University of Vermont Athletics

Charles A. Foster 1965 - Baseball, Basketball, Football

Certainly one of the more versatile athletes in UVM annals, Charlie Foster, a 1984 Athletic Hall of Fame inductee, excelled as a baseball pitcher and a football player, and was once asked to play varsity basketball.

While playing for the late Ralph LaPointe, Foster served as captain of the Vermont baseball team and was All-Yankee Conference pick in his junior and senior years. As a junior, he led the nation with a 1.30 earned run average, at the time the third lowest in school history. He would go on to play every position except catcher as a senior in baseball, hitting .293 and winning the Larry Gardner MVP Award.

In the final two games of his senior year, UVM needed a pair of wins over Rhode Island to earn a share (with Connecticut) of the conference title, and Foster led the way. In the first, he pitched a three-hitter for the win. In the second, playing shortstop, he drove in four runs with four hits, including a triple and a home run to lead the Catamounts to 6-2 win. He finished with a 2.06 career ERA, one of the top five in school-history.

In football, he was the Yankee Conference's top punter and would earn two varsity letters on the gridiron. At the senior's banquet in the spring of 1965, Foster was awarded the Russell O. Sunderland Memorial Trophy, given annually to the man in the senior class who, throughout his college years, best exemplifies the qualities of character, leadership, and persistence in overcoming obstacles. That same year, he was chosen as a Kappa Sigma Al-America baseball player.

He went on to become a senior geologist with Stone and Webster in Boston. Foster and his wife, Marie, live in Plymouth, Mass., with their children; James, Kelley, and Derek.