Bill Wallace
Rice Owls – No. 44
PositionHalfback
Class1936
Personal information
Born:(1912-07-21)July 21, 1912
El Campo, Texas, U.S.
Died:May 17, 1993(1993-05-17) (aged 80)
Houston, Texas, U.S.
Height6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight185 lb (84 kg)
Career history
College
  • Rice (1932, 1934–1935)
High schoolEagle Lake (TX)
Career highlights and awards

Bill Wallace (July 21, 1912 – May 17, 1993) was an American football halfback at Rice Institute in 1932, 1934, and 1935. He was a first-team All-American in 1934 and has been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, and the Rice Athletics Hall of Fame.

Early years

Wallace was born in 1912 in El Campo, Texas. He attended Eagle Lake High School in Eagle Lake, Texas.[1] He competed in both track and football at Eagle Lake and was later inducted into the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame.[2]

Rice Institute

Wallace then enrolled at Rice Institute (now Rice University) where he competed in football as a halfback and in track as a sprinter and hurdler. He won the Southwest Conference championship in the 222-yard low hurdles and lost the event at the nationals to Jesse Owens and Glenn Hardin.[3]

In football, Wallace played on both offense and defense. As a sophomore, Wallace starred at halfback for the 1932 Rice Owls football team. In February 1933, he was suspended along with seven other Rice football players on charges of violating school rules in connection with midyear examinations.[4]

Wallace missed the 1933 season due to the suspension but returned in 1934 and led the 1934 Rice Owls football team to a 9–1–1 record and the school's first Southwest Conference football championship.[3] He was selected as a first-team halfback by the Assocaited Press and Grantland Rice for Collier's Weekly on the 1934 All-America college football team.[5][6] He was the first back from a Texas school to receive first-team honors on a Collier's All-American.[7]

As a senior, Wallace helped Rice to an 8–3 record, but his performance was not at the same level he reached in 1934. He thumbed his nose at opposing players from George Washington, leading one Texas columnist to question whether success had made Wallace "chesty".[8] At the end of the season, he received first-team honors from the AP on the 1935 All-Southwest Conference football team.[9]

Later years

Wallace was selected in the fourth round (28th overall pick) of the 1936 NFL Draft,[10] but he did not play in the NFL.

Wallace left Rice in April 1936 to accept a job with an oil company in Shreveport, Louisiana.[11] He returned to Rice as an assistant football from 1937 to 1944.[12] He later went into business and lived in Gainesville, Georgia.[13]

Wallace was inducted in 1978 into the Rice Athletic Hall of Fame and in 1978 into both the College Football Hall of Fame and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.[1][13][14] He died in 1993 at age 80.[12]

References

  1. 1 2 "Bill Wallace". National Football Foundation. Retrieved August 21, 2023.
  2. ↑ "Texas High School Football Hall of Fame Inductees: Bill Wallace". texasfootball.com. Dave Campbell. Retrieved August 21, 2023.
  3. 1 2 "Bill Wallace (1934)". Rice University. Retrieved August 22, 2023.
  4. ↑ "Eight Rice Football stars Are Suspended Indefinitely". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. February 10, 1938. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ "Rice Star Says He Only Got the Breaks, Reason". Tyler Courier-Times-Telegraph. December 2, 1934. p. II-3 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ "Bill Wallace Placed On All-America team Of Collier's Weekly". The Corpus Christi Times. December 14, 1934. p. 12 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ "Bill Wallace First Texas Back to Crash Rice's All-America". The Waco News-Tribune. December 14, 1934. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ "Bill Wallace Chesty or Not? That Is the Question". The Austin Statesman. November 7, 1935. p. 9 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ "All-Southwest Conference Grid Team Or All-America -- What's Difference?". Lubbock Morning Avalanche. December 3, 1935. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  10. ↑ "1936 NFL Draft Listing". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved 2023-03-20.
  11. ↑ "Bill Wallace Quits School to Take Job". The Corsicana Daily Sun. April 22, 1936. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. 1 2 "Football". Corpus Christi Caller-Times. May 20, 1993. p. C2 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. 1 2 "Rice Athletic Hall of Fame: First Annual Presentation of Awards" (PDF). Rice University. Retrieved August 21, 2023.
  14. ↑ "Bill Wallace". Texas Sports Hall of Fame. Retrieved August 21, 2023.
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