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Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs

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I found out more about my grandfather than I ever knew before.I would like to read more from Tom Benjey.

Every person who goes to play college football isn't aiming to be an NFL all-star, they are everyday people as well. "Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs: Jim Thorpe & Pop Warner's Carlisle Indian School football immortals tackle socialites, bootleggers, students, moguls, prejudice, the government, ghouls, tooth decay, and rum" is a look at the lives of the Carlisle Indian football team and the men in it and behind it. These men, some devoted to the culture of their ancestors, others just aiming for a happy and successful life, bring forth tales of the Native American people in a time where College football was just getting started. "Doctor's Lawyers, Indian Chiefs" is a solid read for those who want more of the history of college football.

Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs by Tom Benjey is a wonderful addition to the literature of several cultural genres: sports, football, education, Indian history, and biography. Benjey has exhaustively researched the Carlisle Indian School football program and written a remarkable book filled with statistics, anecdotes, and biographies of coaches and players.

Glenn S. "Pop" Warner coached at Carlisle early in his career and worked with Jim Thorpe, Lone Star Dietz, Al Exendine, and many other Indian star athletes. Warner found that the usual method of getting the most out of football players by swearing at them did not work well with Indian players. They found such tactics belittling and humiliating and saw no sense in voluntarily submitting themselves to abuse. Warner had to modify his methods and show his players respect in order to field a team. Once past that hurdle, coach and players worked hard and won impressively. Carlisle beat such opponents as Ohio State, Army, Pennsylvania State, Harvard and many other first class teams.

Acknowledging that credit for the invention of the forward pass remains an unresolved issue, Benjey notes that in 1902 Hawley Pierce, who played for Carlisle and later played professionally, showed Bosey Reiter, a player-coach, how to throw an underhand spiral pass. Reiter couldn't get much distance with it so he adapted it to an overhand spiral pass. Reiter later claimed that the first use of the technique in a game came in 1906 when a Wesleyan player he coached used it against Yale.

In 1906 Warner was no longer coaching at Carlisle but he spent a week there teaching the new coach and the team his new single wing-back formation. Thus, the Indians were the first to use it in a game.

Benjey details each player's part in football but does not neglect the post-Carlisle years. Some of them became successful coaches, farmers, doctors, dentists, lawyers, and businessmen. Some succumbed to alcohol and died too young. Most remembered their years playing football at Carlisle with fondness and pride.

The book is filled with photos of the players, both in football uniforms and dressed for weddings, war, and work. Even if you have no interest in football, this is a fascinating look at history.

Barbara J. Olexer, author of
The Enslavement of the American Indian in Colonial Times

Having read both Sally Jenkins' terrific book "The Real All Americans: The Team That Changed A Game, A People, A Nation" and Lars Anderson's "Carlisle vs. Army: Jim Thorpe, Dwight Eisenhower, Pop Warner and the Forgotten Story of Football's Greatest Battle" I thought it might be interesting to take all of this one step further with Tom Benjey's new book entitled "Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs". In this volume, Benjey offers brief biographies of around 4 dozen members of Carlisle's legendary football teams. What I quickly discovered is that "Doctors, Lawyers and Indian Chiefs" presented altogether too much information for the casual reader. Suffice to say that this one is much more appropriate and useful as a reference volume.
I think it is fair to say that students engaged in research on the history of college and professional football or those who seek to learn more about the state of Indian affairs in this nation during this period will likely find a treasure trove of valuable information in this book. Tom Benjey certainly sheds considerable light on the origins and evolution of professional football. Prior to reading these books on the Carlisle Indian Industrial School I had no idea how influential Indians were in the evolution of the game of football. One cannot help but be impressed by the number of former Carlisle players who went on to careers as players and coaches throughout the United States. Likewise I had no idea why the Pro Football Hall of Fame was located in Canton, Ohio. And invariably readers will learn things they never knew about Pop Warner, Jim Thorpe, Gus Welch and Al Exendine to name but a few.
For me, what made this book just a bit tedious was the great detail that Benjey goes into about so many of the other players that I had never heard of or simply did not care much about. Once again, if you are doing research about any of these folks than "Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs is probably going to offer you information you will simply not find anywhere else. No one can deny that Dr. Benjey spent considerable time researching this book. Much of the source material for this book was culled from the various Carlisle Indian Industrial School publications that appeared during the school's quarter century of existence. I also found Tom Benjey's writing to be a bit choppy at times.
All in all, I commend Tom Benjey for a very worthwhile research project. I suspect that scholars will be turning to this book for decades to come. Likewise if you have an abiding interest in the fascinating story of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School then I would not discourage you from giving this book a look. But at the end of the day the strength of "Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs" really is for reference purposes and not for the general reader.