Alden Knipe 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 1892 to 1894 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 . Alden 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 E . 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 . After a season opening win over Northern Iowa in 1899 , the Hawkeyes turned their attention to heavily favored Chicago , coached by Amos Alonzo Stagg . Iowa ' s Billy Edson , an Iowa State transfer , scored a touchdown against Chicago , while the Maroons could muster only a field goal . Since both were scored as five points in those days , Iowa settled for a 5 – 5 tie . Chicago would go on to win the 1899 Western Conference title with a 12 – 0 – 2 record . Hawkeye fans were ecstatic with the tie . Iowa would not yield another point all year , winning their last seven games by a combined score of 194 – 0 . In Iowa ' s final game of the season , the Hawkeyes defeated Illinois in their first ever meeting by a 58 – 0 score . So outmatched were the Illini that both sides agreed to shorten the second half by ten minutes . Less than 24 hours later , Arthur G . Smith , Iowa ' s football team captain in 1890 , accepted on behalf of the University of Iowa an invitation for membership in the Western Conference . Iowa has participated in the Western Conference , now known as the Big Ten Conference , since 1900 . Big Ten membership . Before the 1900 season , the University of Iowa appointed Knipe to a position titled " Director of Physical Culture " . Knipe oversaw all Iowa intercollegiate athletics at the time in this director of athletics role . He is occasionally referred to as Iowa ' s first athletic director , though the University of Iowa does not officially recognize the position until 1910 , when it was split from the head football coaching duties for the first time . Nine starters from Iowa ' s undefeated 1899 team returned for the 1900 season , including Williams , Warner , Edson , John G . Griffith , Ray " Buck " Morton , and Morey Eby , captain of the 1899 squad . Griffith was appointed captain in 1900 . The Hawkeyes won their first four non - conference games by a combined score of 198 – 0 . Chicago loomed as Iowa ' s first ever Western Conference opponent . Chicago had won the conference the previous year and handed Iowa its only blemish on the season in 1899 . After a scoreless first half , the Hawks scored two quick touchdowns early in the second period and Iowa won , 17 – 0 . Iowa ' s next game was against Michigan , the 1898 Western Conference champions , in Detroit . The Wolverines had sent scouts to watch the Iowa - Chicago game and prepare for Michigan ' s first ever meeting with Iowa . Knipe had the Hawkeye players gather at Lake St . Clair outside Detroit . Knipe taught his Hawkeye team 75 new plays in one week . He completely changed his offense , which had been one of power inside running , to exploit Iowa ' s speed advantage running outside the tackles . The Hawkeyes led 28 – 0 before Michigan managed a field goal to prevent the shutout , the first points scored on Iowa in 1900 . But the Hawkeyes dominated the Wolverines and won , 28 – 5 . A controversial tie in Iowa ' s last game against Northwestern was the only blemish on the 1900 season . Every member of the Iowa team except Griffith had creamed potatoes the day before the game , and Griffith was the only member of the team without severe stomach cramps the night before the game . Rumor has it that the hotel chef had a wager on the game . Iowa scored a first half touchdown against the Wildcats , but Northwestern scored a late field goal , and Iowa settled for the 5 – 5 tie . That was still good enough to salvage a tie for the league title with Minnesota in Iowa ' s first year in the conference . Knipe , who was appointed Iowa ' s first director of music in 1901 , put on another performance of " The Mikado " in the off - season . Only three starters returned in 1901 , but arguably Iowa ' s best player , Clyde Williams , was one of them and was named team captain . The Hawkeyes won their first three games of the season before preparing to play fellow 1900 conference champion , Minnesota . 25 minutes before the game , Williams was told he was ineligible to play , because he had played professional summer baseball . A deflated Hawkeye team lost to Minnesota , 16 – 0 , losing their first game and yielding their first touchdown in 23 games . Iowa had a 6 – 3 record in 1901 . Knipe had a large , early influence on Iowa athletics . He served as Iowa ' s coach for track and cross country from 1899 – 1902 , and he was Iowa ' s first baseball coach from 1900 – 1901 . In addition to serving as Iowa ' s director of music and Iowa ' s director of athletics , he is the only person in the history of the university to coach four separate sports ( football , track , baseball , and cross country ) simultaneously . In 1902 , Iowa ' s football team went 5 – 4 , but lost to Michigan and Illinois by a combined score of 187 – 0 . After the 1902 season , Knipe was married in Philadelphia . It was his second marriage , and some on the Athletic Board suggested to the coach that he should not marry a second time because " whispered talk such a marriage would provoke would be bad for Iowa . " Regardless , Knipe did it , and he tendered his resignation after the season as well . Knipe had a five year record of 30 – 11 – 4 at Iowa . He never coached again . Later years and death . As an accomplished singer with a degree in medicine , Knipe chose to be neither a singer nor a doctor . While in college at Penn he had been a member of the prestigious Delta Psi fraternity , AKA St . Anthony Hall . For the next 47 years , Knipe and his wife wrote and illustrated 32 children ' s books . He died in New York in 1950 at age 79 .