{{Short description|American athlete (1887–1947)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}} {{Infobox college football player |name=Carroll Cooney |image= |birth_date=April 1, 1887 |birth_place= |death_date=August 15, 1947 |death_place= |currentposition=[[Center (American football)|Center]], [[Guard (American football)|Guard]] |pastschools=[[Yale Bulldogs football|Yale]] (1909) |highlights= * [[College football national championships in NCAA Division I FBS|National champion]] ([[1909 Yale Bulldogs football team|1909]]) * Consensus [[College Football All-America Team|All-American]] ([[1909 College Football All-America Team|1909]]) }} '''Carroll Trowbridge Cooney''' (April 1, 1887{{spaced ndash}}August 15, 1947) was an American [[American football|football]] and [[squash (sport)|squash]] player and a competitor in the [[hammer throw]].
Cooney played [[college football]] at [[Yale University]] from 1907 to 1909 at the [[Center (American football)|center]] and [[Guard (American football)|guard]] positions.<ref>{{cite news|title=Cooney at Guard|newspaper=The Meriden Daily Journal|date=November 6, 1907|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zPtIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jwINAAAAIBAJ&pg=4521,3899857&dq=carroll-cooney&hl=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Big Cooney for Centre at Yale: Football Coaches Decide on Heaviest Man in Squad to Snap Ball|newspaper=The Day|date=September 19, 1908|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=K69GAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ovgMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2201,1950795&dq=carroll-cooney&hl=en}}</ref> He was selected as a consensus All-American at the center position in 1909.<ref>{{cite web|title=Award Winners|publisher=NCAA|year=2012|page=4|url=http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/football_records/2012/Awards.pdf}}</ref> Cooney also participated in the [[hammer throw]] for Yale's track and field team. In April 1908, he exceeded the world record with a throw of 161 feet, but the throw did not qualify as a world record as it was not made in competition.<ref>{{cite news|title=Yale Man's Long Hammer Throw|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 8, 1908|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1908/04/08/104800997.pdf}}</ref>
In the late 1910s and 1920s, Cooney became an accomplished [[squash (sport)|squash]] player. In December 1917, he won the handicap squash tennis championship at the [[Yale Club of New York City]]. ''The New York Times'' reported that, despite Cooney's weight (275 pounds), he was "agile on his feet, covering court well, and hit with a force that was baffling to [his opponent]."<ref>{{cite news|title=Gridiron Star Is Victor At Squash: Carroll T. Cooney, Former Yale Centre, Defeats A.W. Riley in Handicap Tourney|newspaper=The New York Times|date=December 19, 1917|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1917/12/19/archives/gridiron-star-is-victor-at-squash-carroll-t-cooney-former-yale.html}}</ref>
In the late 1920s, Cooney was the vice president of a New York lumber company (Cooney, Eckstein & Co., Inc.) while also running a professional dance orchestra at night, playing squash at the Yale Club and serving on its board of governors.<ref>{{cite news|title=Flashes of Life|newspaper=Reading Eagle|date=January 25, 1927|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=mKIhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=FpgFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3982,4384314&dq=carroll-cooney&hl=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Carroll T. Cooney to Give Concert|newspaper=The New York Times|date=February 7, 1928|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1928/02/07/archives/carroll-t-cooney-to-give-concert.html}}</ref> ''The New York Times'' ran a story about Cooney's orchestra in 1927 in which Cooney noted that music had been his hobby all his life, playing the saxophone, mandolin, violin, and a few other instruments. He emphasized, however, that his band was not a jazz band: "We play rhythms but not jazz. That is, we save the melody."<ref>{{cite news|title=Once Football Star, He Leads Orchestra: Cooney Plays for Dances Here as Hobby While Running a Lumber Company|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 25, 1927|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1927/01/25/archives/once-football-star-he-leads-orchestra-cooney-plays-for-dances-here.html}}</ref>
In 1936, Cooney built the Waldo Theatre in [[Waldoboro, Maine]].<ref>{{cite web|title=A Brief History of the Waldo Theatre|publisher=The Waldo Theatre|url=http://www.thewaldo.org/history.htm|access-date=2013-01-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130119184342/http://www.thewaldo.org/history.htm|archive-date=2013-01-19|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Cooney died in 1947 at age 60. His son, Carroll T. Cooney Jr., was a writer of popular children's books and the president and chairman of the Vocaline Company in the 1950s and 1960s.
==References== {{Reflist|2}} {{1909_Yale_Bulldogs_football_navbox}} {{1909 College Football Consensus All-Americans}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooney, Caroll}} [[Category:1887 births]] [[Category:1947 deaths]] [[Category:All-American college football players]] [[Category:Yale Bulldogs football players]]