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Buster Charles

Buster Charles was the first Native American to play football at UNM, and the first UNM Native American student-athlete to gain an Engineering degree and to participate in the Olympic Games as the United States decathlon champion.

Charles, an Oneidan Indian from South Dakota, was a student at Haskell Institute and the University of Kansas before enrolling at UNM in 1930. He was a swift and powerful running back for Roy Johnson and Charles Riley, but it was track and field that he excelled.

Charles won the decathlon at the 1931 U.S. Championships and was primed for a run at the gold medal at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. However, Charles suffered knee and shoulder injuries and a broken back in a football game against Arizona in the fall of `31. He was hospitalized in a body cast for six weeks.

Undaunted by his misfortune, Charles trained day and night for a spot on the U.S. team. He made it, and finished fourth in the Olympic Games. In his honor, Haskell created the Buster Charles Award that is presented annually to the top Native American athlete in the United States. Essentially on the same level as the great Jim Thorpe, Charles was inducted into the Native American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame.