[2] Known as "Elmer Ponder", he was a right-handed major league pitcher (1917, 1919–21) with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs.
He was of Cherokee descent and played with other famous "Indian players" of his generation such as Ben Shaw, Moses Yellow Horse, Bill Marriot and Virgil Cheeves.
For Elmer Ponder's baseball career, he compiled a 17–27 record, with a 3.21 earned run average, and 113 strikeouts in 378⅔ innings pitched.
His father had owned a bank in Magnum, OK. Ponder was alumnus of the University of Oklahoma, where he was a captain and second baseman, as well as playing on the basketball team.
Elmer Ponder had a successful automobile and finance company in Albuquerque, New Mexico and he lived there with his wife, Zelpha, until his death at the age of 80.