That Time the Carlisle Indians Played Alabama & Auburn

The Carlisle Indian Industrial School, formally known as the United States Indian Industrial School, opened in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on November 1, 1879, with 147 students enrolled. The institution was the first federally funded school for Native Americans not located on a reservation. By the time the school closed on September 1, 1918, over 10,000 children from 140 tribes had attended the school, but only 150 graduated. In 1951 the complex became part of the U.S. Army War College and today is a National Historic Landmark. 

Among its many notable activities while the school operated was the Carlisle Indians football team. In the early 20th century the teams competed with and often won against powerful college teams across the country. Players were usually smaller than their opponents, which resulted in the adoption of many "trick" plays. Two that have long been standard were fake hand-offs and the overhand spiral forward pass. 

During their 25 seasons the Indians compiled a record of 167-88-13. That 0.647 winning percentage is the best of any defunct major college football program. Over the years Carlisle played away games against these schools and many others and often won: Penn State, Wisconsin, Illinois, California, Virginia, Utah, Northwestern, Ohio State, Minnesota, Harvard, Brown, Army and Cornell. 

The most famous individual associated with Carlisle is undoubtedly Jim Thorpe. In the introduction to his Wikipedia article is this summary of his career:

Thorpe became the first Native American to win a gold medal for the United States. Considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports, he won Olympic gold medals in the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon, and played American football (collegiate and professional), professional baseball, and basketball. He lost his Olympic titles after it was found he had been paid for playing two seasons of semi-professional baseball before competing in the Olympics, thus violating the amateurism rules that were then in place. In 1983, 30 years after his death, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) restored his Olympic medals.

Thorpe played football at Carlisle in 1911 and 1912, so he was not a member of the team that played Alabama and Auburn. The 1911 team went 11-1 and the 1912 team 12-1-1 and captured the national championship. 

Thorpe's coach was Glenn Scobey "Pop" Warner, who was also coaching the team in 1914. Warner played football at Cornell and then built a spectacular college coaching career. His stops as head coach included Iowa State, Georgia, Cornell [twice], Carlisle [twice], Pittsburgh, Stanford and Temple. His teams won three national championship at Pittsburgh and one at Stanford. His final record was 319-106-32. He "retired" after the 1938 season at Temple, but spent the next two years coaching the offense at San Jose State.

The 1914 season was not one of Carlisle's best; the team finished 5-10-1. Wins included contests against Albight, Lebanon Valley, West Virginia Weslyan, Dickinson, and the tie against Holy Cross. Carlisle lost to Penn, Pittsburgh and Syracuse among others In their only game against Notre Dame, they lost 48-0 at Camiskey Park in Chicago.  

D.V. Graves coached Alabama in 1914, his final of four years as the school's head football coach. At that time he was early in his career coaching college football, basketball and baseball. He ended up coaching baseball at the University of Washington for 24 years, retiring in 1946. 

In those days Alabama played its home games in two places, the Quad on campus and Rickwood Field in Birmingham. In 1914 the team's record was 5-4, 3-3 in Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association play. Four games were played at The Quad: Howard, Birmingham College, Tulane & Chattanooga. All were won by shutouts except Chattanooga, which managed three points. Four games were played at Rickwood: Georgia Tech, Sewanee, Mississippi A&M & Carlisle. The only win at Rickwood was against Tech, 13-0. Carlisle beat the Crimson Tide 20-3. The Tennessee game, which the Tide lost 17-7, was played at Waite Field in Knoxville. 

Auburn's coach in 1914 became almost as legendary as Pop Warner. As Wikipedia summarizes:

Michael Joseph "Iron Mike" Donahue (June 14, 1876 – December 11, 1960) was an American football player, coach of football, basketball, baseball, tennis, track, soccer, and golf, and a college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Auburn University (1904–1906, 1908–1922), at Louisiana State University (1923–1927), and at Spring Hill College (1934).

In 18 seasons coaching football at Auburn, Donahue amassed a record of 106–35–5 and had three squads go undefeated with four more suffering only one loss. His .743 career winning percentage is the second highest in Auburn history, surpassing notable coaches such as John Heisman and Ralph "Shug" Jordan. Donahue Drive in Auburn, Alabama, on which Jordan–Hare Stadium is located and the Tiger Walk takes place, is named in his honor, as is Mike Donahue Drive on the LSU campus.

Donahue also coached basketball (1905–1921), baseball, track, and soccer (1912–?)^[1] at Auburn and baseball (1925–1926) and tennis (1946–1947) at LSU. He was inducted as a coach into the College Football Hall of Fame as part of its inaugural class in 1951.

Donahue was a native of Ireland and attended Yale University where he lettered in football, basketball, track and cross-country. Even though only 5'4" tall, he also played substitute quarterback for the team. He graduated in 1903 and began his first stint as Auburn head football coach the following year. 

