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| In their early games, some spectators were disappointed by the Carlisle Indians. They were expecting a show, more along the lines of Buffalo Bill's WIld West Show. For them the sight of Indians, chewing gum, with short hair,and acting like football players was a let down. |
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'Pop' Warner made many contributions to the Carlilse program, including the following chant:
"Taint no use to stand and whine
When they're coming through the line
Hitch your trousers up and climb
Keep a goin" |
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| The naming of Ed Rodgers as head coach was a controversial move at the time, and brought criticism from people who did not believe the Indians could handle the “brainwork’ and who had assumed all the credit of their previous success was due to the leadership of their white coaches. The Washington Post editorialized: “ ...their victories have undoubtedly been due to the careful coaching of such men as Glenn S. Warner, Cornell, and Bull, Hickok and McCormick of Yale.” |
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| During the 1912 Olympics, future general, George Patton competed against Jim Thorpe in the Pentathlon. |
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During the 1907 and 1908 seasons, Carlisle players were paid. Some stars were paid up to $200 for the year. Most of the payments were $10 - $15 at a time. The players also had better living quarters, and better food than the general population at Carlisle.
In their defense, it should be pointed out, that the Indian students did not have access to the money that they earned during the summer, working on nearby farms, without the written consent of the Indian agent for their tribe. |
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| The Carlisle Indians |
The story of Carlisle Indians began as a result to the violent conflicts that took place on the western plains, as new Americans flooded West, and Native Americans tried to hold onto their way of life. As an attempt to end the violence and bring Native Americans into the American mainstream, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School was formed. The purpose of the school was to educate Indians in the ways of the white man. When it came to the game of football, it would be the Indians that did much of the teaching.
After the Red River War of 1874, the leaders of the uprising, along with their most dangerous followers were held as prisoners. The Indians: Kiowa, Comanche, Cheyenne, Arrapaho and Caddo, would be taken to Fort Marion, in St. Augustine, Florida. |
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| Richard Henry Pratt |
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At Fort Marion a plan would take shape to end the conflicts between Native Americans and Whites, not with bullets but by introducing American education. The man behind the founding of the Carlisle was Lieutenant Richard Henry Pratt. Pratt was a battle hardened cavalry officer who had served in the Civil War, as well as eight years on the frontier. Lieutenant Pratt was assign to take the Indians east and to oversee their imprisonment.
At Fort Marion, Pratt devised a plan to bring Indians into the main stream of American life. He drilled them in military discipline, taught them about Christianity and with the help of Miss Sarah Ann Mather, who had worked to educate freed slaves, he began to educate his captives. Three years later, when the time came for the Indians to return home, 22 of them wanted to remain in the east, to continue their education. Pratt found places for those who wanted to stay, and soon found himself in charge of a pilot program at Hampton Institute. |
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| Pratt lobbied Washington to establish a school for Native Americans at Carlisle Barracks, an abandoned post located near Carlisle, Pennsylvania. On November 1, 1879, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School opened with 147 students. The majority of the students were the children of tribal leaders, sent there to learn the ways of the white man, and save their people from being overwhelmed. |
Some of the most feared warrior chiefs sent their children to Carlisle. The Sioux chief American Horse sent several of his children to Carlisle. His son, Ben American Horse, would play on the first Carlisle football team, along with Delos Lone Wolf, adopted son of the famous Kiowa chief Lone Wolf II.
Just like other campuses across the nation, the students at Carlisle caught football fever. The students took the lead in the formation of the football program. They leveled a field, and took up a collection for a new ball. For the sons of warriors, the game of football seemed a natural fit with the traditional Indian ideals of manhood. The students played intramurals among themselves. They started playing with the a nearby school, Dickinson College, but after a series of injuries, the students were banned from outside competition. |
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| American Horse |
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| Wounded Knee |
During that same period a series of tragic events was beginning to unfold out West. The Ghost Dance phenomenon was spreading throughout the Indian tribes. Believers would dance themselves into a trance, and see visions in which the buffalo would return, the dead would rise, and the world would be wiped clean. The Ghost Dance spread across the nation but was especially popular among the Lakota. They had recently been forced to sell off more of their land, only to have the government cut their rations in half. The government’s coldness undercut the influence of the pragmatic tribal leaders, like American Horse and gave momentum to the Ghost Dance movement.
