| School: | North Carolina Tar Heels |
| LeRoy Franklin Abernethy | |
| Birth Date: | September 27, 1885 |
| Birth Place: | Hickory, North Carolina |
| Death Date: | [1] |
| Death Place: | Asheville, North Carolina |
| Currentposition: | Fullback |
| Pastschools: | North Carolina A&M (1902–04) North Carolina (1905) |
| Highlights: |
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LeRoy Franklin Abernethy (September 27, 1885 – November 9, 1959) was an American college football player from North Carolina. He played for North Carolina A&M from 1902–04 before transferring to the University of North Carolina for 1905.[2]
Abernethy played first for North Carolina A&M, selected All-Southern by W. S. Kimberly in 1904.[3] [4]
Abernethy was a prominent fullback for the North Carolina Tar Heels football team of the University of North Carolina. He was selected for the position on an all-time Carolina football team of Dr. R. B. Lawson in 1934.[5] On the all time team of Joel Whitaker he was noted as the "probably the best line plunger that has ever been."[6]
He was selected All-Southern by coach R. R. Brown of Washington and Lee University.[7] A fullback did not score three touchdowns again for UNC until Mike Faulkerson in 1992.[8]
By 1910, Abernethy was engaged in the hardware business in his hometown of Hickory.[9] [10]
He later moved to Asheville, where he was a PurÖl distributor and then owner of the Hall-Sell Petroleum Carrier company. During World War II, he helped organize Petroleum Carriers Associates, an emergency oil transport unit,[2] originally named the War Emergency Cooperative Association.[11] In 1941, he married Frieda Burnett Russell in 1941.[12] He died in an Asheville hospital in 1959 after suffering a heart attack at home.[2]