Frank Mount Pleasant
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Biographical details | |
---|---|
Born | Tuscarora Reservation, New York, U.S. | June 13, 1884
Died | April 12, 1937 Buffalo, New York, U.S. | (aged 52)
Playing career | |
Football | |
1905–1907 | Carlisle |
1908–1909 | Dickinson |
Position(s) | West Virginia Wesleyan |
1915 | Buffalo |
Basketball | |
1910–1911 | Franklin & Marshall |
Baseball | |
1911 | Franklin & Marshall |
Head coaching record | |
Overall | 35–15–3 (football) 4–4 (basketball) 5–7–1 (baseball) |
Franklin Pierce Mount Pleasant Jr. (June 13, 1884 – April 12, 1937) was a Native American football player, track and field athlete, and coach of football, basketball, and baseball. He played college football at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and Dickinson College and graduated from Dickinson in 1910. He was the first Native American to graduate from Dickinson. He made the 1904 and 1908 US Olympic track teams, placing sixth in the triple jump and long jump at the 1908 Summer Olympics. [1][2]
Mount Pleasant served as the head football coach at
Early life and athletic career
Franklin Pierce Mount Pleasant Jr., called Frank, was born into the nation on the
He eventually attended the
His teammates included Jim Thorpe, future Pro Football Hall of Famer, and Albert Exendine, future College Football Hall of Fame inductee. Despite being a second-team All-American, Mount Pleasant never played professional football; the National Football League (NFL) was not started until 1920. He did play semi-pro football in Buffalo, New York.[1] Mount Pleasant, under Coach Pop Warner, was arguably the first to throw the spiral pass.
During college, Mount Pleasant tried out for the
Coaching career
After the Olympics, Mount Pleasant completed his studies at
Later life and death
After the war, Mount Pleasant settled in
His death in 1937 is a mystery, as two policemen found him unconscious on a Buffalo sidewalk. He died three days later at Emergency Hospital. Initial reports indicated that Mount Pleasant sustained a fractured skull, "possibly by violence."[7] But the next day, Francis M. Kujawa, the Buffalo medical examiner, ruled the death as the result of an accidental fall.[8]
Legacy and honors
Mount Pleasant was posthumously inducted into the
Head coaching record
Football
Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Franklin & Marshall (Independent) (1910) | |||||||||
1910 | Franklin & Marshall | 4–3–2 | |||||||
Franklin & Marshall: | 4–3–2 | ||||||||
Indiana Normal (Independent) (1911–1913) | |||||||||
1911 | Indiana Normal | 5–3–1 | |||||||
1912 | Indiana Normal | 9–1 | |||||||
1913 | Indiana Normal | 9–1 | |||||||
Indiana Normal: | 23–5–1 | ||||||||
West Virginia Wesleyan Bobcats (Independent) (1914)
| |||||||||
1914 | West Virginia Wesleyan | 4–3 | |||||||
West Virginia Wesleyan: | 4–3 | ||||||||
Buffalo Bulls (Independent) (1915) | |||||||||
1915 | Buffalo | 4–4 | |||||||
Buffalo: | 4–4 | ||||||||
Total: | 35–15–3 |
References
- ^ a b c d e f Olympic Sports. Frank Mount Pleasant Archived February 5, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Sports Reference
- ^ "Frank Mount Pleasant". Olympedia. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
- ^ Sally Jenkins, "The Team That Invented Football", Sports Illustrated, 19 April 2007
- ^ DeLassus, David. "Franklin & Marshall Coaching Records". College Football Data Warehouse. Archived from the original on November 21, 2010. Retrieved April 9, 2011.
- .
- ^ "1915 Buffalo Football," University at Buffalo Sports History Collection - May 29, 2013.
- ^ "Indian Gridiron Star Dead" (PDF). The New York Times. Associated Press. April 13, 1937. Retrieved February 8, 2011.
- ^ "Mt. Pleasant Death Is Ascribed To Fall", Lockport (N.Y.) Union-Sun and Journal, 14 April 1937
- ^ American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame Archived 2009-10-26 at the Wayback Machine, official website
- ^ "Culture of the Haudenosaunee" Colloquium, 13 April 2007, Chapman University