Carlin Carpenter led the Bluffton football team for 24 seasons before retiring following the 2002 campaign. He holds the record for the most wins by a football coach in Bluffton history with 103 and was named the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference co-coach of the year in 2000. During the 2000 season he guided the Beavers to a 7-3 record, a national ranking and a share of the HCAC championship. 
Coach Carpenter led his teams to two NAIA national playoffs in 1987 and 1988. He is already a member of the Hall of Fame with the 1985 and 1988 football squads. At the time of his retirement his head coaching tenure was the longest among Ohio’s collegiate head football coaches. The years of 1985-90 Coach Carpenter saw a 44-13 record and the Beavers were nationally ranked each year.
Carlin was also the athletics director at Bluffton from 1980-2003. When he came to Bluffton in 1979 Carpenter also started his college teaching career with a position in the HPER department as an assistant professor.
Before joining the Bluffton community, Coach Carpenter was an assistant football coach at Marshall University, Ohio University and Defiance College. Earning his bachelor's degree in psychology at Defiance College and master's degree in health, physical education and recreation (HPER) and special education at Ohio University guided him to a great teaching career.
Since leaving Bluffton in 2003 Coach Carpenter has kept busy as an adjunct professor in the health, fitness and sports science department. In his free time he enjoys fishing and spending time with his family.
