Hale Irwin -- CU Athletic Hall of Fame

Hale Irwin
Golf, Football
  • 1967 NCAA golf champion
  • Two-time Big Eight Conference golf champion
  • Two-time All-Big Eight cornerback
  • All-Century Football Team Member

Hale Irwin had the rarest two-sport combinations in college athletics, as he earned a combined six letters in football and golf.  After playing quarterback as a sophomore, he became a two-time first-team all-Big Eight selection at cornerback in 1965 and 1966, making nine interceptions.  He was a two-time Academic All-Big Eight team member, and in 1989, he was selected to CU’s 25-member All-Century Football Team for CU’s first 100 years of football.  But he made his mark in the game of golf, .first at Colorado, and then professionally.  The two-time Big Eight Conference champion (1966, 1967) still holds CU’s single-season mark for stroke average, 71.86, as a junior.  He capped his collegiate career by claiming medalist honors at the 1967 NCAA Championships.  As a professional, he had 20 PGA Tour wins, including three U.S. Open titles (1974, 1979, 1990).  He has since become the all-time leading money winner on the Senior PGA Tour, thanks to a Senior Tour record 35 wins.  His son Steve followed in his footsteps, also lettering on the Buffalo golf team in the mid-1990s.  Hale is a member of both the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame and the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame, as well as an inaugural member of the CU Golf Hall of Fame. 

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