Kenneth Hall (American football)

Charles Kenneth Hall (born December 13, 1935) nicknamed Sugar Land Express is a retired American football player whose greatest accomplishments were as a high school athlete. Playing for the Sugar Land High School Gators (Sugar Land, Texas) from 1950 to 1953, Hall established 17 national football records, several of which still stand over 50 years later.

High school
Hall's career prep rushing record of 11,232 yards (1950: 569 yd; 1951: 3,160 yd; 1952: 3,458 yd; 1953: 4,045 yd) stood until Nov. 16, 2012, while his 32.9 points per game (1953/12) is still a national record. His record of 38 one hundred-yard games was tied by Steve Worster in 1966, but wasn't broken until the mid-1980s by Emmitt Smith, which was recently broken by Rushel Shell of Hopewell High School in Pennsylvania. Hall also finished his career with 14,558 yards of total offense (11,232 rushing/3,326 passing), a record that would last until being broken by Nitro (West Virginia) High School's future Major League Baseball player J. R. House in 1998.

At Sugar Land, Hall played in the single-wing formation at quarterback, standing 6ft 1in and weighing in at 190 lb. According to the National High School Sports Record Book, Hall still holds multiple single-season records, including average points per game (32.9), touchdowns per game (4.8) and rushing yards per game (337.1).

In a contest against Houston Lutheran High School in 1953, Hall averaged 47.3 yards on 11 carries for 520 yards (the state record for nearly 25 years, currently 4th), returned a punt 82 yards, a kickoff run of 64 yards and snatched a 21 yard interception for a combined 687 total yards.



College
Hall was recruited by a number of schools, and chose to attend Texas A&M under  college coach Paul "Bear" Bryant. He quit before the Aggies went to infamous Junction, TX, training camp and got married.

Professional career
Hall played in the Canadian Football League and for various National Football League teams between 1957 and 1961.

Retirement
In 1983, Hall was enshrined in the National High School Hall of Fame. Hall also belongs to the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. Hall was honored, by All American Games, in 1999 with the creation of the Kenneth Hall Trophy. Serving as the nation's highest high school football honor, the Kenneth Hall Trophy (molded in Hall's likeness) is presented annually to the most outstanding football player in the nation. Some past winners include Chris Leak, Adrian Peterson, Mitch Mustain, and Terrelle Pryor. During the 1980s, Hall was sales manager for a large wholesale sugar distributor in Southern California.

Records
Fifty-five years later, Hall still holds the following Texas State records:


 * Single-season rushing yards (4,045/1953; this was accomplished in 12 games, and Hall remains the only Texas running back to rush for over 4,000 yards in one year)
 * Rushing per game (337.1 yards/1953/12)
 * Points per game (32.9/1953/12)
 * Career rushing - (11,232 yards/1950-53)