Solomon Wellings “Sol” Butler (March 3, 1895 – December 1, 1954) was a multi-talented athlete who competed in American football and track and field. He finished seventh in the long jump competition at the 1920 Summer Olympics. He also played in the National Football League for the Hammond Pros, Akron Pros, Canton Bulldogs, Buffalo Bisons, and Rock Island Independents. Referenced sometimes as Edward Solomon Butler, was a name used by alternate people to gain notoriety off the exploits of Solomon W. Butler in various parts of the country.
Early life
Butler was born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, the youngest child of Ben and Mary Butler. His father was from Morgan County, Alabama, and born a slave in 1842; his mother was born in Georgia in 1867. His father fought in the Civil War and took the last name of Butler from General Butler whom he admired. The Butler family escaped slavery and settled in Wichita, Kansas, before moving to Hutchinson, Kansas, in 1909. "Sol", as he was known, made the varsity football team as a starting halfback during his freshman year. He led the school in football and in track and field. His sophomore year, he helped Hutchinson to a runner-up finish at the state meet after setting state records in the 100-yard dash. In 1913, as a junior in Hutchinson High School (Kansas) at a district meet he won six firsts, broke five meet records and unofficially broke a world record in the 50-yard dash. He along with his older brother Benjamin followed his high school coach to Rock Island High School in Rock Island, Illinois, for his senior season in 1914. Facing 300 of the best track stars of the Midwest in Chicago, he competed in the regional interscholastic meet held at Northwestern University. He placed in the 60-yard dash and hurdles, the 440 yard dash, and also in the broad jump. He broke one meet record, tied a world record, and won fourth place overall, competing against entire track teams.
Butler earned 12 varsity letters competing in football, basketball, baseball and track and field at the University of Dubuque from 1915 to 1919. According to Arthur Ashe Jr.'s book Hard Road to Glory, A History of the African-American Athlete, Butler was the first African American to quarterback a team for all four years of college. In Butler's day, the track and field of activity was restricted. There was no national collegiate meet and very little indoor competition. Even the Drake Relays, then in their formative years, provided no such event as the broad jump. Butler went to the Penn Relays for that competition and twice won the championship. In 1919, to illustrate, Butler won both the 100-yard dash and broad jump at the Penn Relays. Entering military service as a soldier in World War I as he represented the U.S. Army in the Inter-Allied Games in Paris, where he won the long jump. He was knighted by the King of Montenegro, who made Butler a Knight of the Third Order of Danilo. With the Olympic Games scheduled for renewal in 1920 after the wartime interruption in 1916, Butler was rated as a heavy favorite for the championship. His winning jump at Paris, , was two inches from the Olympic record and was considered a strong possibility for a new Olympic record. Butler went to Antwerp for the 1920 Olympics, but misfortune nailed him quickly. On his very first jump in the Olympic preliminaries he pulled a tendon and was forced to withdraw. The injury-hampered effort was a shade under 21-8. He won the U.S. National Amateur Athletic Union championship that same year by jumping .
NFL
He signed on with the NFL in 1923 with the Rock Island Independents, which local accounts raved about his first appearance in the victory over the Chicago Bears. His contract from Rock Island was sold to the Hammond Pros in November 1923 for the remainder of the season for $10,000. In 1925, Butler played for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro leagues briefly, going 0-3. Later, returning to football, Butler played alongside Jim Thorpe of the Canton Bulldogs where he was named starting quarterback in 1926. In 1926, the New York Giants refused to let its all-white team on the field in front of the largest crowd ever (40,000) to watch an NFL game until Canton withdraw Butler as starting quarterback.