Class of 1977 (Inducted Feb. 25, 1977)
James Carney '28 - Men's Basketball, Football, Men's Track & Field
James Carney played on one of the finest basketball teams in Catholic University history. The renowned “Reindeer,” from 1925-28, posted a record of 38-17 (.691). Carney, who played center, helped form the nucleus of the team with fellow 1977 CUA Hall of Fame inductees John Long, Ray Foley and Bill Harvey.
The Cardinals began the 1926-27 season 6-1 when an 11-0 Fordham team arrived in Brookland. The Rams, one of the nation’s top teams, were riding a 15-game winning streak. Behind Harvey’s game-high 13 points, CUA handed the powerful New Yorkers a 31-23 defeat. The Rams finished 19-2. The Cards also ended American’s 11-game win streak and handed CCNY its only home loss of the season, 13-12. Carney only scored 47 points that season but was a defensive specialist. CUA’s student newspaper, The Tower, on March 9, 1927, referred to him as “… the best defensive player in the district.”
Carney was elected captain for the 1927-28 campaign, and the Cardinals won their first 10 games – the best start in the program’s first century – en route to a 14-4 ledger. Prior to its game against a strong Duquesne team that would finish 15-7, a Pittsburgh newspaper called CUA, “… a team rated by an Eastern critic as the best college team in the east, if not the best in the country.”
During Carney’s career, a jump ball was held at center court after each made basket. It wasn’t until 1938 that the non-scoring team took the ball out of bounds. Carney jumped center for the Cardinals and, despite not scoring against Duquesne, was a stalwart on defense. “The defensive play and floor game of Captain Jim Carney was brilliant,” according to The Tower. “Time and time again Carney broke up or blocked passes, and put his team on the offense during most of the game with his fine work on the tap off.”
Carney, from St. Louis, played freshman football and two years on the varsity. He also competed in the shot put and javelin in 1928.
William Connor '27 - Men's Basketball, Football
A fan’s perception of a big football player in the 1920s was vastly different than today. For example, Catholic University’s Bill Connor stood just 5-foot-8 and weighed 170 pounds but was known as “Big Bill.” Regardless of his size, the Providence, R.I., native was big enough – and talented enough – to play two years in the National Football League.
After graduating from Providence College, Connor journeyed south to compete on the gridiron and earn a law degree. In 1924, Coach Ken Shroyer of Western Maryland – now McDaniel College – honored him as an All-Star tackle among opposing players. The biggest highlight of his 1925 season came when he caught a touchdown pass in a 60-0 rout of Gallaudet.
Connor’s defensive effort was cited twice by CUA’s student newspaper, The Tower, in 1926 games. In a 20-7 loss to the Quantico (Va.) Marines, the paper credited him for "spilling the opposing interference and getting his man time after time.” When the Cards played undefeated Loyola in New Orleans, he was cited for his “brilliant defensive work.” His performance in the Crescent City reportedly resulted in one of the loudest standing ovations in Loyola history.
After earning his law degree, Connor played guard and tackle for the NFL’s Boston Bulldogs (1929) and the Newark (N.J.) Tornadoes (1930). He died in 1980 at 81.
F. Joseph Donahue '22, L.L.B. '25 - Football, Men's Basketball, Men's Track & Field, Men's Track & Field Coach
Joe Donahue came to Catholic University from Lynn, Mass., in the late teens of the 20th Century and contributed to the Cardinals’ athletic success as an athlete and coach. He was better known by one of his nicknames: “Jiggs,” “Doctor” or “Doc.”He competed in track as an undergraduate and in football while earning his law degree. He is listed in his previous Hall of Fame bio as playing guard on the basketball team, but this is hard to verify because CUA’s student newspaper, The Tower, didn’t begin until 1922. According to The University Symposium, Vol. 8, 1919-20, “Joe Donahue has been showing fine form on the track, and he is expected to have a big year.” The 1922 Cardinal, Catholic University’s yearbook, described him thusly: “Jiggs was not lacking in athletic ability, particularly in track events, in which he represented his class admirably, and was a contributing factor in the victories of C.U.”
Donohue played right end on the football team during an era when players played offense and defense. One of the high points of his career came in a 16-12 loss at Muhlenberg in 1923 when he blocked a punt deep in their territory, scooped it up and scored a touchdown. In the Cardinals’ season-ending 26-0 victory over George Washington at Griffith Stadium – then home to Major League Baseball’s Washington Senators – he and his defensive line teammates were cited by The Tower for “playing its best game of the season.