Newspapers hyped the situation, predicting Indian uprisings, and creating anti Indian sentiments among the public. Among the Sioux, tensions mounted between the believers and the non believers. On December 16, 1890, Sitting Bull was murdered after he announced that he would make a trip to watch the Ghost Dance. The situation at Pine Ridge deteriorated farther when the agent at the reservation called for troops.
The army sent six thousand soldiers to the reservation in an attempt to intimidate the Indians into giving up the Ghost Dance, but the plan backfired. The site of so many troops created a panic. Many Indians fled into the badlands. On December 29th, the army was disarming a band of Indians at Wounded Knee when the situation spun out of control, and the Seventh Cavalry opened fire. They killed 250 Indians, mostly women and children. |
| An Indian Football Team |
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Bemus Pierce
Carlisle’s first captain |
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A few months later a group of Carlisle students met with Pratt in his office to ask for the reinstatement of football. With the Massacre at Wounded Knee still a fresh memory, Pratt agreed. He saw football as a way to counter the wild Indian stereotype that had been reinvigorated by the Ghost Dance.
Pratt agreed to let the boys play football but he set two conditions. As Indians they would make a record for their race, therefore they would be required to always show good sportsmanship, no matter what. Then he told them: “My other condition is this. That in the course of two, three, or four years... you will whip the biggest football team in the country.” When the spokesman for the Indians agreed that they would try, Pratt insisted that he did not want them to promise that they would try. He wanted them to promise that they would do it.
The Indians would keep both of their promises to Pratt. In the years to come they would become the standard bearers for clean play, and sportsmanship. They would also take on the toughest competition. They regularly played against the elite of the Ivy League, and often ended their seasons with trips out west, to take on the up and coming powers of western football. |
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| A long list of quality teams would taste defeat at the hands of the Indians, including: Harvard, Pennsylvania, Army, Syracuse, Columbia, Chicago. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and California. One prize that eluded them was Yale, the perennial power of the early days of football. The Indians played them to a tie in 1896 only to have the game taken from them by a referee’s decision. |
Carlisle developed a style of football that was uniquely their own. Always undersized, they played a wide open style that attacked the ends instead of the power game that was popular at the time. The Indians used speed and deception, tactics not unlike those some of their fathers, the great horseman of the plains, had used in battle. They were helped in their early development by Vance McCormick, a former Yale star who served as their coach. He taught them the fundamentals and helped to mold their personality as a team. He also established a link to the Ivy league teams in the area. Playing the heavyweights of the Ivy League served as a foundation for the team’s legitimacy and growth.
The Carlisle Indians became one of the biggest drawing cards in sports. They played a number of games at the Polo Grounds in New York City, including several Thanksgiving Day events, and received invitations to play post season exhibition games against some of the most powerful teams in the west. Following the 1896 season, they played Wisconsin in an exhibition game at the Chicago Coliseum, the first football game played under electric lights. |
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| Vance McCormick |
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| 'Pop' Warner |
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The legendary coach Glen ‘Pop’ Warner took over in 1899. With his fertile imagination, the speed, and daring of the Carlisle Indians became even more lethal. With aggressive low line charges the Indians would get the upper hand on their opponents. They beat Penn for the Indian’s first win over a member of college football’s Big Four.
Carlisle finished the 1899 season with a record of 8 - 2. The two losses were to Princeton and Harvard, who finished the season ranked 1 and 2 in the nation. On Thanksgiving Day they trounced Columbia, 42 - 0, at the Polo Grounds. After the season, Carlisle traveled to San Francisco to meet the University of California in an exhibition game, on Christmas Day. They finished the season ranked number 4 in the nation. Running back, Isaac Seneca made first team on Walter Camp’s All America team.
