Professional Football Coach. During his tenure as a coach in the National Football League, he applied his philosophy of a dominant passing attack which made him distinguishable throughout the league. The son of a hard-working mother who ran a cafe, he graduated from Middle Tennessee State University in 1951 and remained there where he initiated his lengthy coaching career. He went onto stints with Trinity University (1953 to 1957), Florida State University (1958), Tulsa University (1961 to 1962), South Carolina (1963) and Miami (Florida, 1964 to 1967), prior to reaching the professional ranks, when he served on the staff of the Montreal Alouettes of the CFL in 1967. One year later he began his association with the NFL, as an offensive coordinator under Charley Winner with the St. Louis Cardinals. His method was first exemplified with his mentoring of quarterback Jim Hart, who went onto have a long and accomplished career. Shipp's next assignment was as an assistant with the New Orleans Saints, where he helped develop Archie Manning into a Pro-Bowl quarterback. Manning was once quoted as saying about Shipp, "A smart man and a good coach". He rejoined Charley Wimmer with the New York Jets in 1973 as his offensive coordinator and worked with Joe Namath. During the 1975 season, he succeeded Wimmer as the Jets' head coach and compiled a 1 win 4 loss record for the remainder of that year. While Shipp was serving with the Detroit Lions' staff in 1976, a young Bill Belichick became his assistant. He acquired knowledge under Shipp and went onto greatness as head coach of the New England Patriots. In 1977, he was the Houston Oilers' as their offensive coordinator under Bum Phillips. In later years, Shipp became involved with charitable causes including donating large sums of money to his former school Middle Tennessee State University.