The 1914 team became one of Donahue's best, finishing 8-0-1 and outscoring opponents 193-0. They finished their 23rd year of football as champions of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association. James Howell's power ratings system gives Auburn the national championship that year, but the school does not claim it.

Auburn played some  games in 1914 at Drake Field and others at Rickwood Field in Birmingham. Auburn defeated Clemson 28-0 and two other teams, Marion Military Institute and West Alabama Athletic Club, at Drake Field. Wins at Rickwood were against Mississippi A&M 19-0 and Vanderbilt 6-0 in bad weather. In the second contest of the season Auburn defeated Florida 20-0 in Jacksonville. In Atlanta the team beat Georgia Tech 14-0 at Grant Field and were held to a scoreless tie by Georgia at Piedmont Park. In the final game of their season Auburn defeated Carlisle 7-0 at Piedmont. 

In 1914 Auburn was a southern football powerhouse. Carlisle played them and the Tide in the waning days of the school's football program; its glory years had come and gone. In the 1920's Alabama would enter one of its periods of gridiron glory.

The South has produced many great football teams over the decades, but few can match the 1899 Sewanee Tigers. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the University of the South, or Sewanee, a small school in the Tennessee mountains, was a dominating force in the region's football. 

That 1899 squad reached a pinnacle, outscoring opponents 322-10 on the way to twelve wins. Five of those shutouts came on a six-day road trip during which the 13-man team defeated Texas, Texas A&M, Tulane, LSU and Ole Miss. The only team to score against Sewanee? Why, the Auburn Tigers, of course! War Eagle! In that year they were coached by the legendary John Heisman in the last of his five years at Auburn. Sewanee was the only team to beat them that year.

Included below are brief contemporary newspaper items about the games Carlisle played with Alabama and Auburn. Unfortunately, I did not find any detailed accounts. However, we can get a few interesting tidbits of information from these pieces. 

Alabama met Carlisle at Rickwood Field in Birmingham on Wednesday, December 2. Carlisle's "superior weight proved too much" for Alabama, and the Indians won 20-3. Alabama could not make consistent gains against Carlisle's defense. The Indians used "variegated delayed passes which were very effective."

Carlisle arrived in Atlanta on Friday, December 4, for the last college game of the season in the South, a "post-season" game as one paper described it. Of course, no bowl games were played in those days. One had taken place in 1902;  an annual bowl did not begin until 1916 with the precursor of the Rose Bowl.

The Auburn team arrived the following morning. The game "which has attracted much interest over the South" probably took place on a soft field due to recent heavy rains. "Football critics" declared Carlisle to be superior in the open style of play and predicted a close game. Carlisle was favored even though Auburn had not been scored upon all season and had a weight advantage. Once again Auburn kept its opponent scoreless in a 7-0 win.

The Carlisle football team had traveled to the Deep South eight years earlier. They challenged Vanderbilt to a game, which was played in Nashville in November 1906. Vanderbilt won by a field goal, the only points scored. 

More information and comments are below the images that follow.

Carlisle pupils ca.. 1900

Source: Wikipedia

Jim Thorpe in his uniform for the professional Canton Bulldogs sometime between 1915 and 1920

Source: Wikipedia 

1914 Carlisle Indians football team

Source

Glenn Scobey Warner [1874-1954] in 1921

Source: Wikipedia

University of Alabama football team in 1914

Source

Alabama football coach D.V. Graves in 1945

Source: Wikipedia

Alabama Polytechnic Institute [Auburn] football team in 1914
You can read player identifications at the source, Wikipedia. Number 1 in the upper left is the coach, Mike Donahue.

Auburn football coach Mike Donahue, ca. 1909

Source: Wikipedia

The final item giving Saturday events includes the Auburn-Carlisle game.

Source: Topeka State Journal  [Kansas] 30 Nov 1914

Source: Norwich Bulletin [Conn.] 3 December 1914

Source: Bridgeport Evening Farmer [Conn.] 5 Dec 1914

Source: Ogden Standard [Utah] 5 December 1914

Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch [Virginia] 5 December 1914

Postcard showing Rickwood Field on opening day 18 August 1910. Rickwood was constructed as a baseball stadium and primarily used for that sport ever since. The Birmingham Barons minor league team played there for many years before moving first to a new stadium in Hoover and then one in downtown Birmingham. 

 The facility is the oldest professional baseball field existing in the U.S. Over the years other sports have been played in it; rock concerts were held there in the in the 1970's. 

Source: Rickwood Field Timeline

A modern day scene at Piedmont Park 

Source: Wikimedia


In 1892 the park was the site of a football game between Auburn and the University of Georgia. Auburn won 10-0 in what has become known as the "Deep South's Oldest Rivalry". In those days Georgia's mascot was a goat; the team did not officially become the "Bulldogs" until 1921. Rumor has it that the goat was barbecued by Georgia fans after the game.