‘Pop’ Warner was famous for his deception, and the Indians loved to out wit their opponents. On Oct. 30, 1903 the Carlisle Indians |
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| surprised Harvard with the Hidden Ball Trick, arguably greatest trick play ever. They lost the game but won a moral victory by putting one over on the Harvard students, the elite's of athletics and academics. ‘Pop’ Warner left after the 1903 season to coach at his alma matter, Cornell., but he would miss the wide open style of Carlisle Indians. He returned three years latter, just in time to take advantage of new rule changes that would open up the game, as well as the most talented teams Carlisle would ever produce. |
| Indian Coaches |
In 1904, Pratt was being retired from the Army and his position at Carlisle he had one last act that reinforced his belief in his Indians students. He appointed three of his former students to coach the team. Ed Rodgers was named head coach, Bemus Pierce, and Frank Hudson were his assistants. He gave former players ownership of their own program. At the time it was a controversial move. Not everyone thought the Indians were up to running a team. The doubters included Pratt’s replacement at Carlisle. In spite of a 9 - 2 record, the new superintendent let them go after one year, and hired a white coach, George Woodruff.
Woodruff twice won national championships at Penn. and is in the Hall of Fame, but his style did not fit the Carlisle Indians. The team lost its identity. Instead of the deceptive team that attack the ends, they became just another team that bulled its way up the middle. Woodruff left after one year. Unable to fine a suitable white coach, Mercer, out of necessity, appointed Bemus Pierce as interim head coach. Carlisle went 9 - 3 under Pierce and ended the season ranked fifth in the nation. They ended the season beating western |
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Pratt named former Carlisle student Ed Rodgers head coach |
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power, Minnesota 17 - 0. Hundreds of Indians from the reservations made the trip to Minneapolis to see the Indian team, with Indian coaches, take on Minnesota.
In 1906, in an effort to reduce the death and serious injury that was plaguing the game of football, the rules were changed to open up the game. The players were spread out, vertically by a neutral zone at the line of scrimmage, and horizontally by the legalization of the forward pass. There were severe restrictions on the use of the forward pass, but none the less, the new rules opened up the game in a way that suited the Indian’s wide open style of play. |
| The Single Wing |
In 1907, ‘Pop’ Warner returned to Carlisle. Together he and the Indians developed a new formation that would revolutionize football. The single wing shifted the halfback out wide, to outflank the opposing tackle. The new offense formed a shape that look like a wing. It opened up options and disguised intentions. The ability to show one thing and do another combined with the new rules made it possible to run, throw or kick at any time.
‘Pop’ Warner unveiled the new formation against the University of Pennsylvania, on Oct. 26,1907. So far that season no team had crossed the Quaker’s goal line. Carlisle was undefeated. A large crowd of 22,800 fans looked on. They were expecting a good game but they got more than they bargained for. Carlisle scored on the second play: a 40 yard pass from Hauser to Gardner, caught on the run. The diversified offense racked up 402 yards, to 76 yards for Penn., Carlisle went 8 of 16 passing. The game also marked the debut of Jim Thorpe. He broke free for 45 yards the second time he touched the ball. The Indians won 26 - 6. |
| Harvard 1907 |
Carlisle followed the win against Penn with a loss to Princeton on a rain soaked field at the Polo Grounds. The following week they met the team that they wanted most, Harvard. The sky was blue and the grass was firm and springy at Harvard’s Stadium. 30,000 fans were on hand. They used the disappointment of the loss to Princeton as motivation. Before the game the Carlisle players repeated to themselves “Remember last week!” Carlisle went on to win 23 - 15. It was their first win over Harvard.
Back at the Carlisle campus, students sat in the grandstands at the athletic field, and waited for game updates that were posted on a chalkboard. When the final score was announced there was a wild celebration on campus. At night, the students paraded through the streets of town in their nightshirts. Residents stood in their doorways and cheered them as the band led a snake dance through town. At the head of the parade, students dressed as hospital attendants carried a dummy on a stretcher. The dummy wore a crimson sweater with an H on its chest.
