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Ben "Sport" Donnelly

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Not to be confused with Ben Donnelly.

Ben "Sport" Donnelly
Born:(1869-10-18)October 18, 1869
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died:August 3, 1922(1922-08-03) (aged 52)
New York City, U.S.
Career information
Position(s)End
CollegePrinceton
Career history
As coach
1891–1892Purdue (assistant)
1893Iowa
1893Allegheny Athletic Association
1893Cleveland Athletic Club
1895Illinois (assistant)
1895Seattle Athletic Club
1896Racine Athletic Association
As player
1890–1891University Club of Chicago
1891Manhattan Athletic Club
1892–1893Chicago Athletic Association
1892–1894Allegheny Athletic Association
1893Cleveland Athletic Club
1895Seattle Athletic Club
1896Chicago Athletic Association
1896Allegheny Athletic Association
Career highlights and awards
  • First-ever professional football coach
  • Second-ever professional football player
  • College head coaching record: 3–4

Benjamin Shenstone "Sport" Donnelly (also Donnelley; October 18, 1869 – August 3, 1922) was an American football player and coach. He was the second-ever known professional football player, after Pudge Heffelfinger. He was paid $250 for one game on November 19, 1892 by the Allegheny Athletic Association, for a game against the Washington & Jefferson Presidents football team. The November 19 date was exactly seven days after the team paid Heffelfinger $500 for a game. In 1893, Donnelly was hired by the Allegheny Athletic Association as player-coach, making him the first man to ever coach a known pro team.[1] Heffelfinger once said that Donnelly was the only man that he had played against who "could slug you and at the same time keep his eyes on the ball".[2] Donnelly also served as the second head football coach at the University of Iowa near the beginning of its 1893 season; the team finished with a record of 3–4.

College football playing career

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Donnelly began his college football career at Princeton University. While at Princeton, Donnelly was a star end on the Princeton Tigers football team.[3]

Club football career

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Aside from playing with Allegheny in 1892, Donnelly also played with the Chicago Athletic Association that same year. He also played for the Manhattan Athletic Club in 1891. There were allegations that he was guilty of unsportsmanlike conduct on a field. One of his stunts was to purposely punch an opponent, then go to the referee and say, "Watch this guy. He's been slugging me all day." Once that player retaliated on the next play, under the watchful eye of the ref, he would then be thrown out of the game. In a Chicago game against the New York Crescents, the Crescents refused to take field unless Donnelly was barred from the Chicago lineup because of some alleged rough tactics he used while playing for Manhattan the year before. Chicago benched Donnelly, and his absence resulted in a tie. Donnelly then became enraged and refused to rejoin the team in Chicago. Pudge Heffelfinger, who was also playing for Chicago, joined Donnelly in the walk-out. After this game he was once again recruited by Allegheny, to play for them.[4] A few weeks later, Donnelly and Heffelfinger were professional players with the team. Donnelly played with Allegheny in 1892, 1893 and 1894.[3]

Donnelly flitted between teams frequently. Just in the 1893 season, he played for the Chicago Athletic Association in August and September,[5][6][7] finished his momentary coaching stint with Iowa by the second week of October,[8] played again with Chicago on October 14,[9] joined the Allegheny Athletic Association as player-coach in time for its second game on October 21,[10] and after that team's season was over, coached and played two games for the Cleveland Athletic Club.[11][12][13]

In 1895, he was player-coach for the Seattle Athletic Club. He drew a formal protest from the Port Townsend team, which contended that Donnelly, as a paid coach, should have been prohibited from playing amateur football.[14]

In October 1896, Donnelly was splitting his time between coaching for the Racine Athletic Association of Wisconsin and playing for the Chicago AA.[15] At some point during the same season, Allegheny asked him if he and any of the Chicago players might be interested in playing for money. The Alleghenys were then told that more than half of the Chicago players would be willing to come to Pittsburgh as soon as their team finished its traditional eastern tour. Donnelly himself took part in the second of the two games played by that season's Allegheny team, which has been called the first completely professional football team.[16]

College coaching career

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In 1891, he was made an assistant coach at Purdue University by his friend Knowlton Ames. Under Ames and Donnelly, Purdue would go 12–0 over the next two seasons. In 1891 while posting a 4–0 record, the team outscored its opponents 192–0. Then again in 1892, while posting an 8–0 record, the team outscored its opponents 320–24. Ames and Donnelly left the school in 1892.[17]

Donnelly was also the second ever football coach at the University of Iowa. He was hired for two weeks prior to the 1893 season. Unlike his predecessor, Donnelly was generally disliked by the Hawkeye players.

