1907
John R. Kilpatrick John Kilpatrick, Class of 1907, was a member of Andover’s varsity football and track teams. He participated in multiple track and field events, including the 220-yard hurdles, high jump, broad jump, and hammer throw and held the school record for the 120-yard hurdles.Voted “best athlete” by his peers, Kilpatrick also was school president and chief of school police. At Yale, Kilpatrick ran track and played football, earning the distinction of football All-American in 1909 and 1910. He is credited with the first 4
overhand forward pass in the college record books, which occurred during a 1907 football game against Princeton. In 1933, Kilpatrick was named president of the New York Rangers hockey organization and Madison Square Garden. Under his reign, the Rangers won two Stanley Cup championships. He also was elected National Hockey League (NHL) governor in 1936 and helped establish the NHL Pension Society in 1947. Kilpatrick served as a lieutenant colonel in World War I, for which he
earned the Army Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) and Army Commendation Ribbon for exceptionally meritorious service to the government in a duty of great responsibility and for sustained acts of heroism. A brigadier general in World War II, he was awarded a Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster in lieu of a second DSM. Kilpatrick was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame and the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1960. He passed away that same year.