His college coaching career began at Gordon College in Barnesville, Georgia. He was tasked with restarting a basketball program that had been dormant for over a decade. Ingle built a winning program at Gordon; posting a record of 61-32 in three seasons at the school. In his final season, Ingle led the Hilltoppers to the NJCAA Region XVII championship game. In 1988, he took the head coaching job at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The team posted a 10-18 record, but it was actually an improvement over the previous three seasons, when UAH won just 16 total games.