Rip Engle

Bio

Charles "Rip" Engle got his first job at age 14, driving a mule in a Pennsylvania coal mine. He became a mine supervisor at 19, finished high school, and moved on to Blue Ridge College (now extinct). He played there in the first football game he ever saw. He switched to Western Maryland and in 1929 was a star end on a football team that went 11-0. He graduated at age 24 in 1930. Engle's first coaching job was at Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, High School, where he won his conference 8 of 11 years. He moved to Brown University as assistant coach, was head coach there 1944-49 with a 28-20-4 record. He coached Penn State 1950-65 with a 104-48-4 record. His early Penn State teams featured the wing T and later teams the multiple T. The 1961, 1962, 1964 teams won the Lambert Trophy, emblematic of the eastern championship. Engle served three years as coach in the Blue-Gray Game and three in the Shrine East-West Game