THE WICHITA EAGLE, SUNDAY MORNING, FEBRU

WICHITAN WINS NATIONAL SPORT FAME DESPITE INABILITY TO HEAR

©
Dalton Fuller, Deaf-mute

Who Starred in Three
Sports, Started Career
40 Years Ago

The life of the average athlete,
with everything in his favor, is
hardly one sweet song, but with the
cards stacked against him from the
start, it is something else again.

Dalton Fuller, Wichita deaf-mute,
serves as a practical illustration of
the will to do things being sufficient
to the needs thereof, for in spite of
his handicap, one that would have
deterred many from even attempt-
ing to do anything in that line, he
has been in turn, a basketball player,
baseball player -nd last, but not
least in any manner, a gridiron ath-
lete of high ability.

One of the finest tributes to Fuller,
and incidentally, one of his cher-
ished mementos, is a letter from For-
rest C. (Phog) Allen, famous di-
rector of athletics at Kansas uni-
versity. Allen, who recalls Fuller’s
start in athletics, particularly bas-
ketball, when the Wichitan was an
honor student at the Olathe school
for the deaf, pays high praise to the
latter for his ability and also his
sportsmanship under fire. ,

Fuller’s association with Allen
dates back to 1903, when basketball
was. virtually in its swaddlitig¢
clothes, - particularly in Kansas.
Many of the smaller schools had yet
to take the venture into the sport
that has since become outstanding
in the Sunflower state, where many
of the greatest exponents have had
their start and made national his.-
tory. In that year Fuller was a
member of the Olathe team, which
opposed Kansas university, Allen ap-
pearing in the Jayhawker lineup.
K. U. won 32 to 15, Fuller recalling
that the Kansas mentor played a
starring role in the defeat of the
Olathe squad.

Professional Player :

Starting his baseball career at
the age of 16 years, Fuller soon
found his way to professional cir-
cles, much of his education along
that line coming from the famous
Luther (Dummy) Taylor, who was
connected with the school and ac
the same time a star hurler for the