Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team

Two dire situations are laid out. On one hand, the Carlisle School is working harder than ever to remove “the Indian” from its students. Several stories from different students recount “how thoroughly Pratt seemed to be intimidating and controlling his students,” but the students don’t completely surrender themselves (63). Instead, some of them fake coughing fits at night in the dorms to obscure the sounds of fellow students having conversations in their native languages. Then, the groups switch, so everyone gets at surreptitiously speaking their native language. Many of the students run away from the school.

At the same time, American football finds itself in a dire situation. The game has killed several players each year and, in this year, 1897, Von Gammon from Georgia is killed during a pile-up in a game against Virginia. People across the nation are calling for the end of football. Several politicians attempt to ban the sport. Others, including future president Theodore Roosevelt, champion the game.

Meanwhile, the Carlisle Indian School football team is receiving a lot of praise from the press but cannot beat one of the “Big Four” teams. To break through this barrier, Pratt decides to hire a new coach.

Hiram Thorpe sends Jim to the Haskell Institute, a boarding school for Indigenous Americans that is said to have strict discipline like Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Jim’s hair is cut, and he’s given a suit. It is here he sees American football played for the first time. Jim and his friends watch the Haskell varsity team practice. When the practice is over, Jim and his friends run on to the field to play their own pickup games.

At the same time in Ithaca, New York, Warner gets the job as head football coach at Cornell. In his first year, he leads the team to a 10-2 record but is distracted by wealthy alumni donors who try to influence his coaching and younger assistants vying for his position. His Cornell team beats Carlisle Indian Industrial School that year, but Warner is impressed with their players: They need help building their skills but have incredible athleticism and drive.

Warner is hired by Pratt to coach the Carlisle Indian School football team at a salary of $1200 per year, which is quite a raise over his first coaching job that paid $150 per year. Warner is enthusiastic about his new team because they are willing and able to play a new style of football. As they prepare to face Pennsylvania, Warner invents the “reverse” play: “[T]he entire line drove left, and the ball-carrier followed. Once the momentum of the play was moving in that direction, the man with the ball stopped, turned, and raced to the right” (77). Everyone is excited about the football team and their new coach. Pratt is especially excited because drawing large crowds to the games helps raise money for the school, augmenting his usual practice of asking for donations and getting funding from Congress.

Carlisle Indian Industrial School plays University of Pennsylvania in a stadium packed with more than 20,000 people. The game is tough, but Carlisle draws on its coaching. The team blocks well and listens to Warner; they run their new “reverse” play, and it works. Carlisle finally wins its first game against a “Big Four” team, and everyone, including Pratt, is elated. The team is making headlines. After beating Pennsylvania, they go back on the road all the way to California where they beat the University of California, 2-0. On the way back to Pennsylvania, the Carlisle team makes a stop at the Haskell Institute. It is January 12, 1900. Warner, “who was always on the lookout for athletes” (85) sees a group of boys waiting to meet him. Among them is an 11-year-old Jim Thorpe.

Thorpe learns that his father has been shot in a hunting accident. A friend sends Thorpe money for a trip home to see his father, but the school doesn’t give Jim the money. Jim runs away again, and goes home to find his weak but healing father. A few weeks later, Jim’s mother dies from a difficult childbirth. Hiram wants his son back in school, and Jim agrees to stay in school at a non-boarding school a few miles from where they live.

It is November 28, 1902. President Theodore Roosevelt is reading the sports page of the newspaper at the White House when he sees the Carlisle Indians beat Georgetown 21-0. The Carlisle team is supposed to visit the White House that day. When they arrive, Roosevelt is excited and chats with the team. He’s very encouraging.

Back on campus, the Carlisle football team invents a “hidden ball” play. One of the men hides the ball under his shirt and confuses the defense. They try the play later that season against Harvard and it works, though it will later be banned. Harvard beats Carlisle 12-11, but the Carlisle team is getting closer to beating their self-proclaimed rivals.

Hiram is worried that he cannot properly educate Jim, so he coordinates with a Sac and Fox agent for Jim to attend the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. The night before Jim leaves (and the last time he ever speaks to his father), Hiram says, “Son, you are an Indian. I want you to show other races what an Indian can do” (97).

The chapter then jumps to February 6, 1904, when Jim, 15, arrives in Carlisle. He is 5’5” and weighs 115 pounds. On entering the school, his hair is cut, and he receives his uniform like everyone else. Jim falls into the school’s routine, but soon he receives word that his father has died. To keep him from running away, Pratt puts Jim in “The Outing Program,” which sends students to live with a “civilized” white family to learn proper English and farming. Jim runs away, but he later returns to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, where he is punished. Later that year, he turns 16 and asks the team trainer, Denny, for a practice football jersey. Before he gets the jersey, he is sent away again to an outing farm in New Jersey. Here, he builds his strength and dreams of returning to play football at Carlisle.

Pratt is relieved of his position at the Carlisle school by the War Department in June 1904 after serving as superintendent for 25 years. Warner worries that the new superintendent will stop the football program, so he goes back to Cornell to coach. Elsewhere in the country, football is under scrutiny for its violence. Some schools consider banning it, but Theodore Roosevelt steps in to save the game he loves. He helps form the Intercollegiate Athletic Association (now the NCAA), and the 60 universities involved rewrite football’s rules to make it safer and more strategy-oriented. First downs are increased from five to 10 yards, plays are called “over” when any part of the man with the ball touches the ground, and the forward pass is made legal.

Warner returns to Carlisle in 1907 after three years at Cornell, eager to build a program free of the influence of wealthy donors. Upon his return, Warner sees Thorpe clear a high jump bar in trousers without even trying. Warner coaches the track team in addition to the football team and invites Thorpe to join. Thorpe moves into the athletes’ quarters and feels at home. He excels in track but still wants to play football. Again, he visits Denny, the team trainer, asking for a practice jersey. Denny gives in, and Thorpe walks onto the practice field where he and Warner have the discussion that opens the book in “The Tryout.”