Pop Warner

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In the spring of 1895, Warner was asked for a reference to fill the vacant head coaching position at Iowa Agricultural College, in Ames, Iowa. Instead of giving a reference, Warner himself applied for the job and received an offer for $25 per week (equivalent to $810 in 2021). At the same time, he decided to apply to other schools and received an offer of $34 per week (equivalent to $1,110 in 2021) from the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. Because Iowa State began its season in August—almost one and a half months prior to the beginning in Georgia—Warner was able to work out a deal. For $150 (equivalent to about $4,900 in 2021), he would coach in Iowa from August until the second week of September, and then head to Georgia and begin coaching there.

Ultimately, not only did Warner end up coaching at Iowa State before his time at Georgia; but while in Athens, he also received weekly updates from Iowa and sent back telegraphs with detailed advice for the following week. One story recounts that in the middle of September (just before leaving for Georgia), Warner took his team north west for a previously agreed-upon game against the Butte Athletic Club of Butte, Montana. Apparently overconfident, Warner bet the entire sum of his Iowa State wages—$150 (equivalent to about $4,900 in 2021)—on his team's victory. At halftime, his team trailed 10–2. Warner decided to enter the game, filling in at the guard position. Though this had a positive impact, it was not sufficient as his team still lost 12–10. In a 1947 publication by Francis J. Powers, there is an alternate take on the causes of the Butte loss: "The game was played on a field as devoid of grass as a glacier and there was nothing green ... It was impossible for the center to snap the ball to the quarterback on the bounce or even roll it without chances for a fumble ... Whenever Iowa State threatened to score, the referee (a home towner) would make a decision which chilled the Cyclones' offense ... spectators, who followed up and down the sidelines, would whip out their six shooters and blaze away with enthusiasm, which also chilled the Iowa college boys." In order to try and make up for losing all of his Iowa State wages, Warner worked out a deal where, for $30 (equivalent to about $1,000 in 2021), he would stay in contact with Iowa State while at Georgia.

Soon after Warner left for Georgia, Iowa State had its first official college game of the season. In Evanston, just north of Chicago, underdog Iowa State defeated Northwestern 36–0. A Chicago Tribune headline read, "Struck by a Cyclone". Since then, Iowa State teams have been known as the Cyclones. The team finished with three wins and three losses and, like Georgia, retained Warner for the following season. In 1896, Iowa State had eight wins and two losses. Despite leaving Georgia for Cornell in 1897, Warner remained head coach at Iowa State for another three years, posting winning records.

In Warner's first season at Georgia, he was hired at a salary of $34 per week. The school was a charter member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA), the first athletic conference in the South. The football team had three wins and four losses, including a loss to North Carolina from a not-yet-legal forward pass. He was rehired at a salary of $40 per week, and the next season Georgia had one of the school's first great teams. With an undefeated record, the team won its first conference title. It also avenged the loss to North Carolina, winning 24–16, "For the first time in Southern football history the football supremacy of Virginia and North Carolina was successfully challenged."

During those two years Warner also played two games against John Heisman, another future coaching legend. Heisman was the head coach at Auburn University, and they faced each other in the 1895 and 1896 games of the "Deep South's Oldest Rivalry," an annual confrontation which has continued to the present day. In 1895, the Auburn Tigers defeated the Bulldogs 12–6. The Auburn team was led by quarterback Reynolds "Tick" Tichenor, known for his punt returns. Tichenor had executed the first "hidden-ball trick" in an earlier Auburn game against Vanderbilt, and used it again against Georgia. The next year, Tichenor faced Georgia's Richard Von Albade Gammon, a star quarterback in his first year under Warner. Both quarterbacks played well and, unlike the previous year, Warner's team won 16–6. The second touchdown came right after the first onside kick in the South.

After Georgia's outstanding 1896 performance, Warner returned to his alma mater Cornell at twice his Georgia salary. While remaining head coach at Iowa State, he coached Cornell to records of 5–3–1 in 1897 and 10–2 in 1898; in the latter season, Cornell outscored its opponents 296–29. Despite its 1898 success, tension existed within the team, as its assistant coach (backed by a large proportion of the players) lobbied to replace Warner. Acknowledging an issue with his leadership, Warner resigned.

In 1904, after five years at Carlisle (see below), Warner returned to Cornell but his 1904 team featuring Clemson transfer James Lynah was little improved over the previous year. The following two years were better, with the 1905 team losing to undefeated champion Penn by one point. Their game next year was a scoreless tie, and Cornell lost only one game that season (to Princeton).

