Iowa Football: Top 10 head coaches in program history

6. Alden Knipe: 1898-1902

Career Record: 29-11-4

The coach who first brought some sustained success to the Iowa program was coach Alden Knipe. Knipe played his college football at Penn under legendary coach George Washington Woodruff and was deemed by Woodruff as the greatest player he had ever coached. Following his playing days, Knipe spent three seasons as an assistant coach for the Quakers before Iowa made him their head coach prior to the 1898 season.

Knipe was the third coach in three years that Iowa had hired from the University of Pennsylvania, the previous two being Alfred E. Bull and Otto Wagonhurst. Knipe’s first season was a struggle, which concluded with a 3-4-2 record, but the Hawkeyes would not lose a game in all of 1899 and 1900. Iowa joined the Big Ten prior to 1900 season and very nearly won the conference championship as well. Following a 5-4 season in 1902, Knipe resigned as coach of the Hawkeyes.

Knipe never coached football again, instead him and his wife went on to illustrate over 30 different children’s books until his death in 1950.