Frank Mount Pleasant Franklin P . Mount Pleasant ( 1884 – April 12 , 1937 ) was an American football player , track and field athlete , and college athletics coach . He played college football at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and at Dickinson College and competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics . Mount Pleasant served as the head football coach at Franklin & Marshall College ( 1910 ) , Indiana Normal School , now Indiana University of Pennsylvania , ( 1911 – 1913 ) , West Virginia Wesleyan College ( 1914 ) , and the University at Buffalo ( 1915 ) . Early life and athletic career . Separated from his parents , Chief John ( aka Frank Senior ) and Rachael , Mount Pleasant was sent to attend Indian Boarding Schools at a young age . He eventually attended the Carlisle Indian Industrial School from 1905 to 1909 , where he competed as both a long jumper on the track team and as a quarterback and halfback on the football team . The 1907 Carlisle Indian team , coached by Glenn Scobey Warner , went 10 – 1 with a 26 – 6 victory over perennial powerhouse , Harvard . The team ' s only loss of the season came against Princeton in a game in which Mount Pleasant did not play . Mount Pleasant ' s teammates included future Pro Football Hall of Fame r , Jim Thorpe , and future College Football Hall of Fame inductee , Albert Exendine . Despite being a second - team All - American , Mount Pleasant never played professional football . It is said that Mount Pleasant invented the spiral pass . During college , Mount Pleasant tried out for the Olympics and became the first Carlisle student to qualify making both the 1904 and 1908 U . S . Olympic track teams . At the 1908 Olympics in London , Mount Pleasant finished sixth in both the triple jump and the long jump competitions . This ended his track and field career , leaving him with career bests of for the long jump and for the triple jump . Coaching career . Upon his return home , Mount Pleasant became the first Native American to graduate from Dickinson College . For three years thereafter , he coached football at the Indiana Normal School . His last two teams won state championships . Mt . Pleasant was the head coach for the Franklin & Marshall Diplomats football team located in Lancaster , Pennsylvania . He held that position for the 1910 season . His coaching record at Franklin & Marshall was 4 wins , 3 losses and 2 ties . As of the conclusion of the 2010 season , this ranks him # 25 at Franklin & Marshall in total wins and # 16 at the school in winning percentage ( ) . In 1915 , he coached the University of Buffalo football team to a 3 wins , 4 loss season . Mount Pleasant ' s coaching career was cut short by World War I , where he served his country as a first lieutenant . Later life , death , and honors . After the war , Mount Pleasant settled in Buffalo , New York , near his ancestral home and worked odd jobs throughout the remainder of his life . He enjoyed playing the piano . His death is a mystery . In 1937 , 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 . " But Francis M . Kujawa , the Buffalo medical examiner , ultimately ruled the death the effects of an accidental fall . Several Hall of Fames have inducted Mount Pleasant , including the Indiana Normal School , Dickinson College , and the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame ( 1973 ) . Chapman University in Southern California named a library after Mount Pleasant .