Princeton Mourns The Passing Of Former Athletic Director Royce Flippin '56

Royce Flippin, who went from achieving a place among the greatest high school athletes in New Jersey history to being a football player and later the Director of Athletics at Princeton University, has passed away at the age of 87.

"Royce was a truly great guy," says Merrily Dean Baker, who worked with Flippin in the early years of women's athletics at Princeton. "He was just a special man. He had a way of touching people and inspiring them to grow that was unique in a lot of ways. He was just a positive person. He was a great family man. He was inclusive. He was terrific to work with. We all would get aggravated about things, but Royce never seemed to get aggravated. He did so much to help so many people. He was a truly optimistic person."

Flippin, a member of the Class of 1956, captained the 1955 Tiger football team. After serving in the United States Marine Corps and then having a career in business, he would become the Director of Athletics at Princeton from 1972-79 and then hold the same position from 1980-92 at MIT.

"The entire Princeton football family, and indeed everyone at Princeton, offers the Flippin family our deepest condolences," says Princeton head football coach Bob Surace. "He was a great Tiger and a very loyal Princetonian. He leaves an impressive legacy of achievement on the field and of service after graduation. He was the very embodiment of so many of the characteristics that make Princeton football and Princeton Athletics so special."

Flippin grew up in the North Jersey town of Montclair. While at Montclair High School, he earned twelve letters in his final three years, playing football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and then baseball in the spring while also running track.

In fact, he used to walk over to the track following baseball practice to train or even compete in dual meets. In addition to being all-state in football and baseball, he won the state Group 4 meet with a jump of better than 24 feet, and he also placed in the 100-yard dash final. He is a member of the New Jersey high school athletics Hall of Fame.

He would letter three times in football, earning All-East honors as the left halfback in Charles Caldwell's single-wing offense. He missed three games with a broken wrist as a junior, and Princeton went 0-2-1 in those three games. With him on the field, Princeton was 5-1, including a 21-14 win over Yale in which Flippin scored three touchdowns, one on a 70-yard run and the final one on a four-yard run with 15 seconds left to snap a tie score.

As a senior in the fall of 1955, he captained the Tigers to a 7-2 overall record and a 6-1 record against Ivy League teams in the last year before an official Ivy champion would be crowned. Flippin was the 1955 winner of the Poe-Kazmaier Trophy, Princeton's highest football honor, and he also shared the 1956 Roper Trophy as Princeton's top senior male athlete.

He and his wife Louise would be married for than 60 years after he proposed to her the night before his final college game. After graduation he went to Harvard Business School and was then a U.S. Marine.

"Royce was a gentleman, a great athlete and a scholar," says Gary Walters, who was Princeton's Director of Athletics from 1994-2014.

Flippin was hired in 1972 as Princeton's second Director of Athletics, succeeding Ken Fairman, who had been the AD from 1941-72. It was under Flippin's watch that Princeton's women's athletic program grew from its infancy into an established powerhouse across the board. He worked fiercely to provide the women athletes of Princeton with the resources to have an experience that would compare to the already established men's programs, including hiring the first full-time female head coaches and bringing equity to facilities usage, practice times and athletic training among other areas.

The 1973-74 academic year, Flippin's second, was astounding. The women's squash team went undefeated and won the Howe Cup national championship. The women's basketball team went 11-4 and won the first Ivy League championship contested in the sport. The field hockey team was 9-0-2. The swimming and diving team was 7-1 and won the Eastern championship. The women's tennis team was a perfect 8-0. Women's rowing went 7-2. Under Flippin's watch, the women's athletic program would add varsity teams in volleyball, cross country, indoor and outdoor track & field and hockey.

"I thought women's athletics would be successful," Flippin said a few months before he passed away. "Early on we were dominant. There were a lot of women star athletes who saw early on that they would have a really receptive, opportunity-filled environment at Princeton. That was the environment that we created. It was Merrily. It was Sam Howell. It was Art Robinson. We had really good people, very supportive leaders, in the department."

It was Flippin who hired some of Princeton's most successful coaches, including one – legendary men's track and field coach Fred Samara – who is still coaching at Princeton today. Princeton led the Ivy League in overall winning percentage during his entire tenure, and he also added recreation under the umbrella of the athletic department.

A member of the ECAC Hall of Fame, Flippin was also selected by Washington in the 1956 NFL draft.

"I never really thought about the past," he said. "The biggest thing in my background was that I was flexible. I only cared about the challenges of the future. That's been a common theme at Princeton when it comes to athletic administration."

He and Louise had three children – sons Royce III, a member of the Class of 1980 and Robert, a member of the Class of 1983, and a daughter Diane.

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