Eastern Washington University Athletics

In football, earned All-Evergreen Conference honors as a linebacker (first team in 1949) and as a center (second team in 1948). Eastern was 25-7-2 in his four years at Eastern, including an 8-1 record in 1948 and a 7-2 mark in 1949. As a boxer in the spring of 1948, he won the Pacific Coast heavyweight title. Choosing football over boxing, his short pro career began during the exhibition season with the New York Yankees of the National Football League in 1950. He played with 5-foot-5 Claude "Buddy" Young, who was also a collegiate and amateur sprint champion. The Korean War delayed Pein's hopes to play in the NFL, but in 1953 he made it to the final cuts of the San Francisco 49ers before playing a short time for British Columbia in the Canadian Football League. He then returned to the same ranch in Addy, Wash., in Northeastern Washington where he was born back on July 13, 1928. He went on to a 32-year coaching career at Chewelah High School, and was selected to the Washington State Coaches Association Hall of Fame.  A 1946 graduate of Chewelah High School, in 1977 coached his alma mater to a 10-2 record and the WIAA State 1A football championship. He also coached track and field for 20 years, baseball for 16 and basketball for 10. Pein was one of the 11 linebackers on Eastern's "100 for 100" All-Time Football Team released in June 2008 by the EWU Athletic Department. The overall "100 for 100" squad consisted of 100 of the top players in school history to help commemorate the 100th year of football at Eastern. Players were honored on Eastern Athletics Hall of Fame Day on Sept. 27, 2008, in conjunction with EWU's Big Sky Conference football game with Idaho State. to Pein died in an automobile accident on Dec. 1, 2008.