Pierce served as the head football coach at the University of Buffalo in 1899,[1] at the Carlisle Indian School in 1906, and at Kenyon College from 1908 to 1910.

Bemus Pierce, a member of the Seneca nation, was born on February 23 or 28, 1873 on the Cattaraugus Reservation, Erie County, New York.

[2] He married Annie Gesis, a fellow Carlisle student, also from Cattaraugus, in April 1899 in the local Episcopal Church.

In 1919, more than 20 years after Pierce played his last college football game, one sports writer cited him as perhaps the greatest lineman of all time:"When the great line men are discussed in these days and times, some of the veterans of football hark back to the days of Carlisle's glory on the gridiron and speak of the mighty Bemus Pierce.

Despite his great bulk he was fast as a streak, and no line player of recent years has shown more real ability.

"[11] Even after the successes of Carlisle's later stars Jim Thorpe, Joe Guyon and Albert Exendine, sports columnist Lawrence Perry opined in 1923 that Bemus Pierce was the greatest of all the American Indian football stars:"But of all indian footballers old Bemus Pierce stands first in the affections of those who played against him.

"[16] On New Year's Eve 1902, the Pierce brothers made several big gains as Syracuse defeated the Knickerbocker Athletic Club with a score of 36 points.

[17] The championship game was held at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and Syracuse defeated the Orange Athletic Club by a score of 36 to 0.

Bemus was unable to finish the game after he was kicked in the face during a scrimmage resulting in a badly broken nose.

[19][20] After spending the 1900 and 1901 seasons playing professional football for Homesetead, Pierce worked at the Sherman Institute at Riverside, California from 1902 to 1903.

Never before have the redskins been trusted to do the brainwork incident to the planning for a football season ... Assistant Coach Bemus Pierce is a former Carlisle pupil, and for the past two years has had charge of the Sherman Institute team, of California.

As an assistant coach at Carlisle, he also played in the 1904 game vs Haskell at Francis Olympic Field in St. Louis, Missouri.

Between games he coached at Carlisle, Pierce played for a semi-professional team in northern New York that made a barnstorming tour.