The man who led the Marian High School Colts' football team to over 300 wins and numerous championships over a 40-year career before retiring after the 2016 campaign - including the PIAA Class A state title in 1990 - was honored on Saturday afternoon at the diocesan school in Hometown, and his legacy will stand in perpetuity after a surprise announcement labeling Stan Dakosty Field at the Men of Marian Stadium.

More than 250 former players, coaches, family and friends of Dakosty, a Tamaqua resident, attended the event in the school gymnasium, some coming from far-away states, to say "thanks" to him not only for the role he played on the Colt sidelines since 1977, but for how he developed one of the most successful gridiron campaigns in the state.

Besides Dakosty's impressive record of 309-148-3, he is credited with having been key to hundreds of his players moving on to colleges and universities on football grants and scholarships.

Stan Dakosty Jr., the coach's son who quarterbacked the Colts to a 2000 Eastern PA Eastern Final runner-up finish, made the surprise field naming announcement at the close of the three-hour program, announcing school officials and the Men of Marian have consented to naming Stan Dakosty Field as a means of thanking the coach whose accomplishments are unparalleled in much of the state.

Read more in Monday's edition of the Times News.