Connolly (James Brendan) is born in South Boston.

The son of Irish immigrants, James Brendan Connolly grows up in South Boston, works for the Army Corps of Engineers Corps, then enrolls at Harvard College, but is forced to drop out when the school refuses to give him a leave of absence to compete to in the Olympic Games. Connolly wins the first gold medal in the modern games in 1896,* returning to Boston and works as a newspaper and magazine correspondent, then serves in the U.S. Army in Cuba during the Spanish Civil War in 1898.* He becomes an itinerant seaman, continues in journalism and goes on to write fiction, is elected to Congress in 1914, and subsequently live at 9 Braemore Road. Connolly dies in Brookline on January 20, 1957, and is buried in Holyhood Cemetery. A statue in his honor is dedicated in 1987.*