Delaney Kiphuth, who served for 22 years as the University's director of athletics and was one of the first administrators of the Ivy League, died Feb. 12 at his home in Hamden after a long illness. He was 78 years old.
Mr. Kiphuth was director of athletics at Yale from 1954 until his retirement in 1976. He became one of the first administrators of the Ivy League when the eight institutions that make up the league -- Yale, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania -- began formal competition in 15 sports in 1956.
Among the coaches he appointed during his tenure as athletics director are football coach Carm Cozza and hockey coach Tim Taylor. In addition to his athletic duties, Mr. Kiphuth served as an instructor in American history and was special assistant to the president of Yale for athletic policy.
His father was Robert J.H. Kiphuth, a longtime swimming and conditioning coach at Yale who also held the post of athletics director at the University 1946-49 and coached six U.S. Olympic teams. Both father and son were advocates of continued amateurism in both intercollegiate and Olympic sports at the time when both were becoming more professional.
"Delaney Kiphuth was really special to everyone who came in contact with him," says Mr. Cozza. "He was a very upbeat person and a very concerned gentleman. He really was Yale athletics -- and his family, beginning with his father, was Yale athletics. He had a positive influence on all coaches and athletes, and I admired him greatly.
"I wouldn't be here if it weren't for him," adds Mr. Cozza, who recently announced his retirement as football coach. "What I most admired about him was that when he knew things weren't going well for you, he was always there at your side."
Henry "Sam" Chauncey Jr., who was secretary of Yale during part of Mr. Kiphuth's tenure as athletic director and is now head of the Management Program in Health Policy Administration and lecturer in epidemiology and public health, says Mr. Kiphuth had "three important characteristics" that made him both a successful athletics director and a highly respected person.
"First, he had a complete understanding of the role of athletics in an academic institution," says Mr. Chauncey. "He was a real visionary in terms of his sense that college athletics would get caught up in a lot of professional nonsense. Second was his belief that student athletes should enjoy athletics as well as succeed at it -- that they should take as much pleasure in playing as in winning. Third is that he was one of the most sensitive and kind human beings that ever walked the face of this earth."
Mr. Chauncey recalled how Mr. Kiphuth became known for having kept one of Yale's former football stars, Calvin Hill, in the game. Within the first couple weeks of his freshman year, Mr. Hill was feeling disillusioned about playing football and thought about dropping out, according to Mr. Chauncey. On a practice day, Mr. Hill made the decision that if he made the bus he'd continue to play, but if he missed the bus, he'd quit. After seeing Mr. Hill miss the bus, Mr. Kiphuth offered him a ride to practice, and gave the football star a pep talk along the way. Mr. Hill has often said it was that talk that kept him in the game.
"It was for the concern he showed on occasions like that that made Delaney Kiphuth a legend around here," Mr. Chauncey said.
Mr. Kiphuth was born March 6, 1918, in New Haven. He graduated from Phillips Andover School and earned B.A. and M.A. degrees from Yale in 1941 and 1947, respectively. After graduating, he taught at the Hotchkiss School before enlisting in the Army Air Forces. He served in England during World War II and was discharged as a major in 1945, earning a Bronze Star. He returned to teaching and coaching at the Hotchkiss School until he came to Yale as athletics director.
Mr. Kiphuth served as class agent at Yale and helped with the Alumni Fund. After his retirement, he was associated with Hopkins Grammar School until 1988 and was for 15 years a swimming director at the Luther Gulick Summer Camp in South Casco, Maine. He also was a volunteer with the Boy's Club of America.
Mr. Kiphuth was predeceased by his wife, Janet Baillie Kiphuth, and a daughter, Louise Kiphuth. He is survived by a daughter, Margaret A. Kiphuth, of Hamden.