Ki Aldrich

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Ki Aldrich
Date of birth	June 1, 1916
Place of birth	Rogers, TX
Date of death	March 12, 1983 (age 66)
Place of death	Coffeyville, KS
Position(s)	Center
College	TCU
NFL Draft	1939 / Round 1/ Pick 1
Honors	College Football HOF
Statistics	DatabaseFootball
Team(s)
1939-1940 1941-1942 1945-1947	Chicago Cardinals Washington Redskins Washington Redskins
College Hall of Fame

Charles Collins "Ki" Aldrich (June 1, 1916 - March 12, 1983) was an American football player. He was born in Rogers, Texas and attended high school in Temple, Texas. He was an All-American center at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. At TCU, he played alongside two legendary quarterbacks- Sammy Baugh and Davey O'Brien. Aldrich's senior year, 1938, the Horned Frogs won the National Championship, finishing 11-0 and winning the Sugar Bowl.

The Chicago Cardinals made Aldrich the first selection in the 1939 NFL Draft, in which his TCU teammates O'Brien and I.B. Hale also were selected in the top ten. He played two seasons for the Cardinals before moving to the Washington Redskins. After two seasons in Washington, he left to serve in the Navy during World War II. He returned to the Redskins in 1945, and retired in 1947.

After retiring from football, Aldirch served as the superintendent at the Lena Pope Orphanage in Rogers. He died March 12, 1983 in Coffeyville, Kansas.

His coach at TCU, Dutch Meyer, said of Aldrich: "That boy wanted to play football more than anyone I ever knew." Baugh called him "the toughest player I ever knew." Aldrich was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1960 and was named to the Southwest Conference's All-Time Team in 1969.