“Time and again, their runners were brought down in their tracks four and five yards behind the line of scrimmage. Donohue, Regan and Tobin excelled in this respect, their flying tackles upsetting the G.W. backs in great style.”
After completing his playing career in 1924, Donohue and his senior teammates were presented with gold footballs. The following year he volunteered to be the Cardinals’ head track coach. He went on to become a lawyer in the nation’s capital and teach economics at CUA, and was general chairman of the school’s local alumni chapter.
Raymond A. DuFour '28 - Baseball, Men's Basketball, Football
The Raymond A. DuFour Center stands as a testament to the legacy of its chief benefactor: Raymond Albert DuFour.
DuFour, from Haverhill, Mass., came to Catholic University on a football scholarship and established himself as one the Cardinals’ stalwarts on the offensive and defensive lines. In November 1925, CUA’s student newspaper, The Tower, said, “In Jack McGovern, Ray DuFour, Jack White and Bill Shields, Coach [Jack] McAuliffe possesses the best quartet of tackles to be found in this neck of the woods.”
When the paper named DuFour second-team All-District in 1925, it said, “DuFour and McGovern are the towers of strength who have made things look bad for the opponents.”
During his senior year (1927), DuFour helped the Cardinals win the first night game in the East, 12-0, over host William & Mary. The Cards (5-3) went on to enjoy their first winning season since 1915 (the 1917 and ’18 seasons were canceled because of World War I). Following the team’s 13-0 shutout of St. John’s, The Tower said, “That St. John’s was unable to break into the scoring column was in no small measure due to the excellent defensive work of Ray DuFour at left tackle.”
“Pug” DuFour also played catcher on the CUA baseball team. One of his big highlights came when scored the winning run in a 6-5 victory over North Carolina after lacing a ninth-inning, pinch-hit double.
DuFour donated $1 million toward the construction of the DuFour Center, which opened in 1985. He was a university trustee and national president of the CUA Alumni Association in 1951-53. He earned a degree from the Columbus School of Law, which is now part of the university, and donated $2.5 million toward the new law school. DuFour was a founder and president of the Archdiocese of Washington Christian Youth Organization (CYO), and Pope Paul VI conferred on him the title of “Gentleman of His Holiness.”
A pioneer in the insurance business, DuFour died in 1990.
Bernard Eberts '24 - Men's Basketball, Baseball, Football
Dutch Eberts, from Columbus, Ohio, was a three-sport star for the Cardinals in the early 1920s. The 5-foot-11¼, 173-pounder played center on the football team and was elected captain in 1923.
Catholic University’s student newspaper, The Tower, described him in a 1923 edition as “… a remarkable student, having attained a very high scholastic average for the past two and a half years. And it is the more commendable because he has always been deeply interested in collegiate athletics. His gritty play at the center position for the past three years on the Varsity, his powerful defensive work, and his general clock like efficiency are fitting qualifications for his election to the Captaincy.”
In his final game, Eberts helped CUA trounce George Washington, 26-0, at Griffith Stadium, then home to Major League Baseball’s Washington Senators.
In basketball, Eberts was the 1922-23 Cardinals’ second-leading scorer with 84 points (42 field goals). The right forward ranked third on the team in scoring his senior year (103 points on 40 FGs and 23 free throws) and was named to The Washington Post’s All-District First Team. He was joined on the first team by fellow CUA Hall of Famer Eddie “Ace” Lynch.
“Eberts stands out head and shoulders above any of the other right forwards,” said Arthur L. Knapp, who selected the team for the Post. “He is a shooter, can toss them in in regular fashion from the foul mark, and is also a great defensive man. He cuts, cuts, and cuts, and always outplays his opponent.”
CUA was 45-26 (.634) during Eberts’ four-year career under legendary coach Fred Rice. The club went 11-5 in 1920-21 and 11-4 in 1922-23. Both teams were South Atlantic Champions. In Eberts’ senior year, the 14-9 Cardinals defeated Fordham, Loyola (Md.), George Washington (twice) and Maryland. They fell, 35-22, at home to eventual national champion North Carolina.
Eberts earned a letter as a senior member of the 1924 baseball team. In the mid-1930s, he became the first secretary-treasurer of The Touchdown Club of Washington, D.C. The club was founded by the Cardinals’ all-time winningest football coach, Dutch Bergman.
