Roland Dale (1996) - Southern Miss M-Club Hall of Fame

Roland Dale

Induction:
1996

Roland Dale was one of the architects of the Southern Miss athletic program as both an assistant coach and as athletic director. His accomplishments and achievements are responsible for the success of the school’s athletic program today.
   One cannot tell the Roland Dale story without mentioning his outstanding football career as both a player and a coach at Ole Miss under the legendary John Vaught. The 1947 and 1948 squads on which he played tackle, posted a 17-3 record and the 1947 team captured the Southeastern Conference Championship. Roland captained the 1949 Rebel team. Following his Ole Miss career he played in the Blue-Gray All-Star game and later played defensive end with the Washington Redskins. That career ended with a shoulder injury.
   From there he went into coaching with stops at Jones Junior College and Greenwood High School. In 1953 he became head football coach and athletic director at Gulfport High School and that year his team posted an 8-3 record, and Dale was voted the Big Eight Coach of the Year.
   In 1955 Southern’s Pie Vann recognized Dale’s coaching abilities and hired him to be the school’s line coach. Dale served in this position for two seasons and the school posted a record of 16-3-1 and earned an invitation to the Tangerine Bowl.
   After a couple of years in the heavy equipment business, he returned to coaching at Tulane and then in 1960 returned to his alma mater as an assistant under Coach Vaught, where he remained for 12 seasons, leaving to be head football coach at Southeastern Louisiana. It was from there he returned to Southern in 1974 to become athletic director.
   His arrival as athletic director at Southern Miss began when he was introduced at a press conference on January 29, 1974. A few days later he began his duties.
   One of his accomplishments was the renovation to Roberts Stadium. It was underway when Dale first arrived, but under funded. He helped oversee the project and was instrumental in securing the additional funds needed from the legislature that helped see the project through to completion. The larger facility was a key factor in helping to upgrade the schedule by getting more formidable opponents to come to Hattiesburg.
   It had been well over 20 years since Southern had played in a league when Dale began to engineer us into membership in the Metro Conference. Few people realize those talks actually began shortly after Dale took over in 1974. Many dreamed of a conference and had for many years. Roland Dale was determined to make it happen and happen it did in July of 1982. And who can argue that the success we enjoyed in the Metro was one of the key factors in Southern’s membership in Conference USA. That accomplishment alone should qualify him to our Hall of Fame.
    He was a man with a vision. A vision of an athletic program that could be much greater than it was. A man who took that vision and turned it into reality.