Carlisle versus Army
Subtitle: Jim Thorpe, Dwight Eisenhower, Pop Warner, and the forgotten story of football's greatest battle
By: Lars Anderson.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2007
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 349
ISBN-13: 9781400066001
Subjects: United States Indian School (Carlisle, Pa.) -- Football; Football -- History
Description: Recounts the fateful 1912 gridiron clash that pitted one of America's finest athletes, Jim Thorpe, against the man who would become one of the nation's greatest heroes, Dwight D. Eisenhower. The story begins with the massacre of the Sioux by the U.S. Army at Wounded Knee in 1890, then moves to rural Pennsylvania and the Carlisle Indian School, an institution designed to "elevate" Indians by uprooting their youths and immersing them in the white man's ways--including football. Guided by genius coach Glenn "Pop" Warner, the Carlisle team stormed the country, humiliating such powerhouses as Harvard, Yale, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and smashing American prejudices against Indians. By 1912 the national championship was within their grasp. Then, less than a quarter century after Wounded Knee, the Indians would confront, on the playing field, an emblem of the very institution that had slaughtered their ancestors on the field of battle.--From publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: The thrill of possibility; title: Shot like buffalo; title: Pop learns from Ma; title: The trickiest play; title: What an Indian can do; title: There's just no future in the army; title: He is certainly a wild Indian; title: A couple of well-paid amateurs; title: A brutal, savage, murderous sport; title: Beast barracks and a beast on the field; title: A real American if there ever was one; title: Chief Thorpe and the huge Kansan; title: The clash of heroes; title: The dead Indian and another wounded knee; title: Epilogue: the ghosts of Carlisle.