Raymond Foley '28 - Men's Basketball, Baseball, Football
Ray Foley was the first Catholic University athlete to earn nine varsity letters (football, baseball and basketball). He was a captain in each sport and played baseball in the Major Leagues. Renowned Washington Post sports columnist Shirley Povich called him, “an argument in the flesh to prove that many an athlete has blossomed to bloom unseen by All-American experts.”
On the hardwood, Foley, from Naugatuck, Conn., played on one of the finest basketball teams in CUA history. The “Reindeer,” from 1925-28, posted a record of 38-17 (.691). Foley played guard and teamed with fellow 1977 CUA Hall of Fame inductees Jim Carney, John Long and Bill Harvey.
Foley scored 21 points his junior year in a 65-19 thrashing of William & Mary and hit the game-winning shot in a 13-12 victory over CCNY. He and Long tied for the season team high in scoring with 173 points. Foley tallied 22 points in two victories as a senior and was the club’s second-leading scorer with 204 points.
Foley was a starting quarterback for three years (1925-27) and also punted, kicked and returned punts. In 1926, he threw a 40-yard touchdown pass in a 20-7 loss to the Quantico (Va.) Marines. He later matched the feat in a 17-9 victory over George Washington on Thanksgiving Day. He also caught a scoring pass from Harvey in a 14-6 setback at Holy Cross and threw a TD to Long in a 1927 12-0 victory at William & Mary. The latter game was the first night football game in the East. In his final game, Foley caught a 2-yard TD pass and rushed for a score in another Thanksgiving Day triumph over GW, 27-21. The Homecoming contest, played before 15,000 at CUA’s Brookland Stadium, was the largest home crowd of the year. For the victory, the school received a silver cup from a local jeweler.
On the diamond, Foley played center field and shortstop and pitched occasionally. He served as captain in 1928. He went 2-for-6 in a 9-7 loss to Wake Forest in 1926 and was described thusly by the CUA student newspaper, The Tower: “Foley, with three circus catches and a couple of bullet-like pegs that kept runners from advancing, was particularly impressive.” Later that year, in a 16-11 victory over Virginia Tech, Foley was 3-for-4 with a triple, two stolen bases and four runs. He went 4-for-5 in a 13-2 win at Army, scored three times and led the 1926 squad in batting (.377, 23-for-61). Foley’s two-run double in the eighth inning powered the Cards to a 3-1 triumph at VMI. He was 3-for-3 (single, double, triple) and scored twice in a 20-5 loss at Fordham. He robbed a hitter of a home run by going “far and high” in the fifth inning and threw out four base runners.
Foley won CUA’s 1928 Harris Trophy – now Harris Cup – in recognition of being a gentleman, scholar and premier athlete. “In football, basketball and baseball, his consistently phenomenal performances have held his watchers spellbound, kept them in a frenzy of delight and admiration and left them the witnesses of a skill unprecedented on gridiron, court or diamond.” (1928 Cardinal yearbook)
After graduation, he played part of the 1928 baseball season with the National League’s New York Giants. Hall of Famer Mel Ott was one of his teammates.
William Harvey '28 - Men's Basketball, Football
Bill Harvey helped form the nucleus on one of the finest basketball teams in Catholic University history. From 1925-28, the talented “Reindeer” went a combined 38-17 (.691). Harvey’s teammates included fellow 1977 CUA Hall of Fame inductees John Long, James Carney and Ray Foley.
The Cardinals began the 1926-27 season 6-1 when an 11-0 Fordham team arrived in Brookland. The Rams, one of the nation’s top teams, were riding a 15-game winning streak. Behind Harvey’s game-high 13 points, CUA handed the powerful New Yorkers a 31-23 defeat. The Rams finished 19-2. The Cards also ended American’s 11-game win streak and handed CCNY its only home loss of the season, 13-12. Right after the Fordham victory, Harvey tallied a game-high 14 points in a 46-34 win over Stevens Institute. The forward concluded the season as the team’s third-leading scorer (151 points). The next year, in a 57-38 victory over Washington and Lee, he led CUA with 19 points. He and Long tallied 16 points apiece in a 42-28 defeat of Gallaudet. Once again Harvey was the third-highest scorer with 184 points.
