A native of South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, de Saulles attended the Lawrenceville School where he was captain of both the football and baseball teams.

In 1906, the New York Sun reported that de Saulles was affiliated with the Lasharpe football team in Iola, Kansas.

The Sun reported that de Saulles and Yale teammate Jim Rodgers were working together at Lasharpe and had turned a group of miners into a football team that had soundly beaten the Haskell Indians and Bethany College, and gone undefeated for two years.

James Rodgers, captain of the 97 Yale eleven, and Charles A. de Saulles, one of the fastest and most daring quarter backs on Eli's long roll of honor, are the coaches who have turned the miners into one of the most effective gridiron machines in the Middle West.

Johnny is a brother of Charlie de Saulles, the great football and baseball player of 1898 and 1899, and his work is true to family traditions.

[12] The murder and trial became a daily reported news story, relegating the First World War that was raging in Europe to the inside pages of the newspapers.

[13] Charles de Saulles was drawn into the media sensation as he defended his brother's honor and sought custody of the couple's only child.