Tag Archives: Yale
Harold Weekes
Harold Weekes (College football. Born, Oyster Bay, NY, Apr. 2, 1880; died, New York, NY, July 25, 1950.) A 145-pound lightning bolt from Morristown (N.J.) School, Harold Weekes hit the college football scene like a shot in 1899 when Columbia resumed intercollegiate competition after an eight-year absence. One of the major upsets of that season […]
Elmer Ripley
Elmer Ripley (College basketball. Born, Staten Island, NY, July 21, 1891; died, Staten Island, NY, Apr. 29, 1982.) Despite never having played a single college game, Elmer Horton Ripley coached basketball at six colleges for a total of 28 seasons. Ripley coached Wagner, Yale, Columbia, and Army as well as Notre Dame (1945-46) and Georgetown […]
Bob Kiphuth
Bob Kiphuth (Swimming. Born, Tonawanda, NY, Nov. 17, 1890; died, New Haven, CT, Jan. 7, 1967.) For decades the most celebrated and successful swimming coach in the U.S., Robert John Herman Kiphuth was also Yale’s athletic director for three years (1946-49). Kiphuth coached Yale’s swimming teams for 41 years (1918-59), winning a staggering 528 of […]
John Reed Kilpatrick
John Reed Kilpatrick (Executive. Born, New York, NY, June 15, 1889; died, New York, NY, May 7, 1960.) An end who earned All-America honors at Yale in 1909 and 1910, John Reed Kilpatrick was a military officer, a construction executive, a boxing promoter, president of the Rangers for the better part of three decades, and […]
Tad Jones
Tad Jones (College football. Born, Excello, OH, Feb. 27, 1887; died, New Haven, CT, June 19, 1957.) Brother of Howard Jones, the school’s first paid coach, Thomas Albert Dwight Jones became a successful Yale head coach. Jones was graduated by Yale in 1908, becoming head coach at Syracuse (1909-10) for two seasons. He was lured […]
Howard Jones
Howard Jones (College football. Born, Excello, OH, Aug. 23, 1885; died, Toluca Lake, NY, July 27, 1941.) Although he was to earn fame as the long-time coach at Southern California (1925-40), Howard Harding Jones learned both football and coaching at Yale. Jones played for powerhouse Yale teams before his 1908 graduation, coached there in 1909, […]
Larry Kelley
Larry Kelley (College football. Born, Conneaut, OH, May 30, 1915; died, Hightstown, NJ, June 27, 2000.) In the mid-1930s, the fortunes of Yale football were still a major national story and Lawrence Morgan Kelley was a major part of that story. Kelley performed the unusual feat, especially for an end, of scoring in every game […]
Levi Jackson
Levi Jackson (Colege football. Born, New Haven, CT, Aug. 22, 1926; died, Detroit, MI, Dec. 7, 2000.) As the first black man to play football for Yale, Levi A. Jackson was a racial pioneer. A running back (1946-49), Jackson captained the 1949 varsity team and that year scored two touchdowns in the Elis’ 29-6 victory […]
Herman Hickman
Herman Hickman (Football. Born, Johnson City, TN, Oct. 1, 1910; died, Washington, DC, Apr. 25, 1958.) As a hefty and skillful blocking guard, Herman Michael Hickman, Jr., was an unlikely Shakespearean scholar. Yet Hickman, a natural raconteur, often regaled writers and fellow coaches with apt quotes from the Bard of Avon, particularly during his tenure […]
Pudge Heffelfinger
Pudge Heffelfinger (College football. Born, St. Anthony, MN, Dec. 20, 1867; died, Blessing, TX, Apr. 2, 1954.) William W. Heffelfinger was a Yale guard and three-time all-American who assumed almost legendary stature, in part because of his team’s performance from 1889-91. Yale was not only 41-2-0 during those seasons but also outscored its opponents by […]
