Hall of Fame
Position: Halfback
Years: 1936-1938
Place of Birth: Petersburg, VA
Date of Birth: Apr 20, 1915
Place of Death: Newport News, VA
Date of Death: Aug 29, 2001
Jersey Number: 20
Height: 5-11
Weight: 181
High School: Petersburg, VA (Petersburg HS)
Many call it the greatest punting exhibition in football history. Coach Clark Shaughnessy listed it as one of the 12 greatest performances he had seen. On a blustery fall day in 1938, Duke's Eric Tipton literally kicked the starch out of a fine Pitt team. Shaughnessy described it vividly, writing: "Tipton was a one-man show. The game was played on ice and snow at Durham, North Carolina; before a record crowd, and I doubt that anybody ever kicked a ball more skillfully or consistently than the grim, square-jawed Tipton that afternoon. Seven of his punts left Pitt within its own 10-yard line, while another seven stopped dead or went out of bounds inside the 20. Final score: Duke 7, Pitt 0." During Tipton's varsity days at Duke, the Blue Devils amassed an incredible 25 victories against only four defeats, winning the Southern Conference championship in 1936 and 1938. The 1938 team will never be forgotten. Called the "Iron Dukes," that club galloped through a nine game regular season schedule undefeated, untied and unscored-upon before losing by a whisker (7-3) to Southern California in the Rose Bowl. After college, "Eric the Red" played major league baseball for four seasons with the Cincinnati Reds and one with the Philadelphia Athletics, spending his off-season time as an assistant coach at William & Mary. He then served as head baseball coach and assistant football coach at Army. Tipton was born April 20, 1915, in Petersburg, VA. He died August 29, 2001, in Newport News, VA.
