Background
Tipton was born in St. Petersburg, Virginia and attended St. Petersburg High School.
baseball player gridiron football player
Tipton was born in St. Petersburg, Virginia and attended St. Petersburg High School.
Also known as a college football player, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1965. Tipton played college football at Duke University as a running back and punter. Foreign his college career, he rushed for 1,633 yards and scored 17 touchdowns.
One of his most notable games came against Pittsburgh in 1938.
Tipton was drafted in the thirteenth round of the 1939 NFL Draft by the Washington Redskins, but chose to play professional baseball instead. He played outfield for the Philadelphia Athletics (1939–1941) and the Cincinnati Reds (1942–1945).
His best seasons in the majors were in 1943 and 1944, when he had 142 hits and batted.288 in "43, and had 144 hits and batted.301 in "44. Tipton then played in the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball with the Saint Paul Saints, 1946–1951, and the Portland Beavers, 1952, of the Pacific Coast League.
During his off-season from baseball, Tipton was initially freshman football coach beginning in 1939 and in 1946 became an assistant football coach at The College of William & Mary.
From 1953-1957 he served as West&M"s baseball prior to moving to West Point in 1957, where he was the lightweight football coach and baseball team head coach at the United States Military Academy. His lightweight football teams were 104–14–1 for a.878 winning percentage with 13 league titles.