2025 Alumni Award Recipient
Fall 2025
Faculty/Staff Service Award
Carlin Carpenter
Former Bluffton University football coach and athletic director
Carlin Carpenter devoted more than 30 years of service to Bluffton University, including 24 seasons as head football coach and 23 as athletics director. He remains the winningest football coach in Bluffton history with 103 victories.
Carpenter guided Bluffton’s transition from NAIA to NCAA Division III and into membership in the HCAC. His teams earned national recognition, advancing to the NAIA playoffs in 1987 and 1988, and the 1985 and 1988 teams have been inducted into the Bluffton Athletics Hall of Fame. Carpenter is also in the Hall of Fame at Bluffton University and Defiance College. At his retirement in 2002, Carpenter’s tenure was the longest among Ohio’s collegiate football coaches.
Carpenter was known for shaping student-athletes through the “MORE Than Football” program and the enduring “Beaver Code of Conduct” and “Beaver Pledge”—emphasizing motivation, responsibility and treating others with respect. He also played a key role in the development of Salzman Stadium.
Before arriving at Bluffton, Carpenter served in the U.S. Navy and held coaching positions at Defiance College, Ohio University and Marshall University. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Defiance and a master’s from Ohio. Known as a coach, teacher, mentor, humorist and folk singer, Carpenter is remembered for his vision, persistence and belief in the potential of every student.
Carlin and his wife, Sharon, have been married 64 years. They have two daughters, Kelly (Carpenter ’86) Ebersbach and her husband, Dave, and Jill (Carpenter ’96) Heinze and her husband, Rob; eight grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Sharon worked 25 years as assistant manager in the business office. Carlin and Sharon are grateful for the relationships with Bluffton staff, players and families that continue today.