Ronald Maurice "Skip" Schipper (August 7, 1928 – March 27, 2006) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

coach and college athletics administrator.

Career

Schipper coached

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

for

Northville High School Northville High School is the public high school of Northville Public Schools located in Northville Charter Township, Michigan, with a Northville postal address. Within Wayne County the school serves most of Northville Township and the county' ...

Northville, Michigan Northville is a city in Oakland and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 6,119 at the 2020 census. Northville is a suburb of Metro Detroit and is located about west of the city of Detroit and northeast of Ann Arbo ...

from 1952 to 1959 and at Jackson High School in Jackson, Michigan in 1960. Schipper served as the head football coach at Central College in

Pella, Iowa Pella is a city in Marion County, Iowa, Marion County, Iowa, United States, with a population of 10,464 at the time of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census. Founded by immigrants from the Netherlands, it is forty miles southeast of Des ...

from 1961 to 1996, compiling a record of 287–67–3. Schipper also served as the school's

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches an ...

from 1964 to 1993. During his tenure as head football coach at Central College, he always had a winning season. His teams won 18 Iowa Conference championships, enjoyed ten undefeated regular seasons, and won the 1974

NCAA Division III Football Championship The NCAA Division III Football Championship began in 1973. The Division III playoffs begin with 32 teams selected to participate in the Division III playoffs. The Division III championship game, known as the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl or Stagg Bowl ...

; they were national runners-up in 1984 and 1988. Schipper's 287 career wins rank third in among NCAA Division III football coaches, behind

John Gagliardi John Gagliardi ( ; November 1, 1926 – October 7, 2018) was an American football coach. He was the head football coach at Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, from 1953 until 2012. From 1949 to 1952, he was the head footba ...

's 489 and

Larry Kehres Larry Kehres (born September 7, 1949) is a former American football coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at the University of Mount Union—formerly known as Mount Union College—in Alliance, Ohio for 27 ...

's 332. He retired with an .808 career winning percentage—then the fourth highest in

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their st ...

history. Schipper was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000 and received the

Amos Alonzo Stagg Award :''There is a separate " Amos Alonzo Stagg Coaching Award". The Amos Alonzo Stagg Award is presented annually by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) to the "individual, group or institution whose services have been outstanding in t ...

, presented by the

American Football Coaches Association The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) is an association of over 11,000 American football coaches and staff on all levels. According to its constitution, some of the main goals of the American Football Coaches Association are to "mainta ...

, in 2004.

Personal life

Schipper was born in

Zeeland, Michigan Zeeland ( ) is a city in Ottawa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 5,719 at the 2020 census. The city is located at the western edge of Zeeland Charter Township. Its name is taken from the Dutch province of Zeeland. Hist ...

. Schipper died in

Holland, Michigan Holland is a city in the western region of the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated near the eastern shore of Lake Michigan on Lake Macatawa, which is fed by the Macatawa River (formerly known locally as the Black Ri ...

at age 77. He was survived by his wife, Joyce, daughter Sara, and two sons Tim and Thom, grandchildren Nathan, Rachel, Alaina, Elsje and Lukas.

Head coaching record

College

References

External links