Former Webster City Hall of Fame football coach and Iowa’s former all-time wins leader Dick Tighe passed away on Tuesday at the age of 94. Tighe was the head coach of Webster City from 1966 to 1997 and held a record of 220-72-1 as the head of the Lynx program.
Tighe, a native of Homer, Nebraska and a graduate of Notre Dame, was the state’s all-time wins leader with 432 career victories, until surpassed by Ankeny Centennial co-head coach Jerry Pezzetti at the beginning of the 2022 football season. Tighe began his coaching career at Hamilton Catholic High School in Ontario, before returning to Iowa with a one-year stop at St. Edmond, followed by a multi-year stint at Kuemper Catholic in Carroll.
Arriving in the fall of 1966 and replacing Hall-of-Fame coach Harley Rollinger, Tighe maintained the Lynx as the perennial powerhouse of the North Central Conference in the 1970’s and 1980’s, winning 13 conference titles from 1967 to 1991, before the state implemented districts in 1992. Tighe was released from his position at Webster City in 1997 and would become co-head coach at Iowa Falls-Alden from 1998 to 2002.
Tighe was then hired at St. Edmond and began to rebuild a dormant-Gaels program. Tighe would turn around the St. Edmond program, highlighted by back-to-back UNI Dome appearances in 2013 and 2014, with a runner-up finish in 2013. Tighe retired from St. Edmond following the 2016 season with a career-record of 432-167-8.