Carlisle Indians football

[1] During the early 20th century, Carlisle was a national football powerhouse, and regularly competed against other major programs such as the Ivy League schools.

[1] The Indians were consistently outsized by the teams they scheduled, and they in turn relied on speed and guile to remain competitive.

Carlisle's playbook gave rise to many trick plays and other innovations that are now commonplace in American football.

[citation needed] In 1903, an Indian team coached by Pop Warner first employed its infamous "hidden-ball play" against heavily favored Harvard.

Carlisle led Harvard at halftime, and hoping to keep the game's momentum, Warner elected to try the play on the ensuing kickoff.

[2][4] Warner had learned the trick from John Heisman while facing Auburn in 1895 during his tenure as coach of the Georgia Bulldogs.

[3] On October 26, 1907, Jim Thorpe and Carlisle trounced a powerful University of Pennsylvania team, 26–6, before an overflow crowd of 20,000 at Franklin Field.

[9] On November 9, 1912, Carlisle was to meet the U.S. Military Academy in a game at West Point, New York, between two of the top teams in the country.

That game, played just 22 years after the last Army battle with the Lakota/Sioux at the Wounded Knee, featured not only Jim Thorpe, but nine future generals including a linebacker named Dwight D.