Lyons Kelliher
American football player and police detective

Edward Lyons Kelliher (August 11, 1903 – January 25, 1956) was an American football player and police detective.
Kelliher was born on August 11, 1903, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of police captain and lieutenant Patrick Kelliher. He did not attend college.
In 1928, at the age of 25, he was signed to play professional football by the Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). He played the end and guard positions, and appeared in one game with the team.
He later became a police detective in Chicago. He died on January 25, 1956, at the age of 52, after being shot and killed during an investigation.
He and his partner were at the Boulevard Hotel in Chicago during a narcotics investigation. They were arresting two wanted men and searching them for weapons when one pulled out a .38 caliber pistol and started firing, then fled. Kelliher was shot twice in the chest and his partner was hit in the hand.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Lyons Kelliher” is american football player and police detective. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Lyons, Kelliher and American, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “american football player and police detective” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q109984435. The first chronological checks are 1903, 1956 and 1928.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Lyons Kelliher”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Lyons Kelliher primary sources, Lyons Kelliher archive and Lyons research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Lyons Kelliher”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Lyons Kelliher” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.