LRSD

Charles Ripley was an only child. But the former Little Rock Parkview coach wound up being a father figure to many athletes. Ripley spent 27 years in the Little Rock School District. Over a span of two decades, “Coach Rip” became one of the state’s most successful basketball coaches of all-time. Little Rock Parkview won only 4 games the previous season prior to his arrival. They quickly became a national power wrapping up 5 state championships, 10 league titles, and 2 King Cotton crowns. During the 1989 season, they upset New York’s Tollentine High, which was ranked #1 in the country. Rip’s 1991-92 squads finished 35 and 1 and were ranked as high as #4 in the nation. Parkview reached the state game in 10 of his 12 seasons, and Coach Rip had an overall record at Parkview of 487-151. After winning his final state title in 1995, Ripley was hired as the head basketball coach at Westark Community College, now the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith. Ripley returned to Little Rock as the athletic director and men's basketball coach at Arkansas Baptist College. He was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.