25 years later, death of LSU coach revisited
Louisiana Lou
Robert "Bo" Rein died in plane crash in 1980
By AMY WOLD, Advocate staff writer
aw...@theadvocate.com
http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/011005/new_boryan001.shtml
The news took time to sink in.
A twin-engine Cessna 441 Conquest turboprop, carrying LSU football coach
Robert "Bo" Rein, 34, and pilot Lewis Benscotter, 47, crashed into the
Atlantic Ocean after leaving Shreveport for Baton Rouge.
That night 25 years ago today is one that friends, family and co-workers
said they still remember vividly.
Rein, who had been hired a few weeks before the accident, had been
meeting with players and parents in Shreveport as part of a recruiting trip.
According to news reports at the time, a change in the flight plan was
requested to avoid thunderstorms between Shreveport and Baton Rouge. The
pilot was told to go east to Vicksburg, Miss., and then turn south to
Baton Rouge.
The last contact with the airplane was just after 9:30 p.m., when the
pilot said they'd reached an altitude of 23,000 feet. For unknown
reasons, the plane continued to gain altitude and the pilot didn't
respond to radio calls.
The airplane climbed to 41,000 feet, apparently operating on autopilot.
About 1,000 miles later, the airplane ran out of gas and crashed 100
miles off the coast of Cape Charles, Va. Both men were presumed dead and
little of the wreckage was found.
Investigators found too little evidence to determine a definite cause of
the crash; although, there was speculation at the time that a problem
with the airplane's oxygen supply rendered Benscotter and Rein
unconscious long before the crash.
Rein's wife, now Suzanne Klang of Portland, Ore., said she was visiting
family in Portland when she got a call from one of the assistant coaches
informing her the plane was missing.
"I just never thought anything could ever happen to him. He was just
that kind of person," Klang said. "He was always such a lucky person, it
never occurred to me. I just thought, 'Well, he crashed into the water;
he could be alive.'"
She flew back to Raleigh and said she was overwhelmed by the support
after Rein's death.
"People at LSU and throughout the state were wonderful," Klang said. She
said it was a testament not only to Rein's success as a football coach
but also to his friendly personality.
After the accident, Klang said, she learned how helpful it was to hear
friends and coworkers tell their stories about Rein.
"People were able to talk about Bo to me. Just people saying anything,
just remembering, telling stories about the person who's gone just means
so much," she said.
In another part of town that night, Gail Benscotter -- now Gail Fore of
Baton Rouge -- sat up past midnight worrying about why her husband
wasn't home yet.
"He left early that morning and there was no special reason for him not
to be reasonably on time," she said. Her husband had been a pilot since
he was 16 years old, she said.
"Sometime after midnight, I was still wide awake, and it was after that
his boss called the house and said he wanted to come over. I asked him
what it was about and he said, 'It's about Lou,'" Fore said. "He came
over and told me that his plane had crashed."
Fore said she couldn't understand what he was saying.
"I said this just can't be true," she remembered.
That morning, friends and family started pouring into the house to offer
support, she said.
Fore said Benscotter always knew he wanted to be a pilot, even while
growing up in his native state of Washington.
"He was all business, very much a professional; he was a pilot's pilot,"
she said. "I was very privileged to be married to him. He was very
loving and very much a gentleman."
Paul Dietzel, the former LSU athletic director who hired Rein, said he
returned home from a national coaches meeting in New Orleans when his
wife Anne said he should call the LSU coaching office. He drove to the
office, where the coaching staff had gathered, and learned that Rein's
plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.
Dietzel said he was sure they must have meant the Gulf of Mexico. How
could a plane traveling from Shreveport to Baton Rouge crash more than
1,000 miles away?
"Apparently, there was a problem with the oxygen," said Dietzel, who
flew B-29 bombers during World War II. "You just gradually pass out. You
don't even know it. You just pass out."
Rein started his college career playing for and then coaching under
Woody Hayes at Ohio State University. Rein became a regular member of
the Ohio State coaching staff in 1969 before becoming an offensive
backfield coach at William and Mary under Lou Holtz in 1970.
In 1971, he joined the staff of Purdue University and then went to North
Carolina State when Holtz became head coach there.
In 1975, Rein went to Arkansas State as the offensive coordinator. At
the end of the season, North Carolina State offered Rein the head
coaching job. He kept it for four years and went 27-18-1. During his
time there, he took the Wolfpack to win the Peach Bowl in 1977, the
Tangerine Bowl in 1978 and his team won the 1979 Atlantic Coast
Conference championship.
"Woody Hayes, when I talked with him, he said, 'Bo Rein is by far the
finest young coach I have on my staff,'" Dietzel said. "He was a very
highly respected young man, and he was one of these on-the-rise type
fellows.
"I think the tragedy is he never had a chance to prove himself at LSU,
because he had proved himself at North Carolina State and did well there."
evlem7...@aol.com
Airplane crashes and the loss of people in them are also a thing close to my heart since I have a son in law who is a pilot.
The people who we must all now presume were lost in this crash of the Malaysian Airlines plane are to be mourned not only by their families but by anyone who has a tender heart for those victims and their families who have been left to grieve.