Keith W. Piper

Keith W. Piper (October 10, 1921 – December 9, 1997) was an American college football coach. He was the head football coach at Denison University from 1954 to 1992. He compiled a career record of 201–141–18. He gained national fame for perpetuating the single-wing formation decades after it had been discarded by other programs.

Early years Piper was raised in Niles, Ohio, and played football at Niles McKinley High School. He was the starting center for Niles McKinley in 1938 and 1939. He was one of the anchors on the 1939 defense that allowed only 34 points in the entire season. Niles McKinley's rival was Massillon Washington High School where coach Paul Brown (later inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame) ran a single-wing offense. The precision of Brown's single-wing left an imprint on him.

When Piper instituted the single-wing at Denison in 1962, he was viewed as "bucking the tides and trends of an evolutionary sport." Piper's single-wing was "predicated on deception, with the backs crossing paths, the linemen executing traps and the center disguising the target of his snap."

Piper stopped using the single-wing in 1966, In 1982, Sports Illustrated ran a feature story on Piper which opened with an imaginary exchange between single-wing legends Knute Rockne and Glenn Warner:"Hiya Rock, thanks for accepting the call. It's me, Glenn Warner.... But listen, the reason I called is to tell you that there's this fellow at a college in Ohio who's got his boys running the single wing.... Of course I'm sure. Denison University, 2,200 students, nice wooded place up on a hill in a little town called Granville, 30 miles east of Columbus. If you ever look down, you'll see for yourself. Fullback spinners, buck laterals, unbalanced line, the whole bit. Coach's name is Keith Piper. He's only 60, but he knows stuff from way back ..." In 1990, The Wall Street Journal profiled Piper:"When Keith Piper closes his eyes, he can see back to the 1920s, when he was a boy in football-mad Niles, Ohio. There, coming out of the huddle, are his heroes, the red-jersied Red Dragons of Niles McKinley High School, and they are lining up in the Single Wing formation. When Piper opens his eyes, he can see the red-jersied team he coaches, the Denison University Big Red, coming out of the huddle. They, too, are lining up in the Single Wing. ... And so the Single Wing, the formation-of-choice during football's leather-helmet era, lives on at Denison ..." The Boston Globe ran a story on Piper's offense in 1991, noting:"In this era of MTV and fax machines, Keith Piper is an anachronism... a man who lines his team up each week to play single-wing football, a formation used by Rockne, Stagg and Warner rather than Paterno, Bowden and Osborne. Almost no one plays single-wing football anymore. ... But Piper clearly is the keeper of the single-wing flame." Piper insisted that the offense was not outdated: "The thing about the single-wing is that no one really figured out a way to stop it. It just went out of fashion. Sort of like men's clothes. There wasn't anything wrong with them. They just weren't fashionable anymore." His teams outscored opponents 7,404–5,804. He retired at the end of the 1992 season. He was one of only 18 coaches to win 200 games as a head football coach at one college.

Death Piper died of congestive heart failure in 1997 while aboard a cruise ship off Florida. He was age 76 at the time of his death.

Head coaching record