Carl Etelman (1900-1963), Tufts College class of 1924, was the first Tufts alum to play professional football. His wife, Idyla Etelman (1903-1986), Jackson College class of 1925, was heavily involved with Tufts alumni activities throughout her life. Carl and Idyla Etelman had two children, Richard G. Etelman (1931-1998), Tufts College class of 1956, and Barbara G. Fullington (1928- ), Jackson College class of 1947, the latter of whom was also heavily involved in Tufts alumni activities. Idyla Etelman’s brother Benjamin D. Gould (1904-1978), Tufts College class of 1927, served as Mayor of Vergennes, Vermont.

History of Carl Etelman family

Carl Etelman

Carl Etelman (1900-1963) was the first Tufts alum to play professional football. Carl Etelman was born on April 1, 1900 in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. After attending Fairhaven High School, he enrolled at Tufts College in 1920. While at Tufts, Etelman was a member of Phi Epsilon Pi and a letterman in football, baseball, basketball, track, and wrestling. He is perhaps best known for kicking a 48-yard field goal with a broken foot, helping Tufts defeat Massachusetts Agricultural College (later the University of Massachusetts Amherst) in the final game of the 1923 season. After receiving his Bachelor’s from Tufts in 1924, Carl Etelman went on for graduate study at Boston University and Harvard University.

Following the 1923 football season, the New York Times named Carl Etelman quarterback of their All-Eastern team. He went on to play one season with the Boston Bulldogs of the American Football League and a few games with the Providence Steam Rollers of the National Football League before retiring from playing professionally.

Following his stint as a professional football player, Carl Etelman taught and coached football at Whitman High School in Whitman, Massachusetts for 18 years. Starting in 1945 and continuing until his death in 1963, he was a sales manager for Ward Machinery Co. of Brockton, Massachusetts. Carl Etelman was heavily involved in a number of civic endeavors. He was a past master of the Puritan and Ezra Lodges, chairman of the finance committee of his local Republican Party, director of several youth camps, and Chairman of the Temple Israel Hebrew School in Brockton, Massachusetts, where he helped found the Tufts South Shore Club.

Carl Etelman passed away on December 18, 1963 in Boston, Massachusetts at the age of 63.

Idyla Etelman

Idyla Etelman (1903-1986) was a Jackson College alum and a recipient of the Distinguished Service Award. Idyla Etelman was born Idyla Florence Gould on February 24, 1903, in Russia. She moved to the United States at the age of 3, and thereafter grew up in Barre, Vermont. After studying at Goddard Seminary, she enrolled in Jackson College in the fall of 1921. While at Jackson, Etelman was president of the Knight House and an officer of the History Club. In her junior year, she was the Phi Beta Kappa speaker. Idyla Etelman graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor’s from Jackson College in 1925.

Following graduation from Tufts, Idyla Etelman was a teacher in Westerly, Rhode Island; Plymouth, Massachusetts; Pembroke, Massachusetts; and Marshfield, Massachusetts, where she was the head of the Marshfield High School English Department.

Idyla Etelman was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by Tufts in 1967. She was a life member of the Jackson Association of Tufts Alumnae, co-chaired every Class of 1925 reunion for fifty years, and was a charter member of the Tufts South Shore Club. In 1967, it was estimated that Idyla Etelman’s efforts as a teacher and volunteer were responsible for sending more than one hundred students to Tufts.

Idyla F. Gould married Carl Etelman after meeting at Tufts and took Etelman’s last name. They had one daughter, Barbara, and one son, Richard. Idyla Etelman passed away on April 7, 1986 in Wellesley, Massachusetts at the age of 83.

Barbara G. Fullington

Barbara Fullington (1928-) is a Jackson alum and a recipient of the Distinguished Service Award.

Barbara Fullington was born Barbara G. Etelman in 1928 to Carl and Idyla Etelman. She enrolled at Jackson College in 1943 and received her Bachelor’s degree in 1947. Over the course of her career, Barbara Fullington was a teacher, author, and the Director of Publicity and Exhibits for the Newton Free Library.

Barbara was a life member of the Jackson Association of Tufts Alumnae, member of the Executive Board of the Alumni Council, and co-chair of several reunions. She was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by Tufts in 1975.

Babara Etelman married a lawyer named George Michaels and had two daughters that they raised together in Newton, Massachusetts. The couple divorced after nearly thirty years of marriage. Barbara Etelman later remarried to Professor Norbert L. Fullington, with whom she stayed until his death in 2001.

Carl Etelman (1900-1963) married Idyla Florence Gould (1903-1986), sister of Benjamin D. Gould (1904-1978). Together, Carl and Idyla Etelman had a son, Richard G. Etelman (1931-1998), and a daughter, Barbara G. (Etelman) Fullington (1928- ). Barbara married George Michaels and had two daughters, Julia Susan Michaels and Faith India Michaels, before divorcing. Barbara later remarried to Norbert L. Fullington (d 2001).