After leaving Cornell the first time, Warner became head coach of the football team at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in 1899, a flagship Indian boarding school founded to teach children and young men skills to advance in American society. Its late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century football teams were nationally prominent, and Warner was paid $1,200 (equivalent to about $39,000 in 2021), an exceptionally high salary for a coach at the time.

His previous Cornell team had once faced Carlisle, and he had been impressed by his opponent's approach to the game. Since the players were outweighed by every other team in the nation, they relied on speed and agility instead of size and physical force. Despite those strengths, Cornell won the game 23 to 6. The referee was a former Cornell graduate and was accused of helping out Cornell during the game. After the match, while addressing the journalists, Warner acknowledged that there had been assistance from the referee. He stated that "We outscored 'em but we didn't defeat 'em, if you follow me. Pop Warner always made references to Bugs Bunny." It has been said that after that game he considered Carlisle to be the future of college football.

The head coach dealt with young players who differed from the white, East-Coast students with whom he had previously worked. At the beginning, he used the then-customary coaching methods of rough language and a strict routine. The Native American students were unaccustomed to such an approach, and several key players stopped attending practices. Warner adjusted his technique, saying that he "found I could get better results. I don't think I ever swore at a player from that time. Maybe I did a little cussing, now and then, but never at players."

His coaching brought immediate improvement. In 1897 and 1898, the Carlisle teams had 6–4 records. In 1899 (Warner's first year), Carlisle won nine and lost two games—to the country's two best teams: Harvard and Princeton. That year saw Carlisle's first major victory, against one of the "Big Four" teams, beating Penn 16–5. At the end of the season, the school played Columbia at the Polo Grounds in New York City, a premier sports venue at the time, defeating them 42–0. The Columbia game was the first time that a crouching start, a form of what is now known as a three point stance, was used by the running backs. Before Warner's innovation, the stance for a back before the ball was snapped was bent forward with his feet well apart and his hands on his knees. Warner realized that if his players took a stance similar to the one taken by sprinters, the legs would be bent, the back leaning forward, with one hand on the ground and the other arm cocked back to the thigh/hip region. Like with sprinters, this similar stance maximized the speed of his players. Shortly after, it became the standard football stance for both backs and linemen.

At the end of 1899, Warner was appointed the school's athletic director and his salary more than doubled. A track-and-field program was started that year. Warner knew little about the sport; to prepare as coach he bought every book available and consulted Jack Moakley and Mike Murphy, two of the era's leading head coaches. The program was successful; running was a Native American tradition, and students from the Southwest were known for their stamina in long-distance races.

Warner's next two years were less fruitful. The 1900 football team went 6–4–1, losing three games to the Big Four, and the 1901 season was a losing one, with Carlisle posting a 5–7–1 record. The following year, the team posted an improved 8–3 record, when Warner began implementing double (lateral) passes. Carlisle's quarterback Jimmy Johnson would make a lateral pass to the halfback running towards the sideline, bringing the defense with him as he tossed the ball back to the fast-running Johnson.

In 1902, Warner played one professional football game for the Syracuse Athletic Club during the first World Series of Football at Madison Square Garden. In the first professional indoor football game, Syracuse defeated the heavily favored New York team. During the series, Warner was seriously cut on the side of his head. Although he laughed it off at first, the injury turned out to be more serious and he was replaced with Blondy Wallace for the rest of the series. For the tournament, Warner and the other team members each earned $23 (equivalent to about $720 in 2021), although each player's expected share had been $300 (equivalent to about $9,000 in 2021); it was a financial failure.

Carlisle's 1903 season was a success, with only two losses. The 12–11 defeat by Harvard is known for the "hunch-back", or "hidden-ball", play which Warner learned from Heisman; he had a tailor sew elastic bands into the waists of several players' jerseys before the game so the play could be executed. It was used during a Harvard kickoff; when the ball was caught, Carlisle formed a circle around the returner and pushed the ball up the back of the player's (altered) jersey. Carlisle then broke the huddle and spread out in different directions. Each player except the returner (who had the hidden ball) pretended to carry the football. The ruse confused the Harvard players, who scrambled to find the ball carrier, and the returner (ignored, with both hands free) ran untouched into the end zone. Warner's next step was a brief return to Cornell.

After three years at Cornell, Warner returned to Carlisle. He considered his second stint there his best. From 1907 to 1914, the team won ten or more games a season five times.

During this time at Carlisle, Warner made several significant contributions to football offense, including the body block technique and the single- and double-wingback formations. Under Warner, Carlisle quarterback Frank Mount Pleasant and fullback Pete Hauser became two of the first regular spiral passers in football (the forward pass was legalized in 1906). In 1908 he introduced the technique of body blocking, instead of blocking with the shoulders.

