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From the Book Jacket:
Jim Thorpe: Super Athlete, Olympic Gold Medalist, Native American
Pop Warner: Indomitable Coach, Football Mastermind, Ivy League Grad
Before these two men became legends, they met in 1907 at the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, where they forged one of the winningest teams in the history of America's favorite sport. Called "the team that invented football," Carlisle's innovative squad challenged the greatest, most elite teams -- Harvard, Yale, Army -- audaciously vowing to take their place among the nation's football powers.
This is an astonishing underdog sports story - and more. It's an unflinching look at the U.S. government's violent persecution of Native Americans and the school that was designed to erase Indian cultures. It's the story of a group of young men who came together a the school, the overwhelming obstacles they faced both on and off the field, and their absolute refusal to accept defeat.
Reviews:
Young football fans will be entranced by this thrilling account of gridiron greatness. In its early days, college football was more violent, slower, and the sport primarily of elite East Coast institutions. With an eye for the telling detail, author Steve Sheinkin shows how the game changed thanks to Jim Thorpe, coach Pop Warner, and the Carlisle Indians. These young men never gave up in the face of hardship, and the author takes care to recount their struggles off the field as well as on. Sheinkin celebrates the big-heartedness and