Superintendent’s Chat

Richard McClements

One of the Most Famous Football Games of All Time

One of our teachers, Lance Lane, loaned me a book a few months ago entitled, Carlisle vs. Army. Lance knew that I love history and sports in general. While reading it at the kitchen table, I damaged the bottom of a couple of pages, and I have since ordered Lance a new one. The damage is very minor, but I could not return his book in other than mint condition. That book is now at the high school library, and students and staff throughout the district are welcome to check it out.

The famous football game between Carlisle Indian School and Army took place in 1912. The book is about three famous people who participated in that game: Dwight D. Eisenhower, an army cadet and member of the football team who would later lead the Normandy Invasion of Europe in June 1944 and who became President of the United States in the 1950’s. A second key character was Jim Thorpe, an Indian who would later be named the Most Outstanding Athlete of the 20^th Century. Jim Thorpe was a Sac and Fox who attended Carlisle. It was here that everyone soon learned that this Indian could excel in any sport he chose to enter. First he tried track. He broke the school record for the high jump on his very first attempt in work boots and overalls. He won six different track events for his team at one meet – an unheard of achievement. Later at the Olympics, he competed in 15 events. Then he decided that he wanted to play football. He became the best football player in America and helped his team win the 1912 national collegiate football championship and scored 25 touchdowns that year. He also entered the 1912 Olympics and won two gold medals in the pentathlon and the decathlon. In the pentathlon, Jim won the broad jump, the 200 meter hurdles, the discus throw, 1500 meter run, and was third in the javelin. In the decathlon, he was first in the high hurdles, the shot put, the high jump and the 1,500 meter race. He had also finished third in the 100 meters, the discus, the pole vault, and the broad jump. He had shattered several existing world and Olympic records. The third character was the Carlisle coach, Pop Warner. Most people have heard of the term, Pop Warner football leagues. It is named after this famous coach.

The Carlisle football team began competition in the mid 1890’s. Indians from across the country attended that high school. While a few continued at the school even though they were in their 20’s, most were teenagers. What is astonishing is that they competed against men in major college football programs, such as Syracuse, Harvard, Yale, Southern Cal, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Michigan and beat them convincingly. Equally amazing is that they soon blew away these football powers even though the Indians often weighed 50 pounds or more less per man. Back then, football was almost exclusively a power game with very little passing. You moved the pile forward through brute force which made the 50 pound differential a huge obstacle to overcome. Yet those Indians were soon beating everyone they competed against. They were fast and tough and passionate about Native American pride.

Army, the name for the military academy at West Point, New York, was also a highly regarded football power in 1912. During his first couple of years at the Academy, Dwight D. Eisenhower had a hard time making the team, but through endless practice and his well known reputation for having bull-dog determination, he transformed himself into a star athlete. By 1912, he was considered one of the best football players in America. He was both a running back and a line backer.

The long awaited game arrived. Carlisle quickly took control and was beating Army. The play of Jim Thorpe had a lot to do with Carlisle’s dominance. Dwight D. Eisenhower and a fellow teammate came to the conclusion that they had to take that Indian, Jim Thorpe, completely out of the game if Army was to make a come back. He was literally killing them with his running. Ike, as Eisenhower came to be called, and his friend developed the strategy that they would hit Thorpe at the same time with everything they could muster. One would hit him high and one would hit him low. Soon their chance came. They both smashed into Jim Thorpe with vicious and devastating tackle – one man high and the other low. Ike and his friend could barely get up. Thorpe lay on the ground for a few seconds. Surely no man could take the hit that he had just endured. Yet, Thorpe got back to his feet and rejoined the huddle. Ike was astonished. This game meant everything to the Indians from Carlisle. As the author noted, this game took place less than 25 years after the soldiers massacred the Sioux at Wounded Knee. The US Military Academy represented “pay back.” The Carlisle squad was also playing for the national collegiate championship that year and needed this game to remain in contention.

In that same game, which Army lost, Eisenhower tried to tackle Thorpe again and ended up seriously injuring his leg. That injury was so bad, Cadet Eisenhower was nearly kicked out of West Point, as cadets could not complete their program at the Academy if they were not physically fit. Ike got a doctor at the Academy to downgrade the seriousness of his injury. Had that doctor not liked Ike so much and forged his health status, Ike would never have had the chance to become the Commander in Chief of all allied armies that invaded Normandy in 1944 and that led to the defeat of the German armies in 1945. Had that doctor booted Ike from West Point, our history and that of Europe could have altogether been different.

Back in 1912, can’t you just imagine how astonished white America must have been when those kids from Carlisle beat the Bilagaanas at their own game. I suspect it is similar to what those folks in Phoenix must feel when our Navajos go to the basketball playoffs and trounce most of the teams they face.

This is a great book. I highly recommend it.