ODESSA, Texas (KOSA) - On Tuesday, former Permian and University of Texas running back Billy Dale visited the Odessa country club to talk about his book “the history of angels”.
Thirty years ago, Dale wrote a book about the history of angels in western civilization.
His love for history doesn’t stop there.
One of his bigger projects is the website he started to document the history of UT athletics and support former athletes.
In 1965, Billy Dale was a member of the first Permian team to win a state championship.
Greatness followed Dale to the University of Texas where he scored the winning touchdown against Notre Dame in the 1969 national championship game.
After his football days were over, Dale decided to give back, so he founded, the Texas Legacy Support Network, a website dedicated to the history of UT athletics and supporting former athletes.
“It just didn’t seem right to me for someone who spent blood sweat and tears building the Longhorn brand to be left out after they graduated. We have helped 11 different athletes with anywhere between 8,000 and 25,000 dollars,” said Dale.
Outside of football, Dale’s love of history led him to write a book about angels and the history of their imagery in western culture.
He says he spent a lot of time traveling around the country to different national libraries researching for the book.
“I spent the next 2 1/2 , three years researching angels and why they were beautiful winged subjects. It wasn’t easy because there was no google search in 1991 and 1992,” said Dale.
When you ask Dale, if he consider himself a historian his answer will be no.
He calls it a hobby that requires a lot of time and effort.
“I am an amateur historian. Every time somebody tries to say that I’m a professional one I say no no no. I’m strictly an amateur and I enjoy what I’m doing,” said Dale.
Dale says right now he is working on getting the word out about the Texas Legacy Network, so any Longhorn that needs a help can get it.
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