A graduate of Franklin & Marshall College, where he earned a degree in teaching and spent four years on several of its sports teams, Bridenbaugh coached football at several places in his home state of Pennsylvania prior to being selected as the head coach of the Geneva College Golden Tornadoes in 1917.

He left Geneva in 1922 with a 23–12–5 record and took a job with New Castle Junior/Senior High School as a mathematics teacher and head football, basketball, and track and field coach.

He continued to work as an assistant football coach at Grove City College until 1964 and was inducted into several regional halls of fame.

[8] During his first season, the team went 4–6–1, but it improved to a winning record of 9–1 the following year, with its sole loss being against Carnegie Mellon University.

[15] He coached at New Castle for 33 years, earning the nickname "The Fox",[16] and left in 1955 with a record of 265–65–25, which included 11 undefeated seasons, seven one-loss seasons, and seven Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) championships (1924, 1932–34, 1942, 1948–49); at the time of his death, this was believed to be the best record in Pennsylvanian high school football history and the fourth-best in the United States.

[6] He also coached basketball at New Castle, leaving with a 319–159 record and two victories at the WPIAL championships in 1927 and 1936, and ran the track and field program.

[1] He died on June 14, 1990, of heart disease, at the Indian Creek Nursing Center in New Castle, Pennsylvania, at the age of 100.