In 1895 before heading west to join the Seattle Athletic Club, he briefly assisted George Huff in coaching the University of Illinois team.[18][19]

Life outside football

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Donnelly was a son of Richard Robert Donnelley, who founded the R.R. Donnelley & Sons printing and publishing company. Older brothers Reuben H. Donnelley (founder of the R. H. Donnelley Company) and Thomas E. Donnelley were also prominent in the printing and publishing industry.

An expert trap shooter, Donnelly was a reserve member of the victorious American trap team in the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp.[20][21]

He was a friend of rail and coal heir Harry Kendall Thaw, who fatally shot the architect Stanford White.[22] Donnelly was played in a bit part by Ainslie Pryor in a fictionalized 1955 movie about the events, The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing.[23]

Donnelly died in Manhattan, on August 3, 1922.[24][20]

Head coaching record

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College

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Year Team Overall Conference Standing Bowl/playoffs
Iowa Hawkeyes (Western Interstate University Football Association) (1893)
1893 Iowa 3–4 1–2 T–3rd
Iowa: 3–4 1–2
Total: 3–4

References

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  1. ^ "Pro Football hall of Fame: History of Pro Football". Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  2. ^ Bernstein, Mark F. (2001). Football: The Ivy League Origins of an American Obsession. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-19-511913-4.
  3. ^ a b PFRA Research. "The Weekly Wage" (PDF). Coffin Corner. Professional Football Researchers Association: 1–4. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 26, 2010.
  4. ^ PFRA Research. "Five Hundred Reasons" (PDF). Coffin Corner. Professional Football Researchers Association: 1–6. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 29, 2010.
  5. ^ "Football by Night". The Chicago Sunday Tribune. August 27, 1893. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Chicago Easily Beats New York". The Chicago Daily Tribune. September 19, 1893. p. 7 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Amateur Medley". The Pittsburg Press. September 20, 1893. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Local News". Independent Herald. Iowa City, IA. October 18, 1893. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Madison's Pride Fell". The Sunday Inter Ocean. Chicago. October 15, 1893. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "Columbian Football". The Pittsburg Press. October 19, 1893. p. 7 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "Donnelly Returns to Chicago". The Sporting World. The Cleveland Leader. December 6, 1893. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Foot Ball". The Detroit Free Press. November 26, 1893. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "C. A. C. 14; D. A. C. 0". The Cleveland Leader. December 1, 1893. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "A Game Protested". Morning Oregonian. Portland. December 4, 1895. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Topics in Sport". The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. October 27, 1896. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ PFRA Research. "Last Hurrah in Allegheny: The 3A's Exit in a Blaze of Glory: 1896" (PDF). Professional Football Researchers Association. Retrieved August 8, 2025.
  17. ^ "In the Beginning..." (PDF). Purdue Football 2008. University of Purdue: 25. 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 3, 2016. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  18. ^ "Donnelley Here". The Champaign Daily Gazette. October 8, 1896. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ "Donnelly Joins the Team". The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. October 25, 1895. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ a b The Winged Foot - Google Books. 1922. Retrieved October 1, 2013 – via Google Books.
  21. ^ "Americans Easily Won at the Traps". The Charlotte News. July 22, 1920. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ^ "In Hotel Corridors". The Detroit Free Press. March 5, 1908. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ "The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved August 7, 2025.
  24. ^ ""Sport" Donnelly Dead". Brooklyn Standard Union. Brooklyn, New York. August 4, 1922. p. 12. Retrieved June 10, 2019 – via Newspapers.com Open access icon.
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