TCU ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME
“Aldrich is probably the greatest defensive center in history.” That’s the way LIFE magazine described TCU’s center-linebacking demon, Charles “Ki” Aldrich, following the 1938 season when the Horned Frogs won the national championship. Aldrich, the 5-11, 198-pounder from Temple, Texas, had been a consensus All-American (after earning some first team A-A honors the previous season) that year, plus he was named all-Southwest Conference for the third time. He was considered so important to TCU that his teammates named him MVP of the team, a surprising feat when one considers that it was Davey O’Brien who became the Southwest Conference’s first Heisman Trophy winner that same season. Many years later, former Horned Frog teammate and one-time childhood neighbor, Sam Baugh, said of the phenomenal Aldrich: “Ki was absolutely the toughest player I was ever around.” After being drafted in the first-round of the 1939 draft, Aldrich played professionally with the Chicago Cardinals and the Washington Redskins. He was elected to the National Football Hall of Fame in 1960.
Aldrich was a part of the third class that was inducted into the TCU Athletics Hall of Fame in 1969.
