Walter Tin Kit "Sneeze" Achiu ( Chinese: 徐天杰) (August 3, 1902March 21, 1989) was an American football player of Chinese descent. He was a graduate of The Kamehameha Schools and Saint Louis College (now

Saint Louis School Saint Louis School, located in the neighborhood of St. Louis Heights in Honolulu, Hawaii, is a historic Catholic college preparatory school for boys. It was founded in 1846 to serve Catholics in the former Kingdom of Hawaii. Located within the ...

) in Honolulu, Hawaii. Achiu is most well known for being the first person of

East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...

n descent to play in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

. He was one of the first people of a minority to play in any major American professional sports league, preceding Jackie Robinson's entry to

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

by twenty years. He was elected into the

University of Dayton The University of Dayton (UD) is a Private university, private, Catholic research university in Dayton, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1850 by the Society of Mary (Marianists), Society of Mary, it is one of three Marianist universities in the U ...

Athletic Hall of Fame in 1974.

College career

Achiu was a standout three-sport athlete (football, baseball, and track) at the

from 1922–1927.

Professional career

Achiu played for the now-defunct Dayton Triangles of the NFL in 1927 and 1928. He was primarily used as a

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offense ...

and

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 ...

. He played in eleven games with the Triangles, starting five. Achiu later became a well-known professional wrestler.

References

External links

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University of Dayton Athletic Hall of Fame Members
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Achiu, Sneeze Dayton Flyers football players Dayton Triangles players 1902 births 1989 deaths Players of American football from Honolulu American sportspeople of Chinese descent Hawaii people of Chinese descent Asian American players of American football