Harry Agganis Aristotle George ( Harry ) Agganis ( ) ( April 20 , 1929 – June 27 , 1955 ) , nicknamed " The Golden Greek " , was an American athletic star in two sports . Career . Agganis ' family origins were from Longanikos near Sparta , Greece . Born in Lynn , Massachusetts , Agganis was a star football player at Boston University , primarily at quarterback . After a sophomore season in 1949 , when he set a school record by tossing fifteen touchdown passes , he entered the Marine Corps . Agganis played for the Camp Lejeune ( N . C . ) football and baseball teams . He received a dependency discharge from the Marines to support his mother and returned to college to play in 1951 - 52 . Agganis became the school ' s first All - America n in football . Agganis set another Boston University mark by passing for for the season and won the Bulger Lowe Award as New England ' s outstanding football player . Coach Paul Brown of the Cleveland Browns thought he could be the successor to Otto Graham and drafted the college junior in the first round of the 1952 NFL Draft , offering him a bonus of $ 25 , 000 . Boston Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey outdid Brown , however , and signed Agganis to play Major League Baseball for the Red Sox as a first baseman for $ 35 , 000 . Following his 1953 college graduation , Agganis played with the Triple - A Louisville where he hit . 281 with 23 home run s and 108 RBI . He made his major league debut on April 13 , 1954 . Agganis had a modest rookie campaign , though he did lead American League first basemen in assists and fielding percentage . Death . In 1955 , Agganis was off to a good start , but on June 2 , he was hospitalized with pneumonia after complaining of severe fever and chest pains . Though he rejoined the Red Sox ten days later , he fell ill again in Kansas City on June 27 and was flown back to Cambridge , Massachusetts , where he died of a pulmonary embolism . Ten thousand mourners attended his wake . Agganis was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1974 . " Gaffney Street " , near the former site of Braves Field in Boston , was renamed Harry Agganis Way in his honor on November 11 , 1995 . In 2004 , the Agganis Arena on the campus of his alma mater was named in his honor . Legacy . In 2005 , Boston University opened their new athletic facility , Agganis Arena , at the intersection of Commonwealth Avenue and Harry Agganis Way on the Charles River Campus . The arena is arguably the crown jewel of the $ 325 million John Hancock Student Village complex , competing only with the Fitness and Recreation Center next door . Agganis ' legacy has been kept alive by the Agganis Foundation , which has awarded more than $ 1 . 1 million in college scholarships to 780 student - athletes from Boston and the North Shore , including Lynn , his hometown . Scholarships are awarded for academic and athletic achievement . The Foundation was started in 1955 by the Boston Red Sox and owner Thomas A . Yawkey , the ( Lynn ) Daily Item newspaper and Harold O . Zimman , a mentor of Agganis for whom the football field at Tufts University is named . The Foundation annually stages a series of high school All - Star games — the Agganis All - Star Classics — which feature the top high school seniors in eastern Massachusetts competing in baseball , basketball , football , soccer and softball .