Football: Former Loyola Coach Lew Stueck has died

Lew Stueck, who was hired at Loyola High to become the football coach at age 23 and guided the Cubs to their first Southern Section AAAA championship in 1962 with a 12-0 record, has died, the school confirmed. He was 80.

Stueck suffered an apparent heart attack on Sunday night and had been battling cancer, according to an email from Bill Thomason, Loyola’s director of alumni relations.

Stueck installed the single wing, coaching from 1958 to 1962 and establishing Loyola as a football powerhouse. He coached two CIF players of the year, Paul Horgan in 1961 and Steve Grady in 1962. Grady would go on to take over Loyola’s program in 1976 and coach for 29 years.

Stueck became an assistant coach at UCLA and Wisconsin. He started La Salle’s football program in the 1990s and became a teacher and athletic director at Verbum Dei.

Stueck graduated from Loyola in 1953. He was recently honored with the school’s prestigious Cahalan Award given to alumni for their contributions to the community. He had been living in Monrovia.

Services will take place March 22 at 4:30 p.m. at Loyola.

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