Ramblings Alumni Spotlight

Danny E. Hale '68, M'74
2025 Distinguished Alumni Award Honoree

One of the winningest coaches in Division II history, Danny Hale is the first person from West Chester University and the second
person from Bloomsburg University to enter the College Football Hall of Fame. He won an astounding 75.4% of his games during a 25-year head coaching career that began at West Chester University in 1984 and included a 20-year stint at Bloomsburg. As coach at West Chester, he won three PSAC East titles and advanced to the NCAA playoffs in 1988.

Hale earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in health and physical education at West Chester in 1968 and 1974. He was an All-
Conference pick and earned the team’s most valuable player in the 1967 state championship game. In 1968, Hale signed with the Pottstown Firebirds, the semi-professional farm club of the Philadelphia Eagles, before entering the Marine Corps, where he played middle linebacker for the Quantico Marines.

Overall, he was named the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) District I Coach of the Year nine times. He was named the PSAC Eastern Division Coach of the Year ten times; a finalist for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award in 2006; and was featured on ABC in a special hosted by the late Keith Jackson. Hale coached six First Team All-Americans, 96 First Team All-Conference players, and coached Jahri Evans and Matt Feiler, who each played in the NFL for more than a decade.

He is a member of three Halls of Fame: the West Chester Football, Delaware County Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports, and Bloomsburg University Athletics.

Hale, who earned an honorary degree from Bloomsburg in 2001, went into the motel business after retiring from coaching. He and his wife Diane are the parents of four children: Roman, Brandie, Tyson, and Christina. The couple has 19 grandchildren and four greatgrandchildren.