Wyllys Terry

Wyllys Terry (c. 1864 – April 21, 1949) was an American football player and businessman. He holds the record for the longest run from scrimmage in college football history.

Wyllys Terry
Yale Bulldogs
PositionRusher
Personal information
Born:c. 1864
Died:April 21, 1949 (age 84)
Career history
College
Career highlights and awards

Athletic career

Terry was a back on the undefeated 1882, 1883, and 1884 Yale Bulldogs football teams that compiled a three-year record of 24–1–2 and have been recognized as national champions all three years. On November 5, 1884, in a 46–0 victory over Wesleyan,[1] he set a college football record with the longest run from scrimmage in American football history.[2] Life magazine in 1946 wrote of the run:

The longest run of all time was a 115-yard zigzag streak by Wyllys Terry, halfback on the 1884 Yale team, in one of three games played against Wesleyan that year. A run of that length was made possible by the 110-yard field, the run starting five yards behind the goal line."[3]

The Guinness Book of Superlatives and other sources also register the length of Terry's record run at 115 yards.[4][2][5] Other sources do not include the yardage behind the goal line and record the run at 110 yards,[6] or 109 yards.[7]

Terry also had an 85-yard touchdown run against Harvard in 1883.[2] He was rated by football experts as "one of the finest runners in football history", "one of the early 'greats' of football", and "one of the most famous personalities in American sports."[8][9]

He was also the middleweight and heavyweight intercollegiate boxing champion and a sparring partner of Gentleman Jim Corbett at the Crescent Athletic Club. He was also captain of the Yale baseball team.[8][2]

Later years and family

Terry was married in 1907 to Marie Louise Baldwin, daughter of former Michigan Governor Henry P. Baldwin.[10]

Terry worked in the warehousing business and later still operated an insurance firm, Terry & Company, in New York City. He was the senior warden at St. Bernard's Church in Bernardsville, New Jersey.[2][11] He was also a director of several companies, including the New Netherland Bank, Sterling Salt Company, Van Brunt Street and Erie Basin Railroad, Terminal Warehouse Company, and Depard and Company.

He died in 1949 at age 84 at his home on Park Avenue in Manhattan.[9][12]

References
  1. "Yale Beats Wesleyan". The Morning Journal-courier. November 6, 1884. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.("Terry made another run the whole length of the field and won another touchdown . . . On Yale's side Terry seemed to be the man doing the work, as almost all of the score was made by him.")
  2. "Old Yale Blue Terry, 84, Who Once Ran 115 Yards Against Wesleyan, Succumbs". Hartford Courant. April 23, 1949. p. 11 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. "Life's Reports". Life. December 2, 1946. pp. 20, 22.
  4. The Guinness Book of Superlatives: The Original Book of Fascinating Facts. Simon and Schuster. 2017. p. 1940. ISBN 978-1945186455.
  5. Tom Perrin (1987). "Football: A College History". McFarland. p. 4. ISBN 978-0899502946.("Wyllys Terry joined the immortals with a 115-yard touchdown run.")
  6. Rich Marazzi McFarland (2020). Yale Football Through the Years. p. 11. ISBN 978-1476638553.
  7. Floyd Conner (2000). Football's Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of the Great Game's Outrageous Characters, Fortunate Fumbles, and Other Oddities. Potomac Books. ISBN 1597974684.
  8. "Wyllys Terry, 84, Grid Star of 80's". The Courier-News. April 22, 1949. p. 14 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "Wyllys Terry". Bernardsville News. May 5, 1949. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "Terry-Baldwin". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. June 20, 1907. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. Frank Robinson Shipman, ed. (1913). Quarter-centenary Record of the Class of 1885, Yale University. Fort Hill Press. pp. 305–306.
  12. "Wyllys Terry, 84, Yale Athlete Dies; Football Player Who Made Record Run -- Long Leader in Insurance Field". The New York Times. April 22, 1949.
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