Charles “Rip” Engle rates with Tuss McLaughry as one of Brown’s most successful and famous football coaches. Engle was an assistant at Brown to Skip Stahley before becoming head coach in 1944. He immediately installed his version of the explosive Wing-T offense and achieved something the first year that no Brown football team had been able to do since 1928 -beat Colgate. Engle’s final two years at Brown were his best. His 1948 team was 7-2, followed by the ‘8 for 9’ in the ‘49” team. Both teams were dominated by a cocky group of gung-ho veterans who loved the game of football. Those teams had depth, size, speed, and an imaginative offense (they averaged nearly 30 points a game) with tight defense and superb coaching. There was a spirit among the players of the Engle era that hadn’t been seen on College Hill since the days of the “Iron Men” in 1928. These Rip Engle players knew they were good, and they played with the verve and drive of a confident crew.
The Bears needed all their confidence in their final game under Engle. Trailing Colgate 26-7 late in the third period of the 1949 Thanksgiving Day game, Brown blew the Red Raiders out of the stadium in the final 17 minutes, rallying for a 41-26 victory. Under the leadership of Engle at Brown, Joe Paterno developed as a capable quarterback and skillful leader. Engle was also the head basketball coach at Brown from 1942 to 1946, compiling a career college basketball mark of 53-55. When Engle accepted an offer to coach football at Pennsylvania State University in 1950, he left a career record of 28-20-4 at Brown.
Engle was born in Elk Lick Township in Pennsylvania on March 26, 1906. He worked in the coal mines while attending high school but escaped the mines by playing football at Western Maryland College. After graduating in 1930, he started coaching at Waynesboro High School in Pennsylvania. In 1941, he became the freshman football coach at Western Maryland College, and in 1942, he became an assistant coach at Brown University under Skip Stahley. In 1944, he became the head football coach at Brown. While at Brown, Engle invented the game known as Angleball to keep his players physically active in the off-season. It was used by the War Department for training recruits during WWII.
Engle was head coach at Pennsylvania State University from 1950 to 1965. Under his leadership, the team compiled a record of 104-48-4, appeared in four straight bowl games, and won three Lambert trophies. His coaching put Penn State on the football map – in his sixteen years as Penn State head coach, he never had a losing season.
As part of his agreement to move to Penn State, he was allowed to bring an assistant coach from Brown. Engle chose his talented quarterback, Joe Paterno. When he retired in 1966, Paterno assumed the position of head coach. Paterno was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 1974.
“I believe that the game of life and the game of football have much in common, especially if you are going to play them to win,” Engle once said.
Engle died on March 7, 1983, at the age of seventy-six.
He was inducted into the Brown University Hall of Fame in 1972, The College Football Hall of Fame in 1973, and The Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 1974.
For additional reading:
“Rip Engel, The Tigers and the Spirit of Waynesboro,” by Bernadette Lear, Pennsylvania History, 2011.