Member Of Coaching Hall Of Fame Dies -- Luft Played On WSU's '31 Rose Bowl Team

Wilbur "Shorty" Luft, starting quarterback for Washington State in the 1931 Rose Bowl game and a longtime coach and athletic director at Renton High School, died yesterday of heart disease. He was 83.

Luft, a member of the Washington State High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame, coached both football and basketball at Renton. He served as district athletic director for two decades before retiring in 1974.

Luft's Renton football teams were undefeated in 1945 and '47. He was a coach for the first East-West state high-school all-star game in 1947.

As Renton's athletic director, Luft was instrumental in construction of a football stadium and other new athletic facilities in the 1950s.

Luft also coached football at Central Washington from 1948-50.

A native of Endicott, in the Eastern Washington wheat-farming country, Luft weighed only 135 pounds when he played football at Endicott High School. But he lettered in football at nearby Washington State from 1929-31.

Coach Babe Hollingbery's 1930 Cougars, led by All-America center Mel Hein, compiled a 9-0 regular-season record - including a 7-6 victory over USC and 3-0 win over Washington - before losing to Alabama 24-0 in the 1931 Rose Bowl game.

After graduating from Washington State in 1932, Luft taught and coached four years at Sunnyside High, where his football teams won two championships, before he moved to Renton High.

Luft is survived by a son, Gary, of Bellevue, and four grandchildren.

Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Friday at the Faull Renton Funeral Home.