The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, January 14, 1980, Page Page 25, Image 25
LSU coa
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) ?
Louisiana State's new football
coach Robert E. 4,Bo" Hein was on
a private plane wnicn apparently
tried to fly around violent thunderstorms,
wandered a thousand
miles off course and crashed into
the Atlantic Ocean, officials said
Saturday.
An Air Force pilot, who was
chasing the plane on its bizarre
course, reported he saw it dive
straight into the dark water off the
Virginia coast about midnight. He
reported an oil slick formed afterwards.
However, officials refused to say
Rein was killed. Paul Manasseh,
LSU sports information director,
said Rein was aboard the plane
when it left Shreveport, La., but
the Coast Guard said they could
not confirm any fatalities.
Rein was named head coach at
LSU Nov. 30, 1979, replacing Coach
Charlie McClendon whose contract
was not renewed. He had been
head coach at North Carolina
State.
There was no explanation for the
deviation from the flight plan,
under which the plane was to have
flown from Shreveport to Baton
Rouge.
S(iT. PAUL MINT of the Air
Force Rescue Center in St. Louis
speculated that those aboard lost
consciousness ? perhaps because
of depressurization ? and then the
automatic pilot carried it until it
ran out of gas. However, he
stressed it was speculation and the
cause would not be known until the
flight recorder was recovered
from the plane.
The Coast Guard in Norfolk said
two or three persons were on the
plane. However, Manasseh said,
"There were only two aboard.
That's what the assistant coach
who took Bo to the plane told us
this morning."
Manasseh said the plane, a
Cessna Conquest twin-engine
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to LSU, was piloted by Lou
Benescotter. It was owned by
Nichols Construction Co. of Baton
Rouge.
Manasseh said Rein had been in
Shreveport on a recruiting trip and
was picked up by the plane which
flew up from Houston. Officials in
Shrpvpnnrf said hp had sw?n Alvin
Burns, a prospective center from
Fair Park High School.
The plane left Shreveport about
9:10 p.m. and was due to arrive in
Baton Rouge at 10:07 p.m. There
was severe weather in the area at
the time, with reports of pea-sized
hail and winds gusting to 45 mph
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between Baton Rouge and
snreveport.
THE REASON FOR the
disappearance of Rein and his pilot
Friday may never be known, but
the irony of the story is contained
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in the flight path of the ill-fated
Cessna Conquest in which they
rode to their deaths.
While the events of late Thursday
night account for an
alteration of the plane's heading,
the fact that it traveled more than
1,000 miles and crossed six states
before plunging into the Atlantic
was a poignant conclusion to the
life of the former North Carolina
State football coach.
From the moment the 34-yearold
Rein and 47-year-old Benscotter
became incapacitated or
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died shortly alter the plane left
Shreveport, La., the twin-engine
turboprop was free to fly its own
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v-uuiac uuiii 11 apparently ran oui
of fuel and dived nearly eight miles
through the early-morning
darkness to the cold ocean below.
Rein, who had risen to
prominence at N.C. State before
accepting the more prestigious
position at Louisiana State, had
left North Carolina twice in con-J
nection with the advancement of j
his burgeoning career. Ironically,
the Tar Heel state was the last over j
which the plane passed en route to j
the crash at sea.
IT FLEW ALMOST directly over'
Raleigh, where Rein had known his
greatest triumphs, and the suburb
of Gary, where his daughters, who
had not seen much of their father
recently, were asleep in their beds.
The odds against such an occurrance
would be at least 360-1 on
the compass.
Five years earlier Rein had,
accepted an assistant's post at;
Arkansas. Despite that Rein was \
so upset over leaving that en route j
to Arkansas he called his N.C.
State predecessor, Lou Holtz, from
the airport in Atlanta and Jiad to be '
dissuaded from turning back.
In 1976 he succeeded Holtz and
took the Wolfpack to a pair of bowl
victories and an Atlantic Coast '
Conference crown in f our seasons.
He was a tireless worker who,
literally gave his life to the game.
Rein died on the job, risking a
flight to Baton Rouge under storm
conditions after he had spent his
final evening trying to recruit a 1
football player. It was typical of
Rein's dedication to the game.
A Niles. Ohio, native. Rein mnv
w ? ' /
have been destined for fame at
LSU. That never will be known, but
his straight-forward approach
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off course
mysterio
would have left its mark in the
bayou country.
The loss of Rein is being
mourned in North Carolina, Ohio
and Louisiana, but his memory
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