 Carter from the official 1882 Navy football team portrait | |
| Biographical details | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 14, 1863[Note 1] Davidson County, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Died | Before 1930 |
| Playing career | |
| 1882 | Navy |
| Position(s) | Rusher |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1882 | Navy |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 1–0 |
| Signature | |
 | |
Vaulx Carter[Note 2] (August 14, 1863 – before 1930) was an American naval officer, athlete, and engineer associated with the United States Naval Academy football program. Carter was born in Tennessee, a member of the Carter family of Davidson County, and included among his siblings Medal of Honor recipient William Harding Carter and New Age religious figure Laura Carter Holloway. Raised in Brooklyn following the deaths of his parents, Carter was admitted into the Naval Academy at the age of 17. While there, he revived the school's football program and led it as player and coach, later earning the epithet "father of Navy football". An accident in 1883 left Carter permanently disabled and forced him to resign from the Naval Academy.
Information about Carter following his resignation from the academy is scarce. One Navy football historian described him as having "disappeared from the historical record".[2] He attended some classes at Swarthmore College in 1883, but he did not complete a course. During the late 1880s, Carter was an instructor at the Hebrew Technical Institute and also worked as an engineer; he designed a parachute and a model of a plan for the Nicaragua Canal, both of which attracted media attention. During the 1890s, he was an assignee for several corporations in New York City. Carter later served as a lieutenant in the New York Naval Militia and worked for the New York City government. During the 1920s, he lived with his sister Laura on a farm in upstate New York, managing her accounts and occasionally contributing articles to a magazine she edited. According to census records, Carter died sometime before 1930.
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- ^ Naval Academy Athletics Association (2020), pg. 160
- ^ Clary (1997), p. 11