teammates as the captain of the 1926 team. He was the first Asian-American to be selected as the captain of an American college football team. Matsu was considered a "triple-threat man" due to his ability to pass, run, and punt. While much of the press coverage focused on the novelty of a Japanese football player, the coverage also emphasized his athleticism. In October 1925, one writer notedHarvard probably will face something new Saturday in playing William and Mary College to the extent of being opposed by a Japanese quarterback. Yale had a Chinese shortstop but so far as known, Art Matsu is the only Japanese playing college football in the east. ... Matsu ... is a splendid player and good field general. He gained further notice for scoring against every major college football team that he played against from 1923 to 1925. In February 1926, another sportswriter observed: "An able, consistent punter, good ball carrier, and sure tackler, the Japanese makes up in brains and speed what he lacks in poundage." A nationally syndicated profile on Matsu was published in the fall of 1926; the article reviewed his academic and sporting accomplishments and concluded: "The college with its 1,100 students, half of whom are coeds, are proud of their Jap Captain, the first of his nationality to gain fame on the gridiron." After a game against Harvard in 1925, The New York Times wrote Matsu, the quarterback, who is of Scotch and Japanese parents, played a splendid game. Besides punting in fine fashion and making some steady advances when he carried the ball, the tall and thin player saved his team many times when he called the plays so that the Crimson defense was baffled. Matsu also served as a campus leader at William & Mary and was elected as the president of the Varsity Club and a member of the school's secret society, the Seven Society. In 1924, while Matsu was attending William & Mary, the State of Virginia passed a law prohibiting marriage between whites and Asians, a law under which the marriage between Matsu's parents would have been illegal. One author has suggested that the law may have passed in response to the presence and popularity of Matsu on the William & Mary campus: "[F]ears that Matsu's popularity would spark interracial fraternization may have helped prompt Virginia's Legislature to pass the Racial Purity Act in 1924, extending