Ted Coy Edward Harris " Ted " Coy ( May 23 , 1888 – September 8 , 1935 ) was an American football player . Coy was selected as a first - team All - American three straight years from 1907 to 1909 and was later selected as the fullback on Walter Camp ' s All - Time All - America team . He also served as Yale ' s head football coach in 1910 . In 1951 , Coy was one of the early inductees into the College Football Hall of Fame . Biography . Playing career . Coy was the son of the first headmaster at The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville , Connecticut , and began his education at Hotchkiss . He then enrolled at Yale University in 1906 where he became recognized as one of the greatest football players in the history of the game . Coy was named a first - team All - American in all three years in which he play varsity football at Yale . During those three seasons , Yale lost only one game , and it was reportedly " a familiar sight when Ted would burst through an enemy defense , his long blonde hair held back by a white sweatband . " The only Yale defeat during Coy ' s football career was a 4 – 0 loss to Harvard in 1908 . As a senior in 1909 , Coy led the Yale team to an undefeated 10 – 0 record , outscoring opponents 209 – 0 . Coy missed the first four games of the 1909 season after undergoing an appendectomy , but he returned to lead Yale to victories over Army , Princeton , and Harvard . In December 2008 , " Sports Illustrated " undertook to identify the individuals who would have been awarded the Heisman Trophy in college football ' s early years , before the trophy was established . Coy was selected as the would - be Heisman winner for the 1909 season . While attending Yale , Coy was also secretly a member of The Yale Whiffenpoofs , the oldest collegiate a cappella group in the United States . Coy was described as " a song lover with a good ear and a nice tenor voice . " To " cover the heresy " of his joining the Whiffenpoofs , he was given the title " Perpetual Guest . " He also became a member of Skull and Bones . In the fall of 1910 , Coy returned to New Haven as Yale ' s football coach . The 1910 team finished with a record of 6 – 2 – 2 . Personal life . After a year coaching Yale ' s football team , Coy began a business career as a stock broker and in the insurance business . He also wrote football articles for the New York World , Boston Globe , San Francisco Herald , and St . Nicholas Magazine . Coy ' s first wife , Sophie Meldrim , divorced him in 1925 . In 1925 , Coy was secretly married to the noted stage actress Jeanne Eagels . At the time , Coy was employed by a New York City insurance firm , Smythe , Sanford & Gerard , and was one of the most admired men in the United States . Coy ' s marriage to Eagels was rocky , and Eagels had a reputation for drinking and erratic behavior . Eagels sued for divorce in February 1928 on grounds of cruelty , alleging that Coy had assaulted her , had broken her jaw and threatened her with the words ( to ) " ruin that beautiful face of yours " ( Eagels ) in order to stop the forward progress of her movie career . Coy pleaded no contest in the divorce action and moved to Texas . Eagels died the following year at age 39 from an overdose of heroin . In August 1928 , Coy married his third wife , 21 - year - old Lottie Bruhn of El Paso , Texas . Coy died in September 1935 at age 47 . Several months after his death , " Time " magazine ran a story about Coy ' s widow selling his most prized possessions to a pawnshop : " Into an Oklahoma City pawnshop stepped a pretty young woman to borrow money on a wedding ring , a gold medal , a gold football , a pin of Yale ' s famed Skull & Bones Society . Each was engraved : E . H . COY — YALE U . ' Could it be Ted Coy , the Yale athlete ? ' ventured the pawnbroker . Yes , ' said the girl , ' I am his wife . ' Last week , as the pawnbroker wrote to Skull & Bones in New Haven which immediately bought Coy ' s relics , newshawks hustled around to see Lottie Bruhn Coy , found her working as a servant . Said she : ' Yes , I ' m Mrs . Ted Coy . How on earth did you find me here ? . . . I haven ' t any money . . . . Once I went five days in this town without a bite to eat . . . . I thank God for a sense of humor . If I didn ' t have it I ' d have been bad off these months since Ted died . . . . ' " Coy was a boyhood hero of F . Scott Fitzgerald , and the character Ted Fay in Fitzgerald ' s 1928 short story " The Freshest Boy " was loosely based on Coy .