page_title: Pop Warner
section_title: Back to Carlisle
hierarchical_section_title: Pop Warner / Coaching career / Carlisle / Back to Carlisle
caption_attribution_description: English: A picture of Jim Thorpe tackling dummy that is made of weights and pulley on wire, with Coach Glenn Pop Warner. 1912.
context_page_description: Glenn Scobey Warner, most commonly known as Pop Warner, was an American college football coach at various institutions who is responsible for several key aspects of the modern game. Included among his innovations are the single and double wing formations, the three point stance and the body blocking technique. Fellow pioneer coach Amos Alonzo Stagg called Warner "one of the excellent creators". He was inducted as a coach into the College Football Hall of Fame as part of its inaugural class in 1951. He also contributed to a junior football program which became known as Pop Warner Little Scholars, a popular youth American football organization.
  In the early 1900s, he created a premier football program at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School—a federally-funded, off-reservation Indian boarding school. He also coached teams to four national championships: Pittsburgh in 1915, 1916, and 1918 and Stanford in 1926. In all, he was head coach at the University of Georgia, Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Cornell University, Carlisle, Pittsburgh, Stanford and Temple University, compiling a career college football record of 319–106–32.
context_section_description: After three years at Cornell, Warner returned to Carlisle. He considered his second stint there his best. From 1907 to 1914, the team won ten or more games a season five times.
  During this time at Carlisle, Warner made several significant contributions to football offense, including the body block technique and the single- and double-wingback formations. Under Warner, Carlisle quarterback Frank Mount Pleasant and fullback Pete Hauser became two of the first regular spiral passers in football (the forward pass was legalized in 1906). In 1908 he introduced the technique of body blocking, instead of blocking with the shoulders.
  Warner considered the 1907 Carlisle team "about as perfect a football machine as I ever sent on the field". The team posted a 10–1 record, outscored opponents 267–62 and pioneered an elegant, high-speed passing game; it was one of the first teams to regularly throw the ball deep downfield. For the first time in 11 years, Carlisle defeated Harvard on the road 23–15. Carlisle also won 26–6 over Penn. In the second play of the Penn game, Hauser threw a 40-yard spiral pass, hitting his receiver in stride. At the time such a pass was stunning and unexpected, and is considered by one journalist to be an evolutionary step in the game. The 1907 season is known for Warner's first use of the single-wing formation, characterized by laterals, trap and counter runs, and passing.
  
  According to Sally Jenkins, in her Sports Illustrated article on Carlisle:
  To take advantage of the Indians' versatility Warner drew up a new offense ..."the Carlisle formation," but later it would be known as the single wing. It was predicated on one small move: Warner shifted a halfback out wide, to outflank the opposing tackle, forming something that looked like a wing. It opened up a world of possibilities. The Indians could line up as if to punt – and then throw. No one would know whether they were going to run, pass or kick. For added measure Warner taught his quarterbacks to sprint out a few yards to their left or their right, buying more time to throw. The rest of the players flooded downfield and knocked down any opponent who might be able to intercept or bat away the pass.
  The 1907 team included a young Jim Thorpe, considered one of the greatest athletes who ever lived. Thorpe weighed just 155 lb (70 kg), light for a football player. Warner played him as a substitute, encouraging him to put his time into track and field. By 1909, Warner had Thorpe competing in track and field and he won 14 events. In 1911, Thorpe began training for the upcoming Olympics, and won gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm.
  Carlisle football had another standout year in 1911, posting an 11–1 record. Thorpe had grown to 180 lb (82 kg), big enough to be a starter. The team defeated Harvard 18–15, with Thorpe scoring all of Carlisle's field goals. Walter Camp selected Thorpe as a first-team All-American. According to one source, Thorpe was "recognized as the greatest player of the year and a man whose kicking is likely to revolutionize the game".
  Warner considered the 1912 team brilliant and adaptive, and experimented with new plays and formations. In its game against Army, Warner's team introduced a wrinkle to the wing-back system. According to Francis J. Powers, author of a book that concentrated on Warner's approach to football:
  Warner had both halfbacks close to the line and flanking the defensive tackles. That was the start of the double wingback offense, which enjoyed tremendous popularity until the T formation was modernized with the man in motion. The double wing became the most effective of all systems for effective forward passing since it permitted the quick release of four receivers down the field.
  Carlisle dominated the next two years, with the 1912 and 1913 teams losing only one game each. Warner's salary increased to $4,500 (approximately $107,000 in 2016) per season.
  In January 1913 a newspaper article revealed that Thorpe had played minor league baseball in North Carolina in the summer of 1908
caption: Jim Thorpe tackling a weighted dummy on a pulley with Warner supervising, 1912.
exif: {}