[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 161 (Wednesday, October 18, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15288-S15289]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           HAL SELF SELECTED FOR ALABAMA SPORTS HALL OF FAME

  Mr. HEFLIN. Mr. President, I rise today to congratulate Hal Self, who 
was recently selected as one of the 6 new inductees into the Alabama 
Sports Hall of Fame for 1996. He was an outstanding football player at 
the University of Alabama and later revived the football program at 
Florence State College, now the University of North Alabama. Due to his 
leadership and dedication, football at North Alabama has emerged as one 
of the very best small college programs in the entire nation, having 
claimed the national championship in 1993 and 1994.
  Sports has always run through the veins of Hal Self. He was a 
standout in football, basketball, and baseball at Decatur High School 
before entering the University of Alabama in 1941. He quarterbacked the 
Crimson Tide teams in 1941, 1942, 1944, and 1945, leading his troops to 
all four of the major post-season bowls at that time--Cotton, Orange, 
Sugar, and Rose.
  He went into coaching after college, serving for 2 years at Athens 
High, where he went 15-5. In 1949, he began restoring the football 
program at Florence State and coached there for 21 years, compiling a 
110-81-8 record, often playing against much larger schools with older 
and more established programs.
  In 1969, he gave up coaching for the athletic director's post, 
serving there for 2 years. He stayed on as a full professor in the 
University of North Alabama physical education department until he 
retired in 1984.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of a recent article on Hal Self 
appearing in the Huntsville Times be printed in the Record after my 
remarks.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                     Hal Self Gets Top Sports Honor

                            (By John Pruett)

       Hal Self, who grew up in Decatur, went on to football fame 
     at the University of Alabama and later resurrected the 
     football program at Florence State College, has been selected 
     as one of the six new members of the 1996 class of the 
     Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.
       Self joins a six-man group that includes former Auburn 
     football star Bo Jackson, the 1995 Heisman Trophy winner; 
     former Alabama, basketball player Leon Douglas; former Auburn 
     Olympian Harvey Glance, now Auburn's head track coach; former 
     Alabama High School Athletic Association executive director 
     Herman ``Bubba'' Scott; and Jacksonville State's former one-
     armed football star, Jodie Connell.
       Self and the others will be inducted into the ASHOF on 
     Saturday, Feb. 24, at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center.
       ``This, in my opinion, is the ultimate honor for anyone who 
     was ever involved in sports in the state of Alabama,'' Self 
     told The Huntsville Times over the weekend from his home in 
     Florence, where he lives in retirement. ``I'm deeply honored 
     and humbled by the whole thing. What it does is put you up 
     there with the best.''
       Self grew up as a football, basketball and baseball star at 
     Decatur High School, where he played for legendary coach 
     Shorty Ogle. He was the quarterback in Ogle's Notre Dame Box, 
     the same offense that Self found when he went to Alabama on a 
     football scholarship in 1941.
       Self had several other scholarship offers and almost went 
     to Howard College, but was persuaded to attend Alabama by 
     Crimson Tide assistant coach Paul Burnham.
       ``Alabama had a whale of a football team when I got down 
     there,'' Self said. ``The morale was great and Coach Frank 
     Thomas was 

[[Page S 15289]]
     in his prime. We had some terrific players, guys like Holt Rast at end 
     and Taterhead Nelson at tailback, both All-Americans.''
       Self played on the freshman team in 1941 and was redshirted 
     the following season. Alabama did not have a football team in 
     1943 because of World War II, but Self was a starter in 1944 
     and became one of the top players in the Southeastern 
     Conference in 1945, when he won the coveted Jacobs Blocking 
     Trophy.
       He played in Alabama's 29-26 loss to Duke in the Jan. 1, 
     1945 Sugar Bowl and scored two touchdowns in the Tide's last 
     Rose Bowl appearance, a 34-14 romp over Southern California 
     in 1946. Self scored two touchdowns against the Trojans in 
     the final college game.
       ``Those were two games to remember,'' Self said, 
     ``Grantland Rice called the Duke game `the greatest bowl game 
     ever played.' The Rose Bowl was of those special memories. 
     Nobody gave us a chance, but it was never a game, really. 
     Harry Gilmer just went to work and they couldn't handle him. 
     We finally cleared the bench. Late in the game, Coach Thomas 
     turned to Nick Terlizzi, who had a cast on his leg, and said, 
     `Nick, you want to tell your kids some day that you played in 
     the Rose Bowl?' Nick said sure, and he went limping into the 
     game, wearing that cast.''
       At 24, Self was hired as head coach at Athens High School, 
     where he compiled a 15-5 record. Two years later, Florence 
     State president Ed Norton hired Self to take over the long-
     dormant athletic program at what would later become the 
     University of North Alabama. For the next 21 years, Self and 
     his lone assistant, George ``Bull'' Weeks, built a first-rate 
     small college football program with limited scholarship 
     funds. The Lions were 110-81-8 during the Self regime, which 
     ended in 1969 when he stepped down to become the school's 
     athletic director.
       Self moved into the UNA physical education department two 
     years later and stayed on as a full professor until his 
     retirement in 1984.
       ``The thing I treasure most about my years at Florence is 
     that in 21 years, we never had a player who participated for 
     four years that didn't get a degree to go with it,'' Self 
     said. ``That, and the fact that we had more than 100 of our 
     boys who went on to become coaches.''

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