Owen Smaulding
1918
New Mexico Office of African American Affairs

Track-and-field athlete Owen Smaulding was born in 1900 in Clatyon, NM and moved to Albuquerque where he attended Albuquerque High. A phenomenal track and field star, he was named the most outstanding athlete in the United States in 1915. He also participated in football, tennis, baseball and race-car driving, He was an important figure in the Negro Leagues of baseball, playing for the Kansas City Monarchs, the Collegians, and later, the St. Louis Blues. In St. Louis, as a pitcher, he was in the rotation with the legendary Satchel Page. Some of the records in track and field that Smaulding established at Albuquerque High still stand.