Dale Laverne Gentry (July 2, 1917 – June 27, 1968) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

end End, END, Ending, or variation, may refer to: End *In mathematics: ** End (category theory) ** End (topology) **End (graph theory) ** End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous) **End (endomorphism) *In sports and games **End (gridiron footbal ...

. Born in

Umapine, Oregon Umapine (/uməpaɪn/) is a census-designated place and Unincorporated area, unincorporated community in Umatilla County, Oregon, Umatilla County, Oregon, United States, two miles from the Oregon-Washington (U.S. state), Washington border. The t ...

, Gentry graduated from

Walla Walla High School Walla Walla High School (commonly Wa-Hi) is a public high school in Walla Walla, Washington that is a part of the Walla Walla School District. The school colors are blue and white and the mascot is the Blue Devils. Notable alumni *Drew Bledsoe, N ...

Walla Walla, Washington Walla Walla is a city in Walla Walla County, Washington, where it is the largest city and county seat. It had a population of 34,060 at the 2020 census, estimated to have decreased to 33,927 as of 2021. The population of the city and its two su ...

. He played college football at

Washington State College Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant univer ...

in Pullman under head coach

Babe Hollingbery Orin Ercel "Babe" Hollingbery (July 15, 1893 – January 12, 1974) was an American football coach. He served as the head football coach at the State College of Washington—now known as Washington State University—for 17 seasons, from 1926 to 1 ...

, and was selected by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

as a first-team end on the All-Pacific Coast team in

1941 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January–August – 10,072 men, women and children with mental and physical disabilities are asphyxiated with carbon monoxide in a gas chamber, at Hadamar Eu ...

. Gentry also played

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

for the

Cougars The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. I ...

. He served in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and played on the

Saint Mary's Pre-Flight Air Devils football This List of World War II military service football teams includes all those top-level American football teams consisting of active duty military personnel of the United States Armed Forces that played against College football, collegiate or Nation ...

team. Gentry played professional football in the

All-America Football Conference The All-America Football Conference (AAFC) was a professional American football league that challenged the established National Football League (NFL) from 1946 to 1949. One of the NFL's most formidable challengers, the AAFC attracted many of the ...

for the

Los Angeles Dons The Los Angeles Dons were an American football team in the newly formed football league the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) from 1946 to 1949, and played their home games in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Dons were the first profes ...

from 1946 to 1948. He appeared in 42 games, 27 as a starter, and caught 74 passes for 1,001 yards and five touchdowns. He also played professional basketball with the Spokane Blazers of the Pacific Coast Basketball League. Gentry was an assistant at his alma mater under head coach

Al Kircher Alton S. Kircher (December 5, 1909 – November 1, 2004) was an American football, basketball, and baseball player and coach. Early years Born in Turtle Lake, Wisconsin, Kircher grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in Gladstone. He was a s ...

in the

1950s The 1950s (pronounced nineteen-fifties; commonly abbreviated as the "Fifties" or the " '50s") (among other variants) was a decade that began on January 1, 1950, and ended on December 31, 1959. Throughout the decade, the world continued its re ...

, and later the athletic director at the state penitentiary in Walla Walla. Gentry died at age 50 in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, from a heart attack, one day after his teenage son was killed in an automobile accident.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gentry, Dale 1917 births 1968 deaths American football ends Los Angeles Dons players Saint Mary's Pre-Flight Air Devils football players Washington State Cougars football players Washington State Cougars baseball players Washington State Cougars men's basketball players United States Navy officers United States Navy personnel of World War II Players of American football from Oregon Players of American football from Washington (state) People from Umatilla County, Oregon Sportspeople from Walla Walla, Washington Military personnel from Oregon Walla Walla High School alumni