Hall of Fame
Henry Owl (posthumous) was the first Cherokee to graduate from a North Carolina college and the first-ever Native American to be admitted to L-R and represent the school in athletics.  An outstanding all-around athlete, Owl played three years on both the football (1925-27) and baseball (1926-28) squads and still holds the record for longest fumble return for a touchdown (1927 vs. Milligan).  Owl was also the first American Indian to be admitted to the University of North Carolina in 1928 and earned his master’s degree in history in 1929 from UNC.  Owl testified before the United States Senate advocating for American Indian voting rights and was instrumental in the passage of a law granting citizenship rights to members of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians, the last Indian tribe in the country to be guaranteed the right to vote.  Owl, who passed away in 1980, was an educator and coach for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and worked for Boeing Aeronautical in Seattle, Wash.
