He attended Mount St. Mary's College, where he lettered in four sports – track, baseball, basketball, and football.

After the 1915 season, Engel played in only three more major league games–2 for the Cincinnati Reds in 1917 and 1919, and a final game for the Senators in 1920.

[1] Engel became known as one of the greatest scouts in baseball history, discovering Goose Goslin, Joe Cronin, Alvin Crowder, Bump Hadley, Buddy Myer, Cecil Travis, Ossie Bluege, Bucky Harris, and Doc Prothro.

Engel's discoveries helped bring the Senators three American League pennants in ten years.

When the New York Yankees went to Chattanooga to play a pre-season exhibition game with his Lookouts, Engel located a female 17-year-old left-handed pitcher, Jackie Mitchell, who struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

In 1932 the Lookouts won the Southern Association pennant for the first time in 40 years and beat the Texas League champions in the Dixie Series.

In 1943, faced with dismal attendance during the War years, Engel briefly moved the franchise in mid-season to Montgomery, Alabama for the remainder of that season.

In the mid-late 1950s Harmon Killebrew and Jim Kaat, along with other future major leaguers, spent time playing for the Lookouts.

Engel's 1969 obituary in the Chattanooga newspaper noted that he'd "imported bullfrogs from Louisiana so that he could hear them sing at sunset and tied coconuts on palm trees to help sell real estate in Miami Beach."