Warner considered the 1907 Carlisle team "about as perfect a football machine as I ever sent on the field". The team posted a 10–1 record, outscored opponents 267–62 and pioneered an elegant, high-speed passing game; it was one of the first teams to regularly throw the ball deep downfield. For the first time in 11 years, Carlisle defeated Harvard on the road 23–15. Carlisle also won 26–6 over Penn. In the second play of the Penn game, Hauser threw a 40-yard spiral pass, hitting his receiver in stride. At the time such a pass was stunning and unexpected, and is considered by one journalist to be an evolutionary step in the game. The 1907 season is known for Warner's first use of the single-wing formation, characterized by laterals, trap and counter runs, and passing.

According to Sally Jenkins, in her Sports Illustrated article on Carlisle:

The 1907 team included a young Jim Thorpe, considered one of the greatest athletes who ever lived. Thorpe weighed just 155 lb (70 kg), light for a football player. Warner played him as a substitute, encouraging him to put his time into track and field. By 1909, Warner had Thorpe competing in track and field and he won 14 events. In 1911, Thorpe began training for the upcoming Olympics, and won gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm.

Carlisle football had another standout year in 1911, posting an 11–1 record. Thorpe had grown to 180 lb (82 kg), big enough to be a starter. The team defeated Harvard 18–15, with Thorpe scoring all of Carlisle's field goals. Walter Camp selected Thorpe as a first-team All-American. According to one source, Thorpe was "recognized as the greatest player of the year and a man whose kicking is likely to revolutionize the game".

Warner considered the 1912 team brilliant and adaptive, and experimented with new plays and formations. In its game against Army, Warner's team introduced a wrinkle to the wing-back system. According to Francis J. Powers, author of a book that concentrated on Warner's approach to football:

Carlisle dominated the next two years, with the 1912 and 1913 teams losing only one game each. Warner's salary increased to $4,500 per season (equivalent to $126,000 in 2021).

In January 1913 a newspaper article revealed that Thorpe had played minor league baseball in North Carolina in the summer of 1908 with the Rocky Mount Railroaders, causing the International Olympic Committee to rescind the gold medals that he had won in the decathlon and pentathlon in the 1912 Olympics. (After Thorpe's death the medals were posthumously reinstated.) Warner denied that he knew about Thorpe playing baseball professionally, and he and Moses Friedman, the Carlisle superintendent, drafted a statement for Thorpe to sign in which Thorpe took all the blame onto himself. Steve Sheinkin, the author of Undefeated – Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team, characterizes Warner's and Friedman's behavior as "scrambling to save their own hides."

"Thorpe had never tried to hide his participation in baseball. He'd told Superintendent Friedman before leaving campus in 1909, and had talked about it ever since coming back. 'I never made any secret about it.' Thorpe later said. 'I often told the boys, with the coaches listening, about things that happened while I was at Rocky Mount.' There's simply no way Pop Warner didn't know about Thorpe's summer baseball. After all they'd accomplished together, all they'd been through, this was the moment Thorpe needed Warner the most. This was Warner's chance to stand by Thorpe's side. He didn't do it. To Jim's teammates, this was nothing less than a knife to the back." Gus Welch, one of Thorpe's teammates, said, "Mr. Warner is a good football coach, but a man with no principle."

In 1914 there was an administrative change in Washington, with federal money considered better spent in the Midwest than on schools like Carlisle. Many students left, and this affected the team (which had a 5–10–1 record). After that season, Warner left Carlisle to become head coach at Pittsburgh.

When Warner arrived at the University of Pittsburgh in 1915, the 128-year-old school was on a new campus with 3,900 students. He inherited a team in good shape, full of future All-Americans, and coached the Pittsburgh Panthers to their first undefeated season. Six of their eight games (all shutouts) were played at home on Forbes Field, including a 45–0 victory over Carlisle. Warner coached his Pitt teams to 29 straight victories, and is credited with three national championships (1915, 1916 and 1918). Coaching Pittsburgh from 1915 to 1923, he compiled a 60–12–4 record.

Although the 1915 season was a success, the next year's team was one of the greatest of Warner's career. The Panthers were again undefeated and, like the previous year, six of the eight games were shutouts. Thirty-two of their 35 players were from Western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. The team scored 255 points, conceding 25. Warner considered the team an improvement because its defense was more dominant than the previous year's. The Panthers were the consensus national champions, and Warner became recognized as one of football's greatest coaches.

