Washington State University Athletics

Known as “The Whale,” Dale Ford is one of Washington State’s greatest all-around athletes, but baseball was where he excelled.  He won eight varsity letters in three sports during an era when freshmen could not play varsity sports. Ford was a quarterback for two years, won three basketball letters, and was an NCAA record-setting home run hitter in baseball for three years. In 1966 he set an NCAA mark with 17 home runs, a WSU record in the wood bat era. His 121 total bases and .858 slugging mark that season each set a Cougar standard. He is the school record holder in the wood bat era for career batting average (.365), hits (147), home run (27), RBI (110), total bases (270) and slugging percentage (.670).