Indian Territory-born Augustus Van Edmondson served in WWI before a short stint in the National Football League
- Dennis McCaslin
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Augustus Van Edmondson was born on June 6, 1899, in Delaware District, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory. This area later became Delaware County, after statehood in 1907.
His father was James Turner Edmondson, and his mother was Julia Ann Phillips. He grew up in a family with roots in the region, connected to earlier settlers and Cherokee Nation lands
.He attended Marysville High School in Arkansas. There he first played football in 1916. Around 1917, at age 18, he enlisted in the United States Army for World War I. He served during the war and played on a military service football team.
He rose to the rank of sergeant.
After his discharge, Edmondson enrolled at the University of Oklahoma. He joined the freshman football team in 1919. In 1920 he earned his first varsity playing time as a sophomore when an injury opened a spot for him. He started as a guard and played every minute of games after his debut against Washington University in St. Louis.
A profile from that time described him as a tough 204-pound lineman who made it hard for opponents to run plays through him .In 1921 he shifted to tackle. He earned a varsity letter that year and received honorable mention all-conference honors as a junior.
For the 1922 season he was selected as alternate captain. When the elected captain, Howard Marsh, became ineligible at the start of the year, Edmondson took over as team captain. Marsh later returned and resumed leadership duties.
After graduation Edmondson served as president of the university's athletic association, a position he was elected to in March 1922.
On April 18, 1924, in Harris County, Texas, he married Pearl Earle Gasaway. She was born on August 3, 1904, in St. Louis, Missouri. The couple had at least one daughter, Betty Earl Edmondson.
They settled in the San Antonio area of Texas.
Edmondson stayed out of football for four years after college. In 1926, at age 27, he signed with the Buffalo Rangers of the National Football League. He wore number 6 and played center.
He appeared in five games, starting three of them. The Rangers finished the 1926 season with a 4-4-2 record, placing ninth in the league. He did not return for the next season and retired from professional football.
Pearl served in the U.S. Army during World War II and reached the rank of first lieutenant.
The family lived in San Antonio, and later in nearby Terrell Hills
. Pearl died on January 16, 1985, at age 80. She was buried at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio.
Augustus Van Edmondson died on March 4, 1998, in San Antonio at the age of 98. At the time of his death he was the last surviving former player from the Buffalo Rangers and one of the oldest living former NFL players.
Due to his World War I service he was buried on March 9, 1998, at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, in Plot 1, Section 820, alongside Pearl
.His life spanned nearly a full century. He moved from frontier roots in Indian Territory to college athletics, a brief professional career in the early NFL, military service in two world wars through family, and a long retirement in Texas.
He left a record of steady performance on the field and quiet endurance off it.