Harvey was also a star football player. As a junior in 1926, he threw a 20-yard touchdown pass in a 19-7 win over St. John’s at Brooklyn, N.Y.’s Ebbets Field and rushed for a score. He caught a 40-yard TD from Foley in a 20-7 loss to the Quantico (Va.) Marines and, in a 14-6 setback at Holy Cross, threw a scoring strike to Foley. In a 53-0 whitewash of Blue Ridge College, Harvey scored a rushing TD and had an interception. Harvey that same year helped the Cardinals rally from a 9-0 deficit to down crosstown rival George Washington, 17-9, on Thanksgiving Day. First he hauled in a 40-yarder from Foley to set up the Cards’ first score. He also had a 40-yard run in the fourth quarter and caught a TD pass.
In the first college football night game in the East, Sept. 24, 1927, Harvey scored a 4-yard TD in a 12-0 victory at William & Mary. CUA’s student newspaper, The Tower, named Harvey (left halfback) to its 1927 All-District team. Long (end) and Foley (quarterback) were likewise honored.
Edmund LaFond '27 - Football, Baseball, Boxing
You can’t talk about Catholic University boxing without talking about Eddie LaFond. The Maine native developed the Cardinal boxing program into one of the finest in the nation. During his 23 years as head coach (1931-53), CUA never had a losing season.
If it wasn’t for a bad accident, he likely would never have enjoyed a 47-year career in Brookland as an athlete, teacher, coach and athletic director.
LaFond, a star fullback in high school, had accepted a football scholarship to Dartmouth when he stepped from a car and was hit by a motorcycle. His right leg sustained a compound fracture, and he was hospitalized for four months. According to a 2005 CUA Magazine article on a Cardinal boxing reunion, “Doctors said he would never play sports again.”
LaFond took the advice of his prep football coach and enrolled at CUA in 1923, where he boxed two years and played football and baseball. He was captain of the first Cardinal boxing team in 1925 under former Olympian Ted Mitchell. On Feb. 13, 1926 LaFond helped CUA defeat Washington and Lee, 4-3, at Brookland Gymnasium in the first intercollegiate boxing match in Washington, D.C. He was the team’s manager his senior year and later served as head freshman football coach and director of physical education and intramurals.
After a three-year stint as an assistant boxing coach, LaFond took over for Mitchell in 1931 and promptly guided the Cardinals to an undefeated season. He also developed the first two national champions in school history: David Bernstein (1938) and Frederick “Bingo” Stant (1939). His 1938 team shared the unofficial NCAA boxing national championship. (Team points were not officially awarded until 1948.) CUA, Virginia and West Virginia scored 10 points each at the championships in Charlottesville, Va.
Cardinal boxing matches were a tough ticket on campus. It was common for upwards of 4,000 people – dressed in formal attire – to come out to see “Eddie’s Boys.” Bouts consisted of three two-minute rounds and were contested in eight weight classes (seven originally). Matches lasted a little over an hour.
Franny Murray, CUA’s longtime equipment manager, recalled in March 2012 what the events were like during the two years he boxed for LaFond in the late 1940s.
“We fought at 8 o’clock and you couldn’t get in after 6,” Murray said. “The place was packed. Kids would bring their books and study before the fights. It was quite a big thing. I think it was the best sport we ever had here.”
Boxing was disbanded on campus in 1954 because, according to Murray, most of CUA’s opponents dropped it. The NCAA, with safety concerns growing, stopped sponsoring the sport seven years later. Murray said LaFond was, first and foremost, interested in the health and welfare of his boxers.
“If you got knocked down, you had to let him know you were OK before you hit the floor,” he said. “He was taking care of his fighters; he didn’t want anybody to get hurt. He had some good fighters – they didn’t get knocked down too often, they made sure of it.”
Opponents also routinely socialized with one another and, in many cases, became lifelong friends. “After the fights, we always went out together,” Murray said. “You got to know the guy, you know what I mean, in a small way. You didn’t want to make him mad either – he might beat the hell out of you next year,” he added with a laugh.
A Boxing Legend
LaFond, a top amateur and professional boxing referee, was a member of the U.S. Olympic and Pan American Boxing Commission and was elected president of the National Intercollegiate Boxing Coaches Association in 1940. He and Julie Menendez co-authored the 1959 book, Better Boxing: An Illustrated Guide.
LaFond, who died in 1982, also conducted numerous boxing clinics on behalf of the U.S. Armed Forces and State Department in Europe, Hawaii, Africa, Central and South America and Asia.
“He did everything in boxing,” Murray said. “I remember one year he went overseas to the Ivory Coast to prepare their team for the Olympics. He was gone for six to eight months getting them ready. He was a great, great coach.”
