JOSEPH “DOBBIE” WEAVER

Coach, Lansdale HS, 1920-1928
Football, Basketball, Baseball, Track

His track teams were among the best in the nation.
His teams won the One Mile Relay Championship of America 3 times at the Penn Relays.
First Full-Time Coach at LHS

Inducted 2005

Coach (Deceased)

Considered the Father of Scholastic Sports at Lansdale High School, Dobbie was an all-sports Coach from 1920 to 1928, the period when community high schools were developing interscholastic sports programs. He Coached boys' football, track, baseball, and basketball, and helped organize the school’s first athletic programs for girls. His track teams--both boys and girls--dominated their opponents, and set the stage for Lansdale’s later track dynasties under Jim Crawford.  Many considered him ahead of his time.  His track teams were among the best in the nation, winning the One Mile Relay Championship of America three times at the Penn Relays.  Dobbie was also admired as a football Coach; especially notable was his 1928 team, which recorded a 9-1 record that included a 62-0 win over Doylestown on the final day of his Coaching career.  He was forced out of Coaching in 1929 when the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association decreed that Coaches must be full-time teachers.  He was also a sports writer.  After his death in 1963, a campaign was launched to improve the ball field at Lansdale Memorial Park. The facility was rededicated in his name in 1966.