Skip Stahley J . Neil " Skip " Stahley ( September 22 , 1908 – June 27 , 1992 ) was a college football coach and athletic director . In sixteen seasons as a head coach , his overall record was 56 – 85 – 3 ( ) . Stahley was born in Lebanon , Pennsylvania , and was a 1931 graduate of Penn State , where he majored in English and played football , earning honorable mention All - American honors . A three - sport letterman , Stahley also captained the basketball and lacrosse teams for the Nittany Lions . He later earned a master ' s degree from Columbia University . Early coaching career . Stahley began his coaching career in 1931 as an assistant at Western Maryland . In 1934 , he became the head coach at Delaware , and compiled a 4 – 3 – 1 record , then moved on to Harvard as an assistant . From 1941 to 1943 , Stahley was the head coach at Brown , and compiled a 14 – 11 ( ) record . He served in the navy in San Diego during World War II . From 1946 to 1947 , Stahley coached George Washington University to a 5 – 10 – 1 record in Washington , DC . He joined the new staff under Howie Odell at Washington in Seattle in March 1948 as the backfield coach , but left two months later to be the head coach at Toledo and compiled a 11 – 10 record in two seasons . Stahley returned to Seattle in 1950 as backfield coach at Washington for three seasons under Odell , where he mentored notable Huskies Hugh McElhenny and Don Heinrich . Odell was pressured to resign by the athletic director after a 7 - 3 season in 1952 and was replaced by John Cherberg , the coach of the freshman team . NFL . Stahley left the Huskies to coach in the NFL as the backfield coach with the Chicago Cardinals under head coach Joe Stydahar . The Cardinals ended 1953 with a win in the final game to finish at 1 - 10 - 1 ( ) , the worst record in the twelve - team league . Idaho . Stahley quickly returned to college football in February 1954 as the head coach at Idaho at an annual salary of $ 9 , 000 . He compiled a 22 – 51 – 1 ( ) record in eight seasons in Moscow . While on the Palouse , he coached future NFL notables Jerry Kramer , Wayne Walker , Jim Prestel , and AFL all - star Jim Norton . The Vandals were members of the Pacific Coast Conference for Stahley ' s first five seasons , then played as an independent when the conference disbanded . Idaho ' s only conference victory under Stahley came in his first season : the winless Vandals ( 0 - 5 ) surprised and shut out neighbor Washington State 10 - 0 in Pullman in the Battle of the Palouse in 1954 . The win started a four - game winning streak to finish at 4 - 5 for the 1954 season . When Idaho athletic director Bob Gibb left in 1960 , Stahley took over those duties in July for four years . He handled both jobs for a year and a half , then stepped down under pressure as football coach in January 1962 and hired Dee Andros , an assistant coach at Illinois , in February . After a decade in Moscow , Stahley resigned as Idaho ' s athletic director in 1964 to become the first full - time director of athletics at Portland State College ( now PSU ) , where he served until retirement in 1972 . Halls of fame . Stahley is a member of the Idaho Sports Hall of Fame , the Western Pennsylvania Hall of Fame , and the National Association of Collegiate athletic directors Hall of Fame . Personal . Stahley married Mrs . Shirley Sherman Kime ( c . 1910 - 93 ) in Toledo , Ohio , on July 1 , 1950 . They had two daughters , and she had two sons from a previous marriage . Following retirement from PSU in 1972 , Stahley and his wife continued to reside in Portland for the next two decades ; he died in 1992 at the age of 83 , and she died the following year .