During LaFond’s tenure as athletic director (1941-70), the Cardinals made their first appearance in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament (1944). In 1958 he hired Tom Young, who led the Cards to their first conference championship (1964) and second NCAA appearance. A year later LaFond tapped Ronnie McManes to coach the club football team, the school’s first assembly on the gridiron in 15 years. LaFond hired Murray in 1947. “That was his only black mark,” Murray quipped.
John Long '28 - Men's Basketball, Baseball, Men's Basketball Coach
Before John Long became the first Catholic University basketball coach to lead his team to the NCAA Tournament, he helped form the nucleus of the 1925-28 “Reindeer.” Teaming with fellow 1977 CUA Hall of Fame inductees Ray Foley, Jim Carney and Bill Harvey, Long and the “Reindeer” produced a 38-17 (.691) record. The “Big Four” played together under Fred Rice, Sr. for four seasons, including their first year on the freshman team.
Long, who played forward and was nicknamed “Bear,” was the Cardinals’ leading scorer as a sophomore in 1925-26 with 160 points on 67 field goals and 26 free throws. He tallied 21 points in a 51-26 win over West Virginia, 14 in a 47-27 loss at Penn State and 14 in a 49-23 victory over Gallaudet. The team finished 11-8. He scored a team-leading 214 points as a senior.
In 1943, Long was hired to coach CUA. Inheriting a team that not posted a winning season in eight years, he made the most of his only year at the helm. The Cards started strong by winning seven of their first eight contests. His starting center, Fred Rice, Jr., was a son of the man who coached Long.
CUA continued to roll and hung a 24-point defeat on Delaware, a 20-point loss on Maryland and a 30-point shellacking on Johns Hopkins. The Cardinals entered the Mason-Dixon Conference Tournament with a 16-4 record and defeated host Delaware, 64-37, in the opening round. CUA’s hopes of winning the event were dashed with a 48-45 loss at Loyola (Md.).
Despite the setback, the Cardinals were invited to the eight-team 1944 NCAA Tournament for the first time. They traveled to New York’s Madison Square Garden and lost to Dartmouth in the single-elimination tournament. CUA subsequently fell to Temple in the regional third-place game to finish 17-7.
With World War II raging in Europe and the Pacific and male enrollment down, the basketball program was suspended in 1944–45. Long did not rejoin the team. In three years on the varsity and one year coaching, Long helped the Cardinals go 55-24 (.696).
Edward Lynch '24 - Men's Basketball, Baseball, Football
Eddie “Ace” Lynch was Catholic University’s first great athlete. During his senior football season (1923), he played fullback, threw passes, punted, returned kicks and was the team’s placekicker. He had a hand in every point amidst the final game of his career, a 26-0 victory over George Washington. Lynch returned two interceptions for touchdowns (30 and 45 yards), kicked two extra points and threw two TD passes. On his 45-yard interception, he shook off five would-be tacklers.
The Dec. 4, 1923 edition of CUA’s student newspaper, The Tower, said he “played the best defensive game of the year. His punts carried twice the distance of Lamar’s and he got off one spiral in the first quarter that traveled sixty five yards.” The Washington Post named him its All-District fullback.
Lynch was the Cardinal basketball team’s leading scorer as a junior (174 points) and senior (142). The latter year, the Post accorded him first-team All-District honors. In 1922-23, he was the Cards’ designated free throw shooter and made 104 of the club’s 106 foul shots. It wasn’t until the next year that a fouled player shot his own free throws. The Cardinals won the South Atlantic Championship in 1921 and ’23.
Lynch, a native of Northampton, Mass., got his career off to a great start when, in a season-opening 29-27 victory over visiting Lehigh, he hit the winning shot just before the game ended. He tallied 19 points later that year in a 23-17 victory over Princeton. The Tower described him in a Nov. 20, 1923 story as “rated by many the best guard in Eastern Collegiate basketball.”
On the baseball diamond, Lynch played in the outfield for the Redbirds. CUA’s 1922 yearbook, The Cardinal, described him as a “powerful hitter who can snare anything that comes near him.”
Lynch went on to play four seasons in the NFL and, as a rookie in 1925, was named first-team All-Pro. He also played with a team from Detroit in the American Professional Basketball League. In a 1926 game in Washington he was introduced as, “A world war veteran, C.U.’s star in three branches of sport, the man who outplayed Red Grange … Eddie Lynch.”
With a large contingent of CUA students cheering him on, he was presented with a commemorative cup, upon which was engraved: “Edward James Lynch, Greatest All-Round All-Time Athlete of C.U. – The Student Body.”
