Chris Hale - Outstanding Athletic Achievement

Chris Hale played in three Super Bowls for the Buffalo Bills from 1991 to 1993, with jet planes doing fly bys before kickoff. But his favorite football memory was   playing  at Glendale College, where he lined up with teammates who became life long friends and coaches he respected more then any he ever played for. 

He played in two Rose Bowls for USC in 1987 and 1988 in front of television audiences totaling millions of people, but his favorite version of the cardinal and gold was about the Vaqueros, not the Trojans. It was at Glendale College in 1986 that he had his best season of football and where he is being inducted tonight to the athletic hall of fame for outstanding athletic achievement.

“It was just for one year in 1986 but it was really the best year of my life in football,’’ Hale said. “ I have played in big games on the biggest stages that the sport of Football has to offer but playing for the Vaqueros, and for coaches Cicuto and Sartoris ranks above anything else for me.

“I grew up that year as a man and a player and anything I achieved in football and the relationships I made has to do with my decision to attend Glendale College.’’     

It has been well documented over the years that Hale’s football career from his days at Monrovia High through Glendale College and USC and the Bills of the NFL has been described somewhere between the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in terms of team results.

Yes he has been on great teams that have failed to win championship games on each of those levels but it is important to look deeper to see that Hale as a player can not be defined by what is won or lost at the end of the game but by being in the game in the first place.

After accepting an offer to run track and field at Nebraska after graduating from Monrovia High with a pair of CIF Championships in the long jump to his credit in 1983 and 1984, legendary Cornhuskers Head Coach Tom Osborne said there would not be an opportunity for Hale to play football for Nebraska after a tremendous spring working out with the football team.

That disappointment led Hale back home and to Glendale College in 1986, where he earned All-American honors with six interceptions and 64 tackles for the 10-1 Western State Champion Vaqueros. Despite standing 5-feet-7 and weighing just 165 pounds, Hale was recruited by some of the top colleges in the nation but former Glendale Head Coach and defensive coordinator John Cicuto said it was a combination of things that made Hale one of the greatest Vaqueros ever.

“Chris Hale played with a great deal of heart and he was a very positive influence on our team as a playmaker and was a guy that players really looked up to,’’ said Cicuto, who is the now the men’s athletic director at Glendale College. “It never surprised me that he was successful at USC and made it to the NFL and played in Super Bowls because he was a quick learner and could adapt to any situation.

“His size was never an issue because he could play with anybody every place he played.’’ 

Glendale College is pleased to be able to induct Chris Hale into the 2011 Athletic Hall of Fame for outstanding athletic achievement.