Hall was the founding director of the One O'Clock Lab Band,[2] and responsible for the first university curriculum for the study of Jazz (called "Dance Music" at the time) in the United States.
Unable to pay the $32 for tuition, he made up the deficit by painting the interior of the university President's House.
[4] When he initially enrolled at UNT, he was part of band that failed to find new work in Denton, and later disbanded, leaving Hall to later join another college band at the University of Texas, that got stuck in Spain after being unable to afford airline tickets back home.
After starting the band program in 1947, Hall struggled to get the band off the ground because of a lack of music to perform; stating in an interview for the University of North Texas Music Library: "When this program started in 1947, we had eight special arrangements, and sixty stock arrangements... 'bet you can imagine how that sounded.
[4] He later served as the first president of the National Association of Jazz Educators, and was inducted into their hall of fame in 1981.