Lawrence Morgan "Larry" Kelley (May 30, 1915 – June 27, 2000) was an American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 player born in Conneaut, Ohio

Conneaut, Ohio

As of the census of 2000, there were 12,485 people, 5,038 households, and 3,410 families residing in the city. The population density was 473.4 people per square mile . There were 5,710 housing units at an average density of 216.5 per square mile...

. He played end, for Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

. While at Yale he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon

Delta Kappa Epsilon

Delta Kappa Epsilon is a fraternity founded at Yale College in 1844 by 15 men of the sophomore class who had not been invited to join the two existing societies...

 fraternity and Skull and Bones

Skull and Bones

Skull and Bones is an undergraduate senior or secret society at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. It is a traditional peer society to Scroll and Key and Wolf's Head, as the three senior class 'landed societies' at Yale....

, and was the second winner of the Heisman Trophy

Heisman Trophy

The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award , is awarded annually to the player deemed the most outstanding player in collegiate football. It was created in 1935 as the Downtown Athletic Club trophy and renamed in 1936 following the death of the Club's athletic director, John Heisman The Heisman Memorial...

 in 1936, the year it was renamed in honor of John Heisman

John Heisman

John William Heisman was an American player and coach of football, basketball, and baseball. He served as the head football coach at Oberlin College , Buchtel College, now known as the University of Akron , Auburn University , Clemson University , Georgia Tech , the...

. His jersey number was 19.

Kelley was an All-America

All-America

An All-America team is an honorary sports team composed of outstanding amateur players—those considered the best players of a specific season for each team position—who in turn are given the honorific "All-America" and typically referred to as "All-American athletes", or simply...

n end and the captain of the Yale football team. Following his career at Yale, he played for the Boston Shamrocks

Boston Shamrocks (AFL)

The Boston Shamrocks were a professional American football team based in Boston, Massachusetts. The team played in the second American Football League from 1936 to 1937, followed by at least one year as an independent in 1938...

 of the American Football League in 1937. He is a member of the National Football Foundation

National Football Foundation

The National Football Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 1947 by General Douglas MacArthur, legendary Army Black Knights football coach Earl "Red" Blaik and journalist Grantland Rice...

 and the College Football Hall of Fame

College Football Hall of Fame

The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. Located in South Bend, Indiana, it is connected to a convention center and situated in the city's renovated downtown district, two miles south of the University of Notre Dame campus. It is slated to move...

. Following his career in football, Kelley was a history teacher and alumni director at the Peddie School

Peddie School

The Peddie School is a college preparatory school in Hightstown, New Jersey, United States. It is a nondenominational, coeducational boarding school located on a 280‑acre campus, and serves students in the ninth through twelfth grades, plus a small post-graduate class...

 in Hightstown

Hightstown, New Jersey

Hightstown is a Borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 5,494.Hightstown was incorporated as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 5, 1853, within portions of East Windsor Township. The borough became...

, New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

, his alma mater.

He taught English at Cheshire Academy

Cheshire Academy

Cheshire Academy is a college preparatory school located in Cheshire, Connecticut. Founded in 1794 as the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut, it was the tenth private academy founded in the United States....

 and spent 12 years in the glove-manufacturing industry.

To benefit his nieces and nephews, Kelley sold his Heisman Trophy at an auction in December 1999 for $328,110 to the owner of The Stadium Museum, Restaurant & Bar in Garrison, New York

Garrison, New York

Garrison is a hamlet in Putnam County, New York, United States. It is part of the town of Philipstown and is on the east side of the Hudson River, across from the United States Military Academy at West Point...

, where it now resides. His health was visibly failing by then after having suffered a minor stroke and having open-heart surgery, and on June 27, 2000, Kelley died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Hightstown, ruled a suicide by the police. He was 85 when he died. He was survived by his fourth wife and 18 nieces and nephews.

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