Corsair Hall of Fame
Harry "Mickey" Connolly

Former Southeastern Massachusetts University Athletic Director Harry W. “Mickey” Connolly died on Saturday January 14, 2006.

 

After a long and distinguished career as an athlete and coach, Connolly became the Athletic Director at SMU in 1966 and remained in the position until his retirement in 1987.  In recognition of his 21 years on behalf of the SMU Athletic Department, he was inducted into the UMass Dartmouth Athletic Department Hall of Fame in 1991.

 

Below is his complete obituary:

 

Harry W. "Mickey" Connolly, died Saturday, Jan. 14, 2006. He was the widower of Mary E. (Boyce) Connolly, formerly of Watertown. They were married for 40 years until her death in 1982. He was also married to the late Janice Kimball.

 

He lived most of the past 30 years in Dartmouth.

 

Raised in Norwalk, Conn., he attended St. Michael's Academy, Mount Vernon, N.Y., and Norwalk High School, graduating in 1939. In 1971, he was voted the all-time greatest football player in the town of Norwalk's history. In 1946, 500 fans boarded a train they named after him, and headed to Mickey Connolly night at Ebbetts Field in Brooklyn, where he was honored at halftime during a football game.

 

A graduate of Boston College who received a bachelor's degree in education, he played football, baseball and hockey. He and his teammates made it to the Cotton Bowl at the end of his freshman season, the Sugar Bowl after his sophomore season and the Orange Bowl after his senior season. The Eagles were national champions in 1940, something they have not done since, and Mickey scored the first and threw for the second touchdown during their Sugar Bowl win against Tennessee. (BC's next bowl invite was not until 1982.)

During the fall of his senior year, he was offered contracts by both the New York Yankees and the Chicago Bears, but by graduation, he had entered the Navy. During World War II, as a lieutenant, he served in the Pacific on the destroyer USS Conyngham.

 

After three years in the Navy, he started the 1947 season playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the newly formed American Football League, but an injury ended his playing career.

 

In 1948, while working at Notre Dame High School in Norwalk, he began their football program, and in 1949, he was recruited as athletic director and head football coach at Acquinas Institute in Rochester, N.Y. The "Little Irish," as they were known, played teams from Texas, Virginia, Maryland, the Midwest and were actually flown to some games.

 
He next joined the college ranks first as a backfield coach for Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind., and then as head football coach at Xavier University in Cincinnati. In 1955, he was voted, by the 18 national Catholic college coaches, as All-American Coach of the Year to head a team of All-Americans from around the country, one of which was Paul Hornung.

 
Wanting to take his family back to New England, he moved to Scituate, as the director of scouts for the Cincinnati Reds. He was coordinator of the President's Council on Physical Fitness with H.P. Hood & Sons.

 

Missing coaching, he went to work as the backfield coach at Holy Cross College in Worcester. After that, he spent a year coaching the Providence Indians of Rhode Island, a team in the Continental League.

 

In 1966, he became the athletic director of SMU, now UMass Dartmouth, and remained there until his retirement in 1987. He is credited with having brought their athletic facilities from city diamonds and municipal basketball courts to a state-of-the-art athletic complex and a highly competitive Division III program with 21 varsity sports with equal emphasis on women's and men's athletics.

 

He was a Hall of Fame member at Boston College, UMass Dartmouth , Fairfield County and Norwalk High. An avid golfer, he was a member of Scituate Country Club and Country Club of New Bedford.

 

Survivors include three sons, John M. Connolly of Falmouth, William J. Connolly of New Bedford and Donald P. Connolly and his wife, Susan, of Phippsburg, Maine; a daughter, Christine C. Galligan of Fairhaven; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

 

 He was grandfather of the late John Michael Connolly Jr.

 His funeral Mass was held at St. Mary's Church, South Dartmouth.

 

 Arrangements were by Waring-Sullivan Home of Memorial Tributes at Dartmouth, 230 Russells Mills Road, Dartmouth.

 

 Last Updated On: 6/5/06