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Carlisle Indians Made It A Whole New Ballgame
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As Thorpe walked out onto the field he thought, "If I have to lick all these men to play football, now is when I start."
Warner tossed the ball at Thorpe and ordered an open-field drill. About 30 or 40 players were scattered around the field. Thorpe began to sprint, cutting and weaving through them.
Thorpe ran through the entire varsity "like they were old maids," Warner remembered. Some of them he outran; others he faked out and left facedown in the turf. Standing on the sideline, Warner was furious at his defense, but caught his breath at Thorpe's performance. After he crossed the goal line, Thorpe skipped back to Warner and tossed him the football.
"I gave them some good practice, right, Pop?"
One of Warner's assistants said, joking: "You're supposed to let them tackle you, Jim. You weren't supposed to run through them."
"Nobody's going to tackle Jim," he said.
Warner was goaded by Thorpe's cockiness. He slapped the ball in Thorpe's middle. "Well let's see if you can do it again, kid."
Thorpe cheerfully went back onto the field, while Warner had a loud word with his varsity. "This isn't a track meet! Who does this kid think he is? Hit him so hard that he doesn't get up and try it again! Hit, hit, hit!"
Thorpe ran through the entire defense a second time. Once more, he tossed the ball to Warner, who stood there cussing both Thorpe and his defense. When Warner finally calmed down, he said to trainer Wallace Denny, "He certainly is a wild Indian, isn't he?"
Years later, Warner wrote, "Jim's performance at practice that afternoon on the Carlisle varsity playing field was an exhibition of athletic talent that I had never before witnessed, nor was I ever to again see anything similar which might compare to it."
* * *
The Carlisle Indians of 1907 would be the most dynamic team in college football, as they pioneered that elegant, new invention called the passing game. The Indians were about to take off.
