James P. Lee
{{Short description|American football player and lawyer (1870–1941)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox college football player
|name=James P. Lee
|image=jamesplee.jpg
|image_size=180px
|alt=
|caption=
|class=Graduate
|currentposition=Halfback
|birth_date={{Birth date|1870|6|6}}
|birth_place=New York City, New York, U.S.
|death_date={{Death date and age|1941|9|14|1870|6|6}}
|death_place=Southampton, New York, U.S.
|currentnumber=
|pastschools=Harvard (1889–1890)
Columbia
|school=Harvard Crimson
|highlights=Consensus All-American (1889)
}}
James Parrish Lee (June 6, 1870 – September 14, 1941) was an American college football player, track and field athlete, and lawyer. He played college football at Harvard University and was a consensus selection at the halfback position on the 1889 College Football All-America Team.
Early years and ancestry
Lee was born in New York City in 1870. His father Charles Carroll Lee, was a Union Army surgeon in the American Civil War and later president of the Medical Society of New York County. He was a cousin of Robert E. Lee and a descendant of Richard Lee I and Charles Carroll of Carrollton.{{cite news|title=James P. Lee Dies; Lawyer, Athlete; Member of Victorious Harvard Football Team of 1890 – On Camp's 1st All-American; Stricken Playing Tennis; Long Prominent in Summer Colony of Southampton - Of Distinguished Ancestry|newspaper=The New York Times|date=September 15, 1941|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B02E5D7103FE13BBC4D52DFBF66838A659EDE}}
Athletics
Lee attended Harvard College where he was a member of the Harvard Crimson football team. He was a consensus first-team selection at the halfback position for the 1889 College Football All-America Team.{{cite web|title=2014 NCAA Football Records: Consensus All-America Selections|publisher=National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)|year=2014|accessdate=August 16, 2014|page=4|url=http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/football_records/2014/Awards.pdf|archive-date=November 26, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181126094941/http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/football_records/2014/awards.pdf|url-status=dead}} The following year, he led the 1890 Harvard Crimson football team to an undefeated 11–0 record. Lee capped the 1890 season with a long touchdown run to give Harvard its first victory since 1876 in the Harvard–Yale football rivalry. The New York Times described Lee's touchdown run as "a brilliant open play" around the right end of the line.{{cite news|title=A Great Day for Harvard: The Crimson Triumphs Over the Blue in Football; One of the Most Exciting Games in the History of the College Sport - Harvard Twelve, Yale Six|newspaper=The New York Times|date=November 23, 1890|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1890/11/23/106044827.pdf}}
Lee was also a member of Harvard's track team, competing in the 220-yard dash, the quarter mile and the low hurdles. He set a world record in the low hurdles. He continued to compete in track while he was a student at Columbia Law School and as a member of the New York Athletic Club.
Later years and death
After receiving his LL.B. degree from Columbia, Lee practiced law with the New York firm of Anderson, Pendleton & Anderson. He was also an officer of Hecker Cereal Company, Southwestern Milling Company and Standard Milling Company. He was married to Clara Lothrop Lincoln in 1896, and they had six children.{{Cite news|title=A Day's Weddings: Lee-Lincoln|newspaper=The New York Times|date=September 23, 1896|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1896/09/23/108249232.pdf}}
Lee died in 1941 at the age of 71 while playing tennis at the Meadow Club in Southampton, New York. While playing tennis with his son-in-law and "was about to serve and had called the score, 'thirty love,' when he coughed and staggered." He was dead by the time his son-in-law reached him from the other side of the net.
References
{{Reflist}}
{{1890 Harvard Crimson football navbox}}
{{1889 College Football Consensus All-Americans}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, James P.}}
Category:19th-century players of American football
Category:American football guards
Category:American male hurdlers
Category:American male sprinters
Category:Harvard Crimson football players
Category:Harvard Crimson men's track and field athletes
Category:All-American college football players