Patrick Lahey, 89, who grew up on a Dunbridge farm and used football to get off the farm, died Sunday
(Oct. 18, 2009) in Illinois.
After a coach at Bowling Green High School told Lahey the only way he was going to get off the farm was
to get a football scholarship, he taped weights to old work boots and ran the perimeter of the family
farm nightly. He eventually ended up on the roster of the Chicago Rockets of the old All-America
Football Conference.
Lahey played running back and defensive end at John Carroll University and left a draft-exempt job
building airplanes to join the Marines.
At basic training in California, Lahey, 6-2 and 235 pounds, had a commanding officer order everyone over
six feet tall to learn how to fire heavy weapons. He was then ordered to play for the Marine Corps
football team and spent three years playing exhibition games against service teams.
Marine coach Dick Hanley was the Rocket coach after the war and took Lahey and Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch
with him. Lahey’s bonus was a new car and a lease on an apartment.
Lahey worked off-season as a heating oil salesman and later managed an Illinois oil distribution firm.

His discus record at BGHS stood for more than 30 years.
Surviving are his wife, Patsy; sons Michael and Mark; brothers David, and Kenneth, Walbridge; sisters,
Mary Buchman, Bowling Green, and Ilene Devine; five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
The funeral was Wednesday in Skokie, Ill.Patrick Lahey, 89, who grew up on a Dunbridge farm and used
football to get off the farm, died Sunday (Oct. 18, 2009) in Illinois.
After a coach at Bowling Green High School told Lahey the only way he was going to get off the farm was
to get a football scholarship, he taped weights to old work boots and ran the perimeter of the family
farm nightly. He eventually ended up on the roster of the Chicago Rockets of the old All-America
Football Conference.
Lahey played running back and defensive end at John Carroll University and left a draft-exempt job
building airplanes to join the Marines.
At basic training in California, Lahey, 6-2 and 235 pounds, had a commanding officer order everyone over
six feet tall to learn how to fire heavy weapons. He was then ordered to play for the Marine Corps
football team and spent three years playing exhibition games against service teams.
Marine coach Dick Hanley was the Rocket coach after the war and took Lahey and Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch
with him. Lahey’s bonus was a new car and a lease on an apartment.
Lahey worked off-season as a heating oil salesman and later managed an Illinois oil distribution firm.

His discus record at BGHS stood for more than 30 years.
Surviving are his wife, Patsy; sons Michael and Mark; brothers David, and Kenneth, Walbridge; sisters,
Mary Buchman, Bowling Green, and Ilene Devine; five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
The funeral was Wednesday in Skokie, Ill.