In this blog post, I want to change up a little bit and – instead of focusing on one individual athlete, I would like to talk about one the most influential football programs in the storied history of the gridiron.
And, while the tragedies that came along with the whole Indian Boarding School concept (and there were countless horrible things that occurred at those institutions) are still being uncovered, this post is about one of the more positive outcomes from that failed social experiment.
A lot has been written about the Carlisle Indians, Jim Thorpe, Pop Warner and more, and deservedly so. What was created at Carlisle when you view things through a sports program lens, the accomplishments of the teams from Carlisle are astounding!
Instead of me rehashing a lot of facts and statistics, I would like to point you to some books written by a lot smarter people than me who have researched and dug and discovered all the great information we want to know about Carlisle football.
Check these out:
“Gridiron Gypsies” by Dr. Tom Benjey
“The Real All-Americans” by Sally Jenkins
“Carlisle vs Army” by Lars Anderson
There are many more books about some of the athletes who attended and played at Carlisle – Jim Thorpe, Chief Bender, Joe Guyon, Albert Exendine – the list goes on. I will talk about some of those when I post about the individuals.
If you have a favorite book about the football program at Carlisle Industrial School, leave a comment and tell me which one and why. I would love to hear about it.
And – in celebration of the Carlisle Industrial School and their dominant football team, here is the Carlisle School March. (Imagine if the band played this after every touchdown like colleges do with their Fight Songs today… the band would be exhausted!)
#NDNAllstars #CarlisleFootball #JimThorpe #PopWarner
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