In 1917 the United States entered World War I, and some players (including Andy Hastings and Jimmy Dehart) entered military service. Pittsburgh played an undefeated full season despite the war, although it was not awarded the national championship. Although the team lacked the previous year's punch, it dominated the opposition. A key aspect of its success was the opposing coaches' inability to address Warner's evolving strategies; according to Powers, "His reverse plays were a mystery, although Pop always was willing to explain them in detail to any other coach".

Faculties had to step in to stop a decisive, postseason national championship game with John Heisman's undefeated Georgia Tech team. The game was postponed until the following season, giving Tech the 1917 national championship (the first for any Southern school). On November 23, 1918 the two teams played at Pittsburgh. At the stadium where the game was to be played, the locker rooms were next to each other, with only a thin wall separating the two teams prior to the game. Heisman was first to begin an inspirational speech and it was said that he passionately described both heroes of Ancient Greece as well as the tragedy of a soldier found in his armor among the ruins of Pompeii. Because of Georgia Tech's players' silence the speech was crystal clear on the other side of the wall. Upon its finish Warner smiled and quietly told his players "Okay, boys. There's the speech. Now go out and knock them off." Pittsburgh defeated Georgia Tech 32–0.

The 1918 season was cut short at the end of November due to the continuing effects of World War I and the influenza pandemic. Only five games were played, and the season's final game was in Cleveland against the Naval Reserve. Warner's first loss at Pitt, it was one of the most controversial games in school history. According to Warner and several reporters covering the game, Pitt was robbed by the officials. The referees said that the timekeeper's watch was broken, ended the first half before Pitt was able to score and allowed the Reserves extra time in the fourth quarter to pull ahead, 10–9. Although he refused to acknowledge the loss, Warner's 29-game winning streak came to an end. Moon Ducote kicked the 41-yard, game-winning field goal for the Naval Reserve, and Warner called him "the greatest football player I ever saw". Despite the loss, a number of selectors named the 4–1 1918 Panthers national champion. The team was led by freshman running back Tom Davies, who averaged 150 yards per game over his four-year career.

The 1919 season began with high expectations; World War I was over, and key players had returned from service. However, things did not go Warner's way; at the beginning of the season, problems with the offensive line and on the flanks became apparent. Their first defeat was at Syracuse, where the Orangemen won 20–3. The 1919 Panthers had six wins, two losses and one tie.

They were undefeated in 1920, with ties against Syracuse and undefeated Penn State. In 1921 the team's record dipped to 5–3–1, but Pitt made college football history on October 8, 1921. Harold W. Arlin announced the first live radio broadcast of a college football game in the United States from Forbes Field on KDKA, as the Panthers defeated West Virginia 21–13 in the annual Backyard Brawl.

Although Warner announced before the 1922 season that he was leaving to take the head-coaching position at Stanford, he honored his contract and remained at Pitt through 1923. The 1922 team had an 8–2 record, and the season ended with the Panthers taking their first cross-country train trip to defeat Stanford 16–7 in Palo Alto (coached by two Pitt assistants, sent ahead by Warner). Andrew Kerr became head coach at Stanford during Warner's last two years at Pitt. Warner's final season was his worst at Pitt, as the Panthers stumbled to a 5–4 record in 1923. However, the Warner era ended on a high note with a 20–3 victory over Penn State on November 29.

Football on the Pacific Coast had been on the rise since the late 1910s. Early in 1922, Warner signed a contract with Stanford University in which he would begin coaching in 1924 (after his contract with Pitt expired). Health concerns, a significant pay raise and the rising status of Pacific Coast football made Warner make the big change. Years later, he wrote:

In 1924, Warner began his nine-year tenure at Stanford University. When he began coaching, Stanford was one of nine teams in the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC). Warner inherited a notable squad from the previous year, including Ernie Nevers (whom Warner considered his greatest player) and All-American ends Ted Shipkey and Jim Lawson.

A season highlight was the final game against Stanford's arch-rival California at California Memorial Stadium, the last game of the regular season. Before the game, both teams were undefeated and Stanford had not beaten California since 1905. Nevers did not play due to a broken ankle. Late in the game, California was leading 20–3; California coach Andy Smith, sure the game was over, began substituting regular players. Warner seized the opportunity to combine passing with the trick plays for which he was known (a fake reverse and a full spinner), and Stanford made a comeback. The game ended in a 20–20 tie.

