NFF Gold Medal Recipients
Biography
Before he was the NFF’s Gold Medal Award recipient or a Brigadier General, Charles Meyer was Army’s brilliant breakaway halfback of the 1930s. A runner-up for the very first Heisman Trophy, Meyer was named a 1935 All-American. Meyer graduated from West Point in 1937 and led troops in the Pacific Theater under the overall command of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the 1959 Gold Medal recipient, during World War II and again in Korea, and was wounded twice. In addition he served in Vietnam and was a Pearl Harbor survivor. After 30 years of military service, Meyer retired in 1967 as a Brigadier General.
Meyer received the Sports Illustrated Silver Anniversary All-American Award in 1961. He was inducted into the Lehigh Valley chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame in 1983. During his military career, Meyer was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross, a Silver Star with oak leaf cluster, and a Purple Heart with oak leaf cluster. He died Aug. 11, 2001, in Hampton, N.H. and is buried at the West Point Cemetery at the United States Military Academy in New York.
