Skip Stahley

J. Neil "Skip" Stahley (September 22, 1908 – June 27, 1992) was a college football coach and athletic director. In sixteen seasons as a head coach, his overall record was 56–85–3 (.390).

Stahley was born in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and was a 1931 graduate of Penn State, where he majored in English and played football, earning honorable mention All-American honors. A three-sport letterman, Stahley also captained the basketball and lacrosse teams for the Nittany Lions. He later earned a master's degree from Columbia University.

Early coaching career
Stahley began his coaching career in 1931 as an assistant at Western Maryland. In 1934, he became the head coach at Delaware, and compiled a 4–3–1 record, then moved on to Harvard as an assistant. From 1941 to 1943, Stahley was the head coach at Brown, and compiled a 14–11 (.560) record. He served in the navy in San Diego during World War II. From 1946 to 1947, Stahley coached George Washington University to a 5–10–1 record in Washington, DC. He joined the new staff under Howie Odell at Washington in Seattle in March 1948 as the backfield coach, but left two months later to be the head coach at Toledo and compiled a 11–10 record in two seasons. Stahley returned to Seattle in 1950 as backfield coach at Washington for three seasons under Odell, where he mentored notable Huskies Hugh McElhenny and Don Heinrich. Odell was pressured to resign by the athletic director after a 7-3 season in 1952 and was replaced by John Cherberg, the coach of the freshman team.

NFL
Stahley left the Huskies to coach in the NFL as the backfield coach with the Chicago Cardinals under head coach Joe Stydahar. The Cardinals ended 1953 with a win in the final game to finish at 1-10-1 (.120), the worst record in the twelve-team league.

Idaho
Stahley quickly returned to college football in February 1954 as the head coach at Idaho at an annual salary of $9,000. He compiled a 22–51–1 (.300) record in eight seasons in Moscow. While on the Palouse, he coached future NFL notables Jerry Kramer, Wayne Walker, Jim Prestel, and AFL all-star Jim Norton. The Vandals were members of the Pacific Coast Conference for Stahley's first five seasons, then played as an independent when the conference disbanded. Idaho's only conference victory under Stahley came in his first season: the winless Vandals (0-5) surprised and shut out neighbor Washington State 10-0 in Pullman in the Battle of the Palouse in 1954. It was Idaho's first victory in football over the Cougars in 29 years, and the Vandals waited another decade to win the next. The win started a four-game winning streak to finish at 4-5 for the 1954 season.

When Idaho athletic director Bob Gibb left in 1960, Stahley took over those duties in July for four years. He handled both jobs for a year and a half, then stepped down under pressure as football coach in January 1962 and hired Dee Andros, an assistant coach at Illinois, in February. After a decade in Moscow, Stahley resigned as Idaho's athletic director in 1964 to become the first full-time director of athletics at Portland State College (now PSU), where he served until retirement in 1972.

Halls of fame
Stahley is a member of the Idaho Sports Hall of Fame, the Western Pennsylvania Hall of Fame, and the National Association of Collegiate athletic directors Hall of Fame.

Personal
Stahley married Mrs. Shirley Sherman Kime (c.1910-93) in Toledo, Ohio, on July 1, 1950. They had two daughters, and she had two sons from a previous marriage. Following retirement from PSU in 1972, Stahley and his wife continued to reside in Portland for the next two decades; he died in 1992 at the age of 83, and she died the following year.