Because the game was California's second tie, Stanford was chosen to play in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day against the University of Notre Dame's Fighting Irish coached by Knute Rockne. Like Warner, Rockne is considered one of the greatest coaches in football history. According to journalist Allison Danzig, "With the exception of Knute Rockne of Notre Dame, Pop Warner was the most publicized coach in football." The game was thus a test of two different and highly influential systems of football: "the Warner system with the wing backs, unbalanced line and gigantic power [and the] Knute Rockne system with its rhythmic, dancing shift, lightning speed, balanced line and finely timed blocking". Notre Dame's backfield was composed of the renowned Four Horsemen. Nevers played all 60 minutes of the game, and rushed for 114 yd (104 m) (more yardage than the Four Horsemen combined). Warner's offense moved the ball but was unable to score, and Notre Dame won 27–10.

During the 1925 season, Stanford lost just one PCC game (to Washington); California was finally defeated, 27–7. It was the first year of a new rivalry, with coach Howard Jones and the University of Southern California (USC) team. In their first game, at the Los Angeles Memorial Colosseum, Stanford scored twice in the first half but had to hold off the charging Trojans in a 13–9 win. Because of the loss to Washington, Warner's team was not invited to the Rose Bowl.

Stanford won all its 1926 games, crushing California 41–7 and narrowly defeating USC 13–12. Warner's team was invited to the Rose Bowl to play Alabama. Like the game against the Fighting Irish, Stanford dominated but the result was a 7–7 tie. After the game, both teams were recognized as national champions by a number of publications.

The 1927 season was one of underachievement and ultimate success. Stanford lost its third game to non-conference St. Mary's College. Stanford's next loss was against non-conference Santa Clara. The game against USC was a 13-to-13 tie.

However, that year, Stanford defeated California 13–6. The game included a bootleg play, the invention of which some credit to Warner. Powers stated that,

Despite the two losses, Stanford finished the season as PCC co-champion. They were invited to the 1928 Rose Bowl against Pitt, Warner's former team now coached by protégé Jock Sutherland. Warner broke his losing Rose Bowl streak, defeating Sutherland 7–6. The win was Warner's last appearance at the Rose Bowl. In recognition of his Rose Bowl accomplishments, Warner was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 2018.

The 1929 season is known for Warner's regular use of the hook and lateral, a play that involves a receiver who runs a curl pattern, catches a short pass and immediately laterals the ball to another receiver running a crossing route. According to the October 25, 1929 Stanford Daily, "The trickiness that Pop Warner made famous in his spin plays and passing is very evident ... The frosh have been drilling all week on fast, deceptive forward and lateral pass plays, and together with the reverses will have a widely varied attack". That season brought Warner his second straight loss to Jones, with Stanford defeated by the Trojans 7–0. USC won the conference, and went to the Rose Bowl. Jones went on to win every year thereafter, including 1932, Warner's last season at Stanford. Because of the five consecutive defeats, Warner was severely criticized by Stanford alumni. In all, Warner and Jones played eight games; Jones won five, Warner two and one was a tie. Against Stanford's main rival, California, Warner won five games, tied three and lost one.

Warner left Stanford for Temple University in Philadelphia, his final head-coaching job, after the 1932 season. He was paid $75,000 for five years (equivalent to $1.6 million in 2021), one of the largest salaries ever offered a coach at the time. The 1934 team was undefeated during the regular season, losing to Tulane in the first Sugar Bowl. A star of the game was Dave Smukler, whom Warner considered one of his great fullbacks.

In later years Warner said he regretted his decision to leave Stanford for Temple. He left because of concern about the school's changing funding priorities. The university leadership was planning to make Stanford primarily a graduate school; because of an increase in the number of junior colleges in California, the administration saw less need for undergraduate instruction at Stanford. Because fewer students were admitted, higher grade requirements for incoming students made admission more difficult and student athletes began enrolling at USC and California instead of Stanford. Warner soon realized that he had made the wrong decision; due to the economic effects of the Great Depression, the number of applicants to Stanford decreased significantly and athletes were again admitted. Temple upset the Florida Gators, coached by future Temple coach Josh Cody, 20–12 in Warner's last game.

While coaching at Temple, Warner continued living in Palo Alto (where Stanford is located). After his 1938 retirement he was immediately recruited as an advisor to Dudley DeGroot, a former center at Stanford and now the head coach at San Jose State College (near Palo Alto). Officially an advisor, Warner was immediately put in charge of the offense. According to Powers, "DeGroot had been using a single back offense but Pop immediately changed to the double wing, much to the doubts of San Jose players. However, the formation began to click and San Jose not only enjoyed an undefeated season but was the highest scoring team in the nation." That year the San Jose State Spartans played against College of the Pacific, coached by Amos Alonzo Stagg. It was the first time the two coaches had met since 1907, when Warner was coaching Carlisle and defeated Stagg's University of Chicago 18–4. Warner and DeGroot's San Jose State defeated Stagg's Pacific Tigers, 39–0.

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