TUSCARORA TRACK STAR FRANK MOUNT PLEASANT BORN—1908 TRACK & FIELD OLYMPIAN
Born on the Tuscarora Reservation in New York, Mount Pleasant attended Carlisle Indian School (1905-09) and later Dickinson College. At Carlisle, Frank was a jumper on the track team and quarterback on the football team alongside Jim Thorpe. In 1908, after finishing second in the long jump at the Eastern Olympic Trials, he joined the 1908 U.S. Olympic team where he competed in the long jump and triple jump, finishing 6th in both events. He later coached football at Indiana Normal School (now Indiana University of Pennsylania) from 1911-13. His last two teams won state championships. His coaching career ended with World War I in which he was commissioned in the Army as a First Lieutenant. Afterward, Mount Pleasant settled in Buffalo, New York, near his ancestral home, and played semi-pro football with the Buffalo All-Stars. He died on April 12, 1937, in Buffalo, under suspicious circumstances. In 1998, Frank was inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Source: “Frank Mount Pleasant,” SR/Olympic Sports. Retrieved 5/13/2020, https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/mo/frank-mount-pleasant-1.html Photo: Author unknown, 1912. Public Domain. Source: https://archive.org/stream/instano1912indi#page/226/mode/1up
Indigenous America Calendar 