Rip DePascal was born in Aliquippa, PA, on April 13, 1916.

Rip played baseball, basketball, and football for Swissvale High School, earning WPIAL honors in football and graduating in 1939. Rip earned All-Conference honors in football at the University of Wichita (nka Wichita State University), and, after completing several years at Wichita, Rip enlisted in the military to join the World War II effort.

In July 1943, Rip was assigned to the 498th bomb squadron in the China Burma India Theater, and, during his military career, Rip would fly nearly 50 combat missions, being shot down three times in the Pacific campaign. Rip was honorably discharged from the U.S. Air Force and returned to the United States on August 4, 1944, with a Purple Heart, an Asiatic Pacific Theater Campaign Ribbon, an Air Medal, and the Distinguished Flying Cross. Rip used his remaining time in the war playing football for the Army, before receiving an honorable discharge as a captain on October 20, 1945.

As soon as he received his discharge papers and returned home, Rip boarded a train for Hershey, PA, where the Pittsburgh Steelers had been in training camp. Rip played for the 1945 Steelers, and, after a season with the Steelers, Rip served as the athletic director, head football coach, and basketball coach at Mary's High School in Wichita, KS, from 1946 through 1951.

In 1953, Rip began a long and successful career at Tucson's Amphitheater High School and served as an assistant football coach, head basketball coach, and head high school golf coach.

Rip co-founded the Southern Arizona Retired Coaches and Officials Association, served as a football and basketball official in the Border and WAC Conferences, served as baseball commissioner for the Arizona Interscholastic Association, co-produced a football/basketball Game of the Week radio program for local high schools, produced the Sports Round-Up of all scoring in Arizona, and was the assistant editor of a Tucson community weekly football and basketball program.

Rip retired in 1988, after 35 years of teaching and coaching at Amphitheater High School in Tucson, AZ. That year, Rip was inducted into the Amphitheater High School Athletic Hall of Fame and, in 1996, he was inducted into the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame.

Carmine Ralph "Rip" DePascal, died March 26, 2002, at age 85, in Tucson, AZ.