LINDY BERRY (1946-49)
It was only natural for a guy named after that famed aerialist Charles Lindbergh to become one of the best passers in the nation. So, it was no surprise to some when Lindy Berry became just that in the late1940s. After gaining secondteam allSouthwest Conference honors as a sophomore, Berry saved the best for last, making the first allleague teams as a junior, and as a senior, when he capped his career with prominent AllAmerica mention in 1949. Berry led Southwest Conference football in both rushing and total offense as a junior during the 1948 season and found himself as the busiest back in the nation with his 324 total offensive plays. He ranked No. 4 in the NCAA in total offense. Captain as a senior, Berry again paced the SWC in total offense, ranking third in the nation. Although known mostly for his offensive fireworks and feats, Berry was quite a defensive star, too. His interception of a Texas pass in the fourth quarter of the 1949 game near the TCU goal enabled the Horned Frogs to hang on for a 1413 upset.
I.B. HALE (1936-38)
The physicallyimpressive 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 62, 245pound Hale anchored the offensive and defensive lines from his tackle spot for the Frogs’ 1938 national championship team. He gained AllAmerica honors in both 1937 and 1938, as well as allSWC recognition both his junior and senior seasons at TCU. Hale, whose brilliant college career spanned both the firstever 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 firstround pick in the NFL. Later a high school coach, a member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and a toprated Southwest Conference football official prior to his death in 1971, Hale was inducted posthumously into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1985.
ABE MARTIN (HEAD COACH 1953-66)
Othol “Abe” Martin led the Frogs to a 74647 record over 14 season prior to serving as TCU athletics director for a decade from 1966 through 1975. A founding member of TCU’s Southwest Conference dominance, having played on the first TCU team to win the SWC championship in 1929, Martin began his TCU coaching career as the head coach of the freshman football team in 1945 before his promotion in 1953 following the Dutch Meyer era. Truly a player’s coach, Martin’s TCU ballclubs won three SWC crowns and played in five postseason bowl games, including victories in three Cotton Bowls. Also, some of the university’s greatest football players — Jim Swink, Don Floyd, Bob Lilly, Hugh Pitts, Norman Hamilton, Jack Spikes, and Tommy Joe Crutcher just to name a few — were produced during the Abe Martin era. Seven of them claimed AllAmerican honors, and more than a dozen allSouthwest Conference recognition. Martin was named SWC Coach of the Year in 1955 and 1958.
THE ABE MARTIN YEARS Year Won 1953 3 1954 4 1955 9 1956 8 1957 5 1958 8 1959 8 1960 4 1961 3 1962 6 1963 4 1964 4 1965 6 1966 2 Totals 74
Lost 7 6 2 3 4 2 3 4 5 4 5 6 5 8 64
Tied 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 2 0 1 0 0 0 7
Pct. Notes .300 .400 .829 # .727 .550 .773 # .727 # .500 .400 .600 .450 .400 .545 .200 .534
Notes: #-SWC Champs
BIG 2012
I
151
2012 FACT BOOK
KI ALDRICH (1936-38)
“Aldrich is probably the greatest defensive center in history.” That’s the way LIFE magazine described TCU’s centerlinebacking demon, Charles “Ki” Aldrich, following the 1938 season when the Horned Frogs won the national championship.Aldrich, the 511, 198pounder from Temple, Texas, had been a consensus AllAmerican (after earning some first team AA honors the previous season) that year, plus he was named allSouthwest 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 onetime childhood neighbor, Sam Baugh, said of the phenomenal Aldrich: “Ki was absolutely the toughest player I was ever around.” After being drafted in the firstround 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.
ALL-TIME LEGENDS