Harry William LeGore (August 1, 1894 – June 7, 1956) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

player,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

state legislator and businessman.

Biography

Early years

LeGore was born in Frederick County, Maryland. He was a son of the James William LeGore. His father founded the LeGore Lime Company in 1861 and built the

LeGore Bridge Begun in 1898 in rural Frederick County, Maryland, the LeGore Bridge was completed and opened to the public in 1900. It was built and maintained by the owners of the LeGore Lime Company, including local businessman James William LeGore and his comp ...

near

Woodsboro, Maryland Woodsboro is a town in Frederick County, Maryland, United States that was granted to Joseph Wood in 1693. The population was 1,141 at the 2010 census. History The town was named after Joseph Wood. The LeGore Bridge was listed on the National Reg ...

. LeGore attended the

Tome School The Tome School is a private school in North East in Cecil County in the U.S. state of Maryland. Founded in 1894 by Jacob Tome, it is one of the oldest schools in Maryland. It enrolls grades K–12. As of 2022, the Head of School is Christine Szym ...

Mercersburg Academy Mercersburg Academy (formerly Marshall College and Mercersburg College) is an independent selective college-preparatory boarding & day high school in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania in the United States. Founded in 1893, the school enrolls approximat ...

and

Lafayette College Lafayette College is a private liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 1832. The founders voted to name the college after General Laf ...

Yale

LeGore enrolled at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

where he played for the school's football, baseball and basketball teams and was a member of

Skull and Bones Skull and Bones, also known as The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death, is an undergraduate senior secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The oldest senior class society at the university, Skull and Bone ...

. In football, LeGore played halfback and fullback. He also handled punting duties and reportedly had a 65-yard average. American sports writer

Grantland Rice Henry Grantland "Granny" Rice (November 1, 1880July 13, 1954) was an early 20th-century American sportswriter known for his elegant prose. His writing was published in newspapers around the country and broadcast on the radio. Early years Rice wa ...

once wrote that he wouldn't trade LeGore for

Red Grange Harold Edward "Red" Grange (June 13, 1903 – January 28, 1991), nicknamed "the Galloping Ghost" and "the Wheaton Iceman", was an American football halfback for the University of Illinois, the Chicago Bears, and the short-lived New York Yankees ...

and added: "Harry never played a poor game in his life. He was always a competitor first, last and always — and always had a little more when the chips were down." In 1914, LeGore was the starting fullback for a Yale football team that compiled a 7-2 record and defeated Notre Dame 28-0, ending Notre Dame's 27-game win streak. Knute Rockne later wrote in his autobiography: "I sat on the sideline at New Haven that Saturday and saw a good Yale team captained by Bud Talbott with a crack halfback named Harry LeGore leading the attack. They made Notre Dame look like a high school squad." At the end of the 1914 season, LeGore was selected as a first-team All-American by

International News Service The International News Service (INS) was a U.S.-based news agency (newswire) founded by newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst in 1909.

sports editor Frank G. Menke, and as a second-team All-American by

Walter Camp Walter Chauncey Camp (April 7, 1859 – March 14, 1925) was an American football player, coach, and sports writer known as the "Father of American Football". Among a long list of inventions, he created the sport's line of scrimmage and the system ...

for

Collier's Weekly ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened in 1905 to ''Colli ...

and

Walter Eckersall Walter Herbert "Eckie" Eckersall (June 17, 1883 – March 24, 1930) was an American college football player, official, and sportswriter for the ''Chicago Tribune''. He played for the Maroons of the University of Chicago, and was elected to the ...

, of the

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

. LeGore also played

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists wh ...

for the Yale baseball team. In 1915, LeGore was ruled permanently ineligible to complete in college athletics after it was found that his food and lodging had been paid while playing summer baseball. In 1916, LeGore's eligibility was restored. The Yale football team in 1915 had won only four games without LeGore in the lineup. With LeGore back in the lineup, the 1916 team went 8-1. A syndicated newspaper story about LeGore's return to Yale stated:

Harry Legore is the real shining light of the Eli football team, there isn't any doubt about that. Legore is the star, with a big 'S.' A couple of years ago Legore made a name for himself as an end runner and was the man who struck more terror to the hearts of 'Old Eli's opponents than any other man on the team. In the summer Legore played baseball, and someone said it was professional baseball with the result that Legore was barred from football as a 'professional.' Quite a sensation was created, but this year Legore was restored and it has been a mighty good thing for Yale that he was. And with his restoration to eligibility as an amateur athlete came the job of fullback on the Yale eleven."

At the end of the 1916 season, LeGore was selected as a second-team All-American by

for

International News Service The International News Service (INS) was a U.S.-based news agency (newswire) founded by newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst in 1909.

of the

, and

Paul Purman Paul R. Purman (April 19, 1886 – April 18, 1937) was an American sportswriter. Purman had a lengthy career in journalism, but he is best known for his work in the years from 1916 to 1918 when his sports column was syndicated in hundreds of new ...

, noted sports writer whose All-American team was syndicated in newspapers across the United States, and

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

football coach

Fielding H. Yost Fielding Harris Yost (; April 30, 1871 – August 20, 1946) was an American football player, coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at: Ohio Wesleyan University, the University of Nebraska, the University ...

. In selecting LeGore as an All-American, Walter Camp called him "one of the nation's greatest athletes."

World War I

With the entry of the United States into

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, LeGore was one of ten Yale students recommended by the President of Yale for commissions in the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

. LeGore served overseas for two years with the Second Division.

Business and political career

After his discharge from the Marines, LeGore worked for the LeGore Lime Company. In 1930, LeGore was elected to the

Maryland House of Delegates The Maryland House of Delegates is the lower house of the legislature of the State of Maryland. It consists of 141 delegates elected from 47 districts. The House of Delegates Chamber is in the Maryland State House on State Circle in Annapolis, ...

. In 1934, he was elected to the Maryland State Senate. In 1936, he made an unsuccessful run for a seat in the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

. LeGore eventually became president of the LeGore Lime Company and also served as a director of the Potomac Edison Company.

Posthumous honors

In 1977, LeGore was inducted into Maryland's Alvin G. Quinn Memorial Sports Hall of Fame. In 1999, ''The News-Post'' in Maryland picked LeGore as one of the Top 25 most significant sports figures in the history of Frederick County. He was the county's first athlete to be selected as a collegiate All-American.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Legore, Harry 1894 births 1956 deaths Yale Bulldogs baseball players Yale Bulldogs football players Yale Bulldogs men's basketball players All-American college football players Maryland state senators Members of the Maryland House of Delegates United States Marine Corps officers People from Frederick County, Maryland 20th-century American politicians American men's basketball players United States Marine Corps personnel of World War I