I know dad always talked about how fortunate he was to have coached here and Al and I feel the same way about growing up here in the parish and the Opelousas community,” Joey Tuminello said.
Joey Tuminello said there will be no funeral services for Joe Tuminello.
“My dad decided that he wanted to dedicate his body to science at Tulane University. When you think about it, what an irony that is, since the biggest rival LSU had at the time was Tulane. I know he remembers catching a couple of touchdown passes against them,” Joey Tuminello said.
“Right now Al and I are just calling a number of people that were special to my dad and notifying them of his passing in that way,” added Joey Tuminello.
In place of a funeral service, Joey Tuminello said at some point the family plans to host a memorial event for Joe Tuminello.
