Alden Arthur Knipe (June 1870 – May 22, 1950) was an American football player and coach. He served as the sixth head football coach at the University of Iowa, serving from 1898 to 1902 and compiling a record of 30–11–4. Knipe was also the first head baseball coach at Iowa, coaching two seasons from 1900 to 1901 and tallying a mark 25–8. Knipe played college football at the University of Pennsylvania. After retiring from coaching, authored numerous books for children.
Playing career
Knipe was one of the great football players of the nineteenth century. He played at the University of Pennsylvania for the legendary George Washington Woodruff. In 1893, Knipe scored a touchdown for the Penn Quakers in a game against a Walter Camp-coached Yale team. It was the first points Yale had surrendered since 1890, a span of 35 consecutive games. Some sources attribute the famous touchdown to fellow Penn halfback Winchester Osgood, not Knipe.
In 1894, Knipe was the team captain for the Quakers, leading Penn to a perfect 12–0 record. For his efforts, Knipe, a halfback and quarterback, was named as a first team All-American that season. The 1894 Penn squad featured a very talented backfield that consisted of Carl S. Williams at quarterback, George H. Brooke at fullback and Winchester Osgood and Knipe at halfback. Both Osgood and Brooke were also named first team All-American that year. Woodruff later called Knipe "the greatest player I ever coached."
Coaching career
Knipe then served for two years as an assistant coach under Woodruff at Penn while earning his degree in medicine. In 1897, Knipe moved to Iowa City. The University of Iowa offered him fifty dollars a month to coach the Hawkeye football team in 1898.
Previous Iowa coaches
Knipe was the first head football coach at Iowa to helm the football team for more than a single season, though five coaches preceded him. Iowa first recognized a varsity football team in 1889 and went without a head coach until 1892. School officials hired Edwin A. Dalton of Princeton University for ten days prior to the 1892 season to assemble and organize the team, making him Iowa’s first head football coach.
Ben "Sport" Donnelly of Princeton was hired for two weeks prior to the 1893 season. Unlike Dalton, Donnelly was generally disliked by the Hawkeye players. As a result, Iowa turned away from Princeton and hired Roger Sherman of the University of Michigan in 1894. Sherman was the first Hawkeye coach to coach the entire season.
In 1895, Iowa nearly did not field an official team, as the school athletic board ruled that recognition would not be granted until the team paid off its debts. Emergency fundraising allowed the team to be financed and recognized, but Iowa decided not to hire a head coach in 1895. Practices were sloppy and disorganized, and Iowa stumbled to a 2–5 record and failed to score in all five losses. Iowa football would never again go without a head coach.
School officials hired Alfred E. Bull of the University of Pennsylvania to coach the 1896 squad. The 1896 Hawkeye team went 7–1–1 and won Iowa’s first conference title, claiming the Western Interstate University Football Association crown in Iowa's final year in the conference. The Hawkeyes were led in scoring by Frank Holbrook, the first black football player at Iowa. Bull's success led school officials to hire more coaches from the University of Pennsylvania, including Otto Wagonhurst in 1897 and Knipe in 1898.
Early years
Knipe was a stern disciplinarian, and friction soon arose between Knipe and the older players of the 1898 team, who resented Knipe's instruction and wanted some control over what positions players played. Iowa started the 1898 season 1–4–1, and after a loss to Northern Iowa, Ralph Blackmore led the "Blackmore Revolt", in which five players quit the team. Knipe simply started younger players, including Clyde Williams and Joe Warner. These younger players would be the backbone of success to follow. Iowa closed the year 2–0–1, ending the season with a 6–5 victory over rival Nebraska. Nebraska had been a heavy favorite and was coached by Fielding H. Yost.
Iowa's finish validated Knipe, and school officials announced that Knipe would stay in Iowa City. He coached the 1899 Iowa track team in the spring and the 1899 football team that fall. Knipe guided the track team to the 1899 state championship. Before the 1899 football season, Knipe, an accomplished singer and director of Iowa's glee club, sang in a school production of the operetta The Mikado. It raised $400 for the school's athletic fund.