Forrey Hall, an Oil City St. Joe graduate, at one time held the NCAA record for kickoff returns average, 38.2 yards for San Francisco (Bill Russell's school) in 1946. Hall held the record until 1952 when Larry Spencer of Wake Forest averaged 42.2 yards per return.

Hall still ranks 12th all-time, although the NCAA stats now only goes back to 1976.

The NCAA began keeping this statistic in 1939 when Iowa's Nile Kinnck led the nation with a 25.1 average.

Hall, a 5-8, 155-pounder (later he had shrunk to 5-6, 135), was a third-team All-American in 1946, but another collegiate highlight came in 1942 when he was playing for Duquesne.

His  60-yard TD was the only score as the Dukes upset Villanova, 6-0.

Hall played both football and basketball at Duquesne for two years before joining the Air Force. He played for the unbeaten Fourth Army Air Force team and represented that squad in the 1945 East-West Shrine game.

Hall was picked in the ninth round of the 1945 NFL draft by the Philadelphia Eagles, but instead enrolled at San Francisco under the GI bill. 

Some of his more memorable moments for the Dons:

• 99-yard kickoff return and a drop kick XP vs. Stanford,

• played seven minutes vs. Kansas State and had five touches ( 81, 71, 14, 5, 31 yards), four going for TDs.

• totaled 54 carries for 445 yards, an 8.2 average.

Hall also played some baseball for the Dons and hit .467 in seven games. 

He joined the 49ers in 1948, and played one year for them, accumulating 966 all-purpose yards (66/413 rushing, 4/87 receiving), 13/369 KOs, 3/97 punt returns).

He was retroactively named All-Pro by a Pro Football Research Association. NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle referred to Hall as his personal favorite 49er in a foreward to a book about the team in 1986.

The two-handcaip golfer was born in Oil  City in 1921, and was legendary on the gridiron and basketball court for St. Joe. There is a plaque commemorating his career at the entrance to the Coach Pat Patterson Complex -- aka Oil Field. Hall died in 2001 in Phoenix at the age of 79.

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