Carlton R. McDonald (born February 20, 1971) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

player. He was a consensus All-American

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

while playing for the

Air Force Falcons football The Air Force Falcons football program represents the United States Air Force Academy in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) level. Air Force has been a member of the Mountain West Conference s ...

team in 1992.

Air Force Academy

McDonald attended the

United States Air Force Academy The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academy in El Paso County, Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs. It educates cadets for service in the officer corps of the United States Air Force and Uni ...

Colorado Springs, Colorado Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

. While attending the Academy, he played at the

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such offensive running plays as sweeps and reverses. They create tur ...

position for the

team from 1989 to 1992 under head coach

Fisher DeBerry James Fisher DeBerry (born June 8, 1938) is a retired American football player. He served as the head football coach at the United States Air Force Academy from 1984 to 2006, compiling a record of 169–109–1. DeBerry led 17 of his 23 Air Forc ...

. In the 1990

Liberty Bowl The Liberty Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in late December or early January since 1959. For its first five years, it was played at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia before being held at Atlantic City ...

, McDonald intercepted two passes, including one late in the game that he returned 40 yards for a touchdown to clinch the Falcons' 23-11 victory over

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

. As a senior, McDonald was selected as a consensus

on the

1992 College Football All-America Team The 1992 College Football All-America team is composed of college football players who were selected as All-Americans by various organizations and publications that chose College Football All-America Teams in 1992. It is an honor given annually to ...

. He was also selected as the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington (state), Washington, and Texa ...

defensive player of the year in both 1991 and 1992. He also finished second in the voting for the 1992

Thorpe Award The Jim Thorpe Award, named in memory of multi-sport athlete Jim Thorpe, has been awarded to the top defensive back in college football since 1986. It is voted on by the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame. In 2017, the award became sponsored by Paycom ...

, presented to the top defensive back in college football since 1986. During his playing career, he was six feet tall and weighed 195 pounds.

Later years

After graduating from the Air Force Academy in 1993, McDonald served five years in the Air Force as a finance officer. He subsequently became employed by Winn-Dixie at its headquarters in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...

. He also became a pilot for the

Florida Air National Guard The Florida Air National Guard (FL ANG) is the aerial militia of the State of Florida. It is, along with the Florida Army National Guard (FL ARNG), an element of the Florida National Guard. It is also an element of the Air National Guard (ANG) ...

. In 2013, he was inducted into the Air Force Academy's Sports Hall of Fame.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McDonald, Carlton 1971 births Living people All-American college football players American football cornerbacks Air Force Falcons football players Place of birth missing (living people)