Entering his second year at Albion, Frank Shipp had neverplayed football, though he had watched the team practice. Frankdidn’t even own the equipment to play, but everything changedwhen one of his friends was going to be away.
“The first team was always looking for‘scrubs’ to come out and be pushed around so the teamcould have some practice,” Frank wrote in a memoir.“One day a friend of mine who had a suit, and was going to beaway for a few days, brought his suit . . . and asked me to go outthe next day and take his place on the ‘scrubs’, whichI consented to do. After a little ball tossing the teams lined upfor practice. I was placed on the left end, told to stop anyone whocame around that way. Jake Anderson was playing left half for theregulars, an excellent player and a hard runner. Soon I saw himcoming my way and I tackled him low and stopped him in his tracks.That play was the turning point in my career atAlbion.”
Frank went on to become captain of the 1894 football teamand the school’s first letter winner. Albion’s 1894football squad posted a 6-1-1 record that included a win and a tiein games with the University of Notre Dame on the road andsplitting contests with the University of Michigan.
“I always played until graduation,” Frankwrote. “This experience gave me some of the self-confidence Iso much needed, for I had done something which won the applause ofstudents.”
After graduating, Frank taught school and later was thesuperintendent of schools in Gaylord. He then served as vicepresident and general manager of Dayton Last Block Works from 1904to 1930 before moving into the presidency of the Gaylord StateBank.
Frank passed away in 1951 and has been the patriarch of along Albion legacy with his daughter, Eleanor Shipp Peterson,’21, and son, Leland Parmater Shipp, ’26, and threegrandsons, Samuel Shipp Butcher, ’58, George Butcher,’61, and Frank F. Shipp, ’61.
