Daniel “Dan” Hale was the starting center on the 1979 state championship basketball team that also included a reserve senior shooting guard named Barack Obama.
The 1979 squad was the first of three-straight state title-winning teams on which Hale played. In each of those years he was named to the All-ILH and All-State first teams, collecting ILH Player of the Year honors as a senior. He gained national recognition and was named to the McDonald’s Top 100, as well as the Converse and Street & Smith All-America teams.
Hale also excelled in the pool, earning a spot on the USA Junior Olympic water polo team in 1980 and 1981, and in track and field – taking first place in high jump at the 1981 ILH Relays, where he set a school and meet record at the time in the high jump.
The winner of four varsity letters each in basketball, water polo and track, Hale was the 1981 C. Dudley Pratt Award winner as the School’s male athlete of the year.