Gene Goodreault
.png) | |
| Boston College Eagles – No. 50 | |
|---|---|
| Position | End |
| Class | Graduate |
| Personal information | |
| Born: | July 31, 1918 Haverhill, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died: | July 13, 2010 (aged 91) Orinda, California, U.S. |
| Height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) |
| Weight | 184 lb (83 kg) |
| Career history | |
| College |
|
| Bowl games | |
| High school | Haverhill (Haverhill, MA) |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
| College Football Hall of Fame (1982) | |
Eugene Joseph Goodreault[1] (July 31, 1918 – July 13, 2010) was an American football player. He played at the end position for Boston College from 1938 to 1940 and was selected as a consensus first-team All-American in 1940. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1982.
Early years
[edit]Born in 1918, Goodreault attended Haverhill High School in Massachusetts where he was known as "Goo-Goo" Goodreault and was a member of the football, baseball and track teams.[2]
Boston College
[edit]Goodreault enrolled at Boston College in 1937. The school's publicity director, Billy Sullivan (later owner of the New England Patriots) befriended Goodreault and helped him to obtain therapy to overcome a speech impediment.[3]
As a member of Boston College's football team, Goodreault was five feet, ten inches tall and weighed 180 pounds.[4] His profile at the College Football Hall of Fame described him as follows: "Fast, powerful and alert, Gene Goodreault was outstanding as a pass-catcher and play-maker blocker on offense and as a play-blaster, destructive tackler on defense."[4] In 1939, Goodreault's junior year, Frank Leahy was hired as the head of the Boston College Eagles football team. Goodreault helped lead the Eagles to a 9-2 record and the school's first bowl game, and appearance in the 1940 Cotton Bowl. At the end of the 1939 season, Goodreault received All-East honors and was also the first recipient of the George H. "Bulger" Lowe Trophy in 1940 as the outstanding football player in New England.[5]
As a senior, Goodreault was a member of the 1940 Boston College team that compiled an undefeated record of 11-0, outscored opponents 320–52, recorded six shutouts, and defeated No. 4 Tennessee in the 1941 Sugar Bowl. After the season, Goodreault was selected as a consensus player on the 1940 College Football All-America Team.[6] He received first-team honors from, among others, the United Press,[7] the International News Service,[8] the Central Press Association,[9] and Collier's Weekly (selected by Grantland Rice).[10]
Later years
[edit]Goodreault was selected in the second round (15th overall pick) in the 1941 NFL draft,[11][12] but he did not play in the NFL. He served in the United States Navy during World War II and operated a wool brokerage business in Massachusetts after the war. He lived in Haverhill until 2004.[13]
Goodreault was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1982.[4] He was also honored by Boston College as one of the inaugural inductees into its Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 1970.[3] In 2001, Boston College retired his #50 jersey in a halftime ceremony at Alumni Stadium.[13]
Goodreault moved to California in 2004. He died from cancer in 2010 at age 91 in Orinda, California.[13]
References
[edit]- ^ Full name from Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Birth Index, 1901-1960 and 1967-1970 [database on-line]. Eugene Joseph Goodreault born 1918 at Haverhill, Mass.
- ^ 1937 Haverhill High School yearbook ("The Thinker"), page 45.
- ^ a b "Former Football Star Gene Goodreault Dies: Goodreault was a consensus All-America end for Coach Frank Leahy's Eagles in the 1940 season". Boston College. July 15, 2010. Archived from the original on January 19, 2012. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
- ^ a b c "Gene Goodreault". College Football Hall of Fame. Football Foundation. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
- ^ "Lowe Trophy To Gene Goodreault". Boston College Heights. December 8, 1939. p. 1.
- ^ "2014 NCAA Football Records: Consensus All-America Selections" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). 2014. pp. 5–6. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 6, 2014. Retrieved August 16, 2014.
- ^ Harry Ferguson (December 4, 1940). "Albert Named on United Press All-America 11". Lodi News-Sentinel.
- ^ "Michigan, Minnesota Dominate All-America". St. Petersburg Times. December 3, 1940.
- ^ Walter L. Johns (December 10, 1940). "Captains Pick All-America for Central Press; Reinhard on List". Berkeley Daily Gazette.
- ^ "Goodreault Makes Colliers Eleven". Lewiston Evening Journal. December 6, 1940. p. 16.
- ^ "1941 NFL Draft Listing". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- ^ "1941 NFL Player Draft". Database Football. Archived from the original on March 27, 2008. Retrieved July 5, 2008.
- ^ a b c Zach Wielgus (July 15, 2010). "Boston College Football Legend Gene Goodreault Dies". NESN. Retrieved September 4, 2014.