At the close of the 1907 season Carlisle headed west to play Minnesota, and Chicago. They beat Minnesota in a close game 12 - 10. The following week they were underdogs as they took on an undefeated Chicago team, led by the Walter Steffan. It was a highly anticipated match-up between two of the most innovative coaches in the country: Amos Alonzo Stagg versus ‘Pop’ Warner. Neither team was able to do much. Carlisle was able to prevent the open field running of Steffen. Chicago would hit Albert Exindine right before he caught the ball (pass interference was legal). Pete Hauser made two field goals and Exindine scored on a controversial pass from Hauser. Carlisle won 18 - 4. The next day the headline read “Aborigines Win Over Pale Faces.” |
| Army 1912 - The Double Wing |
| In 1912, ‘Pop’ Warner unveiled a new formation, the double wing. With the double wing formation, the were halfbacks shifted closer to the line of scrimmage, and outside of the defensive tackles. Warner’s new formation opened up even more possibilities. He put it to a vote of the team, which opponent they wanted to surprise with the new formation. The vote was unanimous, Army. It was their only meeting on the grid-iron, but the Army had had many encounters with the Indians. The players felt that during the Indian wars, their ancestors had never met the Army on equal terms. They wanted to turn the tables on Army. |
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Members of the Carlisle Indians' potent backfield.
Alex Arcasa, Possum Powell, Gus Welch and
Jim Thorpe. Arcasa scored three touchdowns
against Army, set up by the spectacular play of
Jim Thorpe. |
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The game featured a contrast in styles. It was the best against the best. Carlisle had the highest scoring offense in the land, while Army featured the nations best defense. Carlisle used a hurry up offense led by their quarterback, Gus Welch. He was joined in the backfield by Pete Calac and future Hall of Famers, Joe Guyon and Jim Thorpe. Army had tons of leadership. Their backfield featured four World War II generals: Geoffrey Keyes, Leland Hobbs, Vernon Prichard, and Dwight Eisenhower. Army had lost one game, 6 - 0 to Yale, when they were without the services of their captain.
It was a gray day on the Hudson river. A cold mist fell on the dress parade as the cadets marched into the stadium. The Indians watched under their red blankets. Army scored first on a touchdown by Hobbs. Prichard missed extra point and the Cadets held a 6 - 0 lead. That would be the last lead for Army. Thorpe ran with determination. It often took a half dozen men to bring him down. His runs set up three touchdowns, and he added a circus catch in |
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heavy traffic. The new double wing confused the Cadets, and the hurry up offense kept them off balance. On defense the Indians were just as dominant. Carlisle did not give up a first down in the second half. The Indians won easily 27 - 6. The score cold have been worse, four times they had the ball on the Cadet’s four yard line, but the Army defense stop them.
Their efforts won the Indians much praise. The New York Times said: “The cadets had been shown up as no other West Point team has been in many years.” The backfield was singled out as “spectacular.” Among the accolades the team received was the personal compliments of Walter Camp. The father of football rode back to New York on the train with the team. The win over Army was the high point for the Carlisle football program. Soon events would unfold that would cause the program’s downfall. |
The following week the team had a let down and lost to Penn. Before they played again, Jim Thorpe was exposed for having played semipro baseball. In 1909 after he had left school, and thought he was done with college football, he had earned $15 dollars a week as a ballplayer in North Carolina. When he return to school in 1911 he was no longer an amateur. Not only was he ineligible for football but he was force to return the gold medals that he won in the 1912 Olympics.
The rest of the team felt that Jim Thorpe was left alone to take all the responsibility. The team lost faith in ‘Pop’ Warner. Warner moved on to Pittsburgh, and Carlisle football never recovered. Questions about the finances of the program, including the payment of players in 1907 and 1908, eventually led the the end football at Carlisle. As America was about to enter World War I, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School was closed, and converted into a hospital. |
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| Jim Thorpe |
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The Carlisle Indian Industrial School at once represents both defeat, and triumph for Native Americans. The school was born as a direct result of the Indian Wars on the western plains. The approach to education that was practiced at Carlisle, replacing one culture with another, remains controversial. Some of the eligibility issues and the payment of players remain controversial as well. Some who went to Carlisle struggled afterwards, caught between two worlds, neither Indian or White. Still, many of the students who went there thrived, many became lawyers and protected the rights of their people.
The results of the actions on the grid-iron are more clear cut. For the Indian students it became more than just a game, but a chance to show that on a level playing field, they could be the equal of their white counter parts. The Indians proved with brain, and brawn that they could hold their own. In the process they left a lasting legacy as one of the teams that did the most to modernize the game of football. |
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