In Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs, Tom Benjey expanded the scope of his previous work, Keep A-Goin': The Life of Lone Star Dietz, to explore the lives of not just one of the Carlisle Indian School football immortals but the core group of men -- more than 50 all told -- who helped create the sport, both amateur and professional, we enjoy today. The issue for the Carlisle students of the competing visions of mainstreaming versus cultural retention for Native Americans in this country is one that Dr. Benjey explores in detail, the validities of which are still debated a century later. During the past three decades, a plethora of books have been written about the Carlisle team. In my opinion, none of them can match the exhaustive research, attention to detail and, most importantly, the accuracy of Dr. Benjey's book. The most sophisticated and learned historians, sociologists and anthropologists, rabid sports fans or casual readers will be enthralled by his compelling style and thrilled by the many factual treasures he has uncovered. Robert W. Wheeler, author of Jim Thorpe: World's Greatest Athlete
On the surface it might appear that nothing Tom Benjey had done previous to writing Keep A-goin': the life of Lone Star Dietz prepared him for such a task. On the other hand everything he had done before may have readied him for the project. The second of ten children, he grew up in a home of modest means in a small town in downstate Illinois where he operated the family bicycle shop while in high school. He attended Northwestern University on scholarship for just one year before taking an all-expenses-paid trip to the Far East courtesy of the taxpayers. After maintaining the weapons control system on F-102 aircraft in the Philippines, Viet Nam and Thailand, he took advantage of the GI Bill and enrolled at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. Eight years after earning his B.S. in Mathematics he completed an M.S. in Computer Science at Shippensburg State College. Utilizing his decade of software development experience he operated a systems house for most of the 1980s. Timing the opportunity to live abroad to coincide perfectly with the fall of the Berlin Wall, he taught computer studies for the University of Maryland European Division for two years. After that he completed a Ph.D. degree in Mathematics Education at Indiana University.
Tom and his wife and research assistant, Ann, share a Pennsylvania German limestone farmhouse with their cat, Ryan. The unspoiled feline allows them to live in his house as a reward for their efforts in restoring it for him.
