Hall of Fame
As a young boy the late Charles Filipi was the victim of a tragic accident. He lost the sight of his right eye while straightening nails on the family farm near Ely, Iowa. This morning Coe College is honoring "Chuck" for the athletic ability he exhibited as a football player and for the outstanding leadership he provided during college years that were unsettled and difficult. He was one of many football players who volunteered for service in World War I. He was turned down because of his sight handicap. Going to college was a dream that young Charles and his older brother, Joseph, shared and Coe was their choice. To make it possible, their widowed mother sold the family farm and they moved to Cedar Rapids. Joseph, later, was accepted into the army and two days before the Armistice he was fatally wounded in France. Charles suffered from Joseph's death because they were very close. Charles loved football. He was outstanding because he was physically unafraid and possessed exceptional speed. He usually played fullback but, on occasion, would help out at the end. His fans described him best when they wrote: Stockily built, he was fast and a hard man to stop, seldom failing to gain. His kind of ability and his kind of spirit is the kind we like. During the war years football at Coe was different. One squad had only 18 players. A Coe-Cornell game was played behind locked gates. The Kohawks met the University of Iowa and lost, but they later defeated Iowa's second team, 7-0. Charles, a team captain as a freshman and as a senior, served on the Athletic Council, is a governing body made up of the captains of each of the athletic teams and other students. In nominating Charles Filipi for induction into the Coe Athletic hall of Fame, I close with these words from his 1920 teammates: "In Chuck we had a captain that had an unusual amount of the stuff that makes a man a leader of men."
