Carlisle versus Army

by Lars Anderson

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.