Post by Coach Campbell on Sept 27, 2005 18:08:00 GMT
The Carlisle Indian School football team ( 1905 )
for enlarged photo of above click here
One of the legendary teams of intercollegiate football were the Indians of Carlisle. The tales of their feats, tricks and prowess are endless. The Indians pride and fierce determination enabled little Carlisle, for fifteen years, to take the measure of almost every big university football team. Victories included wins over the then powers of the day Harvard, Yale, Pennsylvania and Princeton.
An Army officer by the name of Lieutenant Pratt concieved the idea of a school in the East for Indian boys and girls. Here the Indians would be taught to read and write, speak English and learn a trade. Aided by Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior, he pursuaded the Washington authorities to grant use of the Carlisle Barracks located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Previously these had been used to protect early settlers from Indian attack and, during the Revolutinary War, as a prison for captured Hessian soldiers. In 1879 Richard Henry Pratt founded the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
Beginning play in 1894 they managed only one win against Harrisburg high school. In 1899 Colonel Pratt hired Glenn S. "Pop" Warner away from Cornell University as coach. Warner soon realized the Indians were exactly the kind of players had hoped to coach. He proclaimed to his wife one evening "This is a new kind of team. They're light but they're fast and tricky. Once they get into an open field, they're like acrobats, they're so hard to knock off their feet."
The players quickly picked up the spirit of their new coach. He drilled them every day on teamwork and deception. Speaking of his charges he wrote " They are born lovers of the game. They have speed and skill in use of hands and feet. They also have highly developed powers of observation, handed down through generations."
To take advantage of the Indians speed and daring Warner came up with many innovations. Among them; the reverse, the crouching start, the single wing, the double wing, pulling linemen to lead interference and the body block; quickly dubbed the'Indian Block'. To execute the block a player would leave his feet, half turning with his hips, to hit just above the knees and following through with a roll.
Indians loved trick plays the best and outwitting the whiteman's teams was something the Indians loved to do. Football seemed to come naturally to them. Boys who had never seen the game after working for a week or so, with every movement noted and observed, looked like they had been trained to do it all their life. The Indians were excellent kickers and this due in part to their great perseverance. They were not easily discouraged and practiced endlessly.
The forward pass was legalized in 1906 and the Carlisle players took to it with gusto. They were light and fast with skillful hands. Credit for the forward pass goes to Gus Dorais and Knute Rockne in 1913, but as early as 1907 Frank Mount Pleasant was spinning 30 and 40 yarders to Bill Gardner and his favorite target Albert Exendine. Exendine, a Delaware Indian, would later in life become a lawyer and be enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.
The Carlisle team gave away tremendous weight advantages to opponents; as a team they usually averaged about 170 pounds. But the fury of their attack tore heavier lines to pieces and their tackling had the force of charging buffalo. Often they played with only 2 or 3 substitutes available for duty.
Football, until this point, had been a game mainly of pushing and pulling running out of the straight T Formation. Players were large and beefy. The Carlisle Indains showed the world that football should be a game of skill and strategy, speed and deception.
Early professional football rosters contained many ex-Carlisle greats. Among these were Pete Calac, Joe Guyon, Myles McLean and Jim Thorpe. Thorpe, of Fox and Sac heritage, was the most famous. Thorpe had a magnificent physique. He ran with speed, elusivness and strength. He also was a kicker of extraordinary ability in punting and drop kicking, could pass and was a deadly blocker and tackler. Guyon and Thorpe are both enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame and the Professional Football Hall of Fame.
Some of the greatest victories of the Carlisle football team include:
1896-Carlisle 16, Pennsylvania 5 The Indians first win over a big time power
1899-Carlisle 2, University of California 0 Perhaps one of the first intersectional collegiate contests (played in San Francisco). The game was billed as East vs. West. With their team at 7-0 and unscored upon, California rooters were confident of victory.
1907-Carlisle 23, Harvard 15 Their first win over the perennial national champion Crimson squad.
1912-Carlisle 27, Army 6 First game ever against "the soldiers" Thorpe and his inspired teammates put a shellacking on the Dwight D. Eisenhower led cadets.
The 1912 team is one of the all-time great teams of college football. The backfield consisted of Jim Thorpe,(Fox and Sac), Alex Arcasa, (Colville), Gus Welch, (Chippewa) and Possum Powell, (Cherokee). On the line newcomers Pete Calac and Joe Guyon joined veterans Roy Large, (Shoshone), William Garlow, (Tuscarora), Joe Bergie, (Chippewa), Elmer Busch,( Pomo).
Warner's admiration and love for his players were summed up as follows " There wasn't an Indian of the lot who didn't love to win and hate to lose, but to a man they were modest in victory and resolute in defeat. They never gloated, they never whined, and no matter how bitter the contest, they played cheerfully, squarely and cleanly."
In 1918 the Carlisle Indian school was abruptly closed when the barracks were turned over to the War Department for use as a hospital during World War I.
There would be no more great victories for the Carlisle Indains on the gridiron. But from 1896 on until 1917, the Indians didn't play the white man's game as well as he did.
