2 0 14 T C U F O O T B A L L
ALL-TIME LEGENDS
KI ALDRICH (1936-38)
“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.
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 late 1940s. After gaining second-team all-Southwest Conference honors as a sophomore, Berry saved the best for last, making the first all-league teams as a junior, and as a senior, when he capped his career with prominent All-America 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 14-13 upset.
I.B. HALE (1936-38)
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.
ABE MARTIN (HEAD COACH 1953-66)
Othol “Abe” Martin led the Frogs to a 74-64-7 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 post-season 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 All-American honors, and more than a dozen all-Southwest Conference recognition. Martin was named SWC Coach of the Year in 1955 and 1958.
THE ABE MARTIN YEARS Year Won Lost Tied Pct. Notes 1953 3 7 0 .300 1954 4 6 0 .400 1955 9 2 0 .829 # 1956 8 3 0 .727 1957 5 4 1 .550 1958 8 2 1 .773 # 1959 8 3 0 .727 # 1960 4 4 2 .500 1961 3 5 2 .400 1962 6 4 0 .600 1963 4 5 1 .450 1964 4 6 0 .400 1965 6 5 0 .545 1966 2 8 0 .200 Totals 74 64 7 .534 Notes: #-SWC Champs
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TCU FOOTBALL