TCU ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME
The physically impressive I.B. Hale was hailed as the “greatest lineman in America” by famed sportswriter Francis Wallace in 1938. As well as serving as team captain, the 6-2, 245-pound Hale anchored the offensive and defensive lines from his tackle spot for the Frogs’ 1938 national championship team. He gained All-America honors in both 1937 and 1938, as well as all-SWC recognition both his junior and senior seasons at TCU. Hale, whose brilliant college career spanned both the first-ever Cotton Bowl (TCU vs. Marquette in 1937) and the 1939 Sugar Bowl, had been a teammate of Davey O’Brien at Dallas’ Woodrow Wilson High School. After his career at Frogland, Hale was a first-round pick in the NFL. Later a high school coach, a member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a top-rated Southwest Conference football official prior to his death in 1971, Hale was inducted posthumously into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1985.
Hale was a TCU Athletics Hall of Fame inductee in 1970.