They played it better.
for enlarged photo of above click here
One of the legendary teams of intercollegiate football were the Indians of Carlisle. The tales of their feats, tricks and prowess are endless. The Indians pride and fierce determination enabled little Carlisle, for fifteen years, to take the measure of almost every big university football team. Victories included wins over the then powers of the day Harvard, Yale, Pennsylvania and Princeton.
An Army officer by the name of Lieutenant Pratt concieved the idea of a school in the East for Indian boys and girls. Here the Indians would be taught to read and write, speak English and learn a trade. Aided by Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior, he pursuaded the Washington authorities to grant use of the Carlisle Barracks located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Previously these had been used to protect early settlers from Indian attack and, during the Revolutinary War, as a prison for captured Hessian soldiers. In 1879 Richard Henry Pratt founded the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
Beginning play in 1894 they managed only one win against Harrisburg high school. In 1899 Colonel Pratt hired Glenn S. "Pop" Warner away from Cornell University as coach. Warner soon realized the Indians were exactly the kind of players had hoped to coach. He proclaimed to his wife one evening "This is a new kind of team. They're light but they're fast and tricky. Once they get into an open field, they're like acrobats, they're so hard to knock off their feet."
The players quickly picked up the spirit of their new coach. He drilled them every day on teamwork and deception. Speaking of his charges he wrote " They are born lovers of the game. They have speed and skill in use of hands and feet. They also have highly developed powers of observation, handed down through generations."
To take advantage of the Indians speed and daring Warner came up with many innovations. Among them; the reverse, the crouching start, the single wing, the double wing, pulling linemen to lead interference and the body block; quickly dubbed the'Indian Block'. To execute the block a player would leave his feet, half turning with his hips, to hit just above the knees and following through with a roll.
Indians loved trick plays the best and outwitting the whiteman's teams was something the Indians loved to do. Football seemed to come naturally to them. Boys who had never seen the game after working for a week or so, with every movement noted and observed, looked like they had been trained to do it all their life. The Indians were excellent kickers and this due in part to their great perseverance. They were not easily discouraged and practiced endlessly.
The forward pass was legalized in 1906 and the Carlisle players took to it with gusto. They were light and fast with skillful hands. Credit for the forward pass goes to Gus Dorais and Knute Rockne in 1913, but as early as 1907 Frank Mount Pleasant was spinning 30 and 40 yarders to Bill Gardner and his favorite target Albert Exendine. Exendine, a Delaware Indian, would later in life become a lawyer and be enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.
The Carlisle team gave away tremendous weight advantages to opponents; as a team they usually averaged about 170 pounds. But the fury of their attack tore heavier lines to pieces and their tackling had the force of charging buffalo. Often they played with only 2 or 3 substitutes available for duty.
Football, until this point, had been a game mainly of pushing and pulling running out of the straight T Formation. Players were large and beefy. The Carlisle Indains showed the world that football should be a game of skill and strategy, speed and deception.
Early professional football rosters contained many ex-Carlisle greats. Among these were Pete Calac, Joe Guyon, Myles McLean and Jim Thorpe. Thorpe, of Fox and Sac heritage, was the most famous. Thorpe had a magnificent physique. He ran with speed, elusivness and strength. He also was a kicker of extraordinary ability in punting and drop kicking, could pass and was a deadly blocker and tackler. Guyon and Thorpe are both enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame and the Professional Football Hall of Fame.
Some of the greatest victories of the Carlisle football team include:
1896-Carlisle 16, Pennsylvania 5 The Indians first win over a big time power
1899-Carlisle 2, University of California 0 Perhaps one of the first intersectional collegiate contests (played in San Francisco). The game was billed as East vs. West. With their team at 7-0 and unscored upon, California rooters were confident of victory.
1907-Carlisle 23, Harvard 15 Their first win over the perennial national champion Crimson squad.
1912-Carlisle 27, Army 6 First game ever against "the soldiers" Thorpe and his inspired teammates put a shellacking on the Dwight D. Eisenhower led cadets.
The 1912 team is one of the all-time great teams of college football. The backfield consisted of Jim Thorpe,(Fox and Sac), Alex Arcasa, (Colville), Gus Welch, (Chippewa) and Possum Powell, (Cherokee). On the line newcomers Pete Calac and Joe Guyon joined veterans Roy Large, (Shoshone), William Garlow, (Tuscarora), Joe Bergie, (Chippewa), Elmer Busch,( Pomo).
Warner's admiration and love for his players were summed up as follows " There wasn't an Indian of the lot who didn't love to win and hate to lose, but to a man they were modest in victory and resolute in defeat. They never gloated, they never whined, and no matter how bitter the contest, they played cheerfully, squarely and cleanly."
In 1918 the Carlisle Indian school was abruptly closed when the barracks were turned over to the War Department for use as a hospital during World War I.
There would be no more great victories for the Carlisle Indains on the gridiron. But from 1896 on until 1917, the Indians didn't play the white man's game as well as he did.
They played it better.