The 2022-2023 Hall of Fame class included representatives from Sunset High School, South Oak Cliff High School, Adamson High School and Kimball High School.
Alumni of Kimball and Sunset High Schools and a former coach from South Oak Cliff High School will be named to the Dallas ISD Athletic Hall of Fame this spring.
Bettye Mims-Danoff of Sunset High School, Don E. King Jr. of Kimball High School and Jimmy Gales of South Oak Cliff High School are among the nine honorees in the Hall of Fame’s 2023-2024 class. The award recognizes individuals “who have made a fundamental impact on sports in the district and beyond.” Mims-Danoff and Gales will both be honored posthumously. The athletes died in 2011 and 2020, respectively.
Each of the nominees will be inducted into the Hall of Fame during an April 12 ceremony at the W Hotel.
Mims-Danoff was a 1940 graduate of Sunset High School, and the school’s first female golfer. Known as “Mighty Mite,” she won four consecutive Dallas Women’s Golf Association Championships in the years after high school, and claimed back-to-back Texas Women’s Amateur Championship titles in 1947 and 1948. One of 13 founding members of the Ladies Professional Golf Association, Mims-Danhoff will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame this summer.
A 1982 graduate of Kimball High School, King will be recognized for his impressive football career on the high school, collegiate and professional levels. King played quarterback for the Knights, earning a scholarship to Southern Methodist University where he was a two-year starter and four-year letterman. While King went undrafted in the 1986 NFL Draft, he went on to play with the Kansas City Chiefs and Green Bay Packers. After his NFL career, King taught physical and special education and coached in Dallas ISD and Waxahachie ISD.
Gales is being recognized for his achievements as a twice-serving basketball coach at South Oak Cliff High School. Coaching the team from 1972-1975 and again from 1983-1986, Gales achieved an 88% win rate (193-26). He also reached the state final once, with the 1973-1974 team. After his time as a Golden Bear, Gales moved up to the University of North Texas where he served as assistant coach and head coach of the men’s basketball team over the course of seven seasons. Gales finished his career in public education, serving as assistant principal of Madison High School for 11 years.
The Dallas ISD Athletic Hall of Fame awards were started in 2017.
In the 2022-2023 class, four athletes with Oak Cliff ties were honored.
