I was sad about the death of Ken Hall over the weekend at the age of 89. For more than half a century, Hall, who played at the Sugar Land High School in Texas, was America's best running back.
In 2012, the current Baltimore Ravens, which Derrick Henry ran back, came Hall to become the Rusher ever in high school football.
During research for my book from 2018 High school football in Texas – Amazing football stories of Texas's greatest playersI had the pleasure of talking to Hall, who liked to bring me back to the early 1950s when he was practically unstoppable on football fields outside of Houston.
From 1950 to 1952, the man, who is known as “Sugar Land Express”, collected 11,232 Yards Rushing and made 17 national records.
Below is an extract from the book:
Like so many players with whom we spoke for this book, football was primarily in Hall's thoughts. He said he started playing football in eighth grade.
“I'm not even sure why I went out,” said Hall. “I didn't care [football]. I didn't know anything about it. I didn't know the rules. I didn't even know that you couldn't throw a ball into a Lineman.
“I was slow,” added Hall. “The concept of football just didn't address me. I would much rather march in the band and play the trumpet. And that is basically what I did in sixth grade up to the high school. “
Hall met his wife Gloria, whom he calls “treasure” in the band. The two celebrated their 62nd anniversary in December 2017. He said one of his best memories was not out of the soccer field, but in his second season when he was elected captain for one of the games and she was voted the “football treasure” on the same night. Hall laughed and remembered the fact that he could give her a kiss on her cheek during the ceremony at half time of this game.
Hall remembered that the only reason why he even tried football was that BI Webb, who was a senior, told him that they would train together to prepare for the coming football season that started in a few weeks. Hall said that he was not the least interested, but webb insisted on it.
“First we drove about fifteen rounds around the goal posts,” said Hall. “In the end I couldn't breathe and told him:” No, I don't want to do that. “Well, it's a long story, but just let's tell us that I was convinced to play.”
Hall said the only thing he could do, even though he claims at that time that he couldn't go straight and chew chewing gum at the same time, was throwing and kicking football. He said he didn't care to run with the ball.
“I saw how people were injured who let the ball run and I didn't want that to happen to me,” said Hall. “So because I could throw, they brought me to quarterback. However, it didn't work well. Instead, the trainer Dugan Hightower decided to start a senior at the start of the season. “
Hall remembered that the team lost its first five games. He said coach Hightower used him for the next game and said: “Do what you can do.” At this point Hall said that he had become a little faster, but he was still more interested in throwing the ball rather than running it.
“I remember that I fell in the game early to pass,” said Hall. “I looked around and nobody was open, so I decided to run the ball.”
This game led Hall to score with a 76-yard run-and he never stopped running.
“After the goal I turned and looked at the boys who had persecuted me and they were pretty far back,” said Hall. “I remember that I thought that it was fun. Maybe we should do that again at some point. I achieved another touchdown before the game was over and so everything started. “
Fort Bend ISD honored Hall in 2004 when she named her stadium after him in Missouri City.
Below you will find a photo of the Ken Hall Stadium from the Texasbob.com website:
Incidentally, my book is still available from Amazon. It has an assessment of 4.7 out of 50 reviews.
Click here if you want to learn more about it or order a copy.
