Pigskin Warriors
How the Carlisle football team started a new Indian war.
Categories: History
By: Mark Boardman 01/01/2008
Ben played end (on offense and defense) but carried the ball frequently, usually taking it several yards behind the line of scrimmage and then leaping over the line for big gains. His teammates called him “Flying Man.”
Their grit wasn’t enough. Carlisle lost all five games in that inaugural year, although most scores were close. The Indians got national publicity and grudging respect from observers and opponents. It clearly was a moral victory. Sort of.
Ben American Horse played just two years before he returned to his tribe at the Pine Ridge Reservation. He worked with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show and served his tribe as a chief and police officer. Ben would recall his days at Carlisle as some of the best of his life.
Within 17 years, Carlisle was among the best football teams in the country—and it featured the legendary Jim Thorpe, probably the best player of his era. In the ultimate replay of the Indian Wars, he and the Indians upset the U.S. Military Academy (with linebacker and future president Dwight Eisenhower) in 1912. The game didn’t change the past, but revenge was sweet.
Indians across the country, including Ben American Horse, shared in the victory.
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