Born in
Byblos, Lebanon, Jemail moved with his family to
Newport, Rhode Island, when he was five years old. He was the first American of
Lebanese descent to be accepted into the
U.S. Naval Academy, where he played football. After being sidelined by an injury his first year, he transferred to
Brown University where he started as a
quarterback and
halfback and played in the
1916 Rose Bowl. He is distinguished as being the first Lebanese to play in the
National Football League (NFL). Jemail served in
World War I. After leaving the Navy, he found work as a security guard for
The Daily News. He was made inquiring photographer just thirty minutes after being hired as a security guard, when the paper's editor "decided that any former Navy officer and Ivy League football player who would take an $8 a week job should also make a hard-nosed newsman". Jemail started working for
Sports Illustrated when it was founded in 1954. He had a weekly full page
feature titled ''Jimmy Jemail's Hotbox'' where he would ask a sports question to people from both inside and outside the sporting world. Jemail worked for
The Daily News as a writer-photographer for 52 years and would interview "presidents, premiers, royalty, the rich, the famous, the ordinary and the bums". In 1962, he met President
John F. Kennedy who told him "I've followed your
column for years." President
Richard Nixon called Jemail's column one of the most widely read in
New York City. Jemail retired from
The Daily News in 1973. He died of cancer in
Lenox Hill Hospital on July 26, 1978. == References ==