Goodreault was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1917. His parents were Eugene J. Goodreault and Rose M. Goodreault. He attended Haverhill High School where he was known as "Goo-Goo" Goodreault and was a member of the football, baseball and track teams.
Boston College
Goodreault enrolled at Boston College in 1937. The school's publicity director, Billy Sullivan befriended Goodreault and helped him to obtain therapy to overcome a speech impediment. As a member of Boston College's football team, Goodreault was five feet, ten inches tall and weighed 180 pounds. His profile at the College Football Hall of Fame described him as follows: "Fast, powerful and alert, Gene Goodreault was outstanding as a pass-catcher and play-maker blocker on offense and as a play-blaster, destructive tackler on defense." In 1939, Goodreault's junior year, Frank Leahy was hired as the head of the Boston College Eagles football team. Goodreault helped lead the Eagles to a 9-2 record and the school's first bowl game, and appearance in the 1940 Cotton Bowl. At the end of the 1939 season, Goodreault received All-East honors and was also the first recipient of the George H. "Bulger" Lowe Trophy in 1940 as the outstanding football player in New England. As a senior, Goodreault was a member of the 1940 Boston College team that compiled an undefeated record of 11-0, outscored opponents 320 to 52, recorded six shutouts, and defeated #6 Tennessee in the 1941 Sugar Bowl. After the season, Goodreault was selected as a consensus player on the 1940 College Football All-America Team. He received first-team honors from, among others, the United Press, the International News Service, the Central Press Association, and Collier's Weekly.
Later years
Goodreault was selected in the second round in the 1941 NFL Draft, but he did not play in the NFL. He served in the United States Navy during World War II and operated a wool brokerage business in Massachusetts after the war. He lived in Haverhill until 2004. Goodreault was inducted into the College FootballHall of Fame in 1982. He was also honored by Boston College as one of the inaugural inductees into its Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 1970. In 2001, Boston College retired his #50 jersey in a halftime ceremony at Alumni Stadium. Goodreault moved to California in 2004. He died from cancer in 2010 at age 91 in Orinda, California.
