Hal Patterson

NFL player
Color=#c7cad0
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Name="Prince" Hal Patterson


Caption="Prince" Hal Patterson in a Montreal Alouettes uniform (circa 1958)
DateOfBirth=1931
Birthplace=flagicon|United States Garden City, Kansas, U.S.
DateOfDeath=
Deathplace=
Position=Wide receiver
College=University of Kansas
DraftedYear=1954
DraftedRound=14
DraftedPick=165
(By the Philadelphia Eagles)
Career Highlights=Y
CFLAllStar=1962, 1963, 1964
Awards=1956 CFL MOP
Honors=
ProBowls=
years=1954-1960 1961-1967
teams=Montreal Alouettes Hamilton Tiger-Cats
DatabaseFootball=
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CFHOF=24&player=Patterson,%20Harold%20(Prince%20Hal)%20(Hal)
CollegeHOF=

Harold "Prince Hal" Patterson (born 1931) is a former star American college basketball player at the University of Kansas, and a former professional Canadian football player with the Canadian Football League Montreal Alouettes and Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Patterson is a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, and in 2006, was voted one of the CFL's Top 50 players (#13) of the league's modern era by Canadian sports network TSN.cite web | url = http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/feature/?fid=10866 | accessdate = 2007-05-17 | author = | title = TSN Top 50 CFL Players | publisher = TSN.ca | date = 2006-11-28]

Early life and college career

Born in Garden City, Kansas in 1931, Patterson was a football, baseball and basketball star at the University of Kansas. He was the second-leading rebounder for Kansas' 1953 national runner-up team that lost the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship game by a single point to Indiana University. An end with the Jayhawks football team, he also lettered in baseball.

Canadian Football League career

Drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League in the 1954 NFL Draft, Hal Patterson opted to sign with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League in 1954. Known as "Prince" Hal, in 1956, he won the Jeff Russel Memorial Trophy then the Schenley Award as the CFL's Outstanding Player. That same year, Patterson set a record that has yet to be matched when he caught passes for 338 yards in a single game and set the record of 88 catches that stood up for 11 years before Terry Evanshen broke it in 1967.

Patterson was a member of the Alouettes until being part of a controversial trade in 1960 that sent him to the last-place Hamilton Tiger-Cats with fellow Montreal star quarterback Sam Etcheverry. Patterson's impact was immediate, as he helped to lead the Tiger-Cats to the 1961 Grey Cup, where the Ti-Cats lost in overtime to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Hal Patterson still holds the record of 580 yards for Most Pass Receiving Yards in Grey Cup history. Patterson scored 54 touchdowns in his 14-year CFL career and had 34 games with at least 100 yards in pass receptions. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1971. In November, 2006, Patterson was voted one of the CFL's top 50 players (#13) in a poll conducted by Canadian sports network TSN.cite web | url = http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/feature/?fid=10866 | accessdate = 2007-05-17 | author = | title = TSN Top 50 CFL Players | publisher = TSN.ca | date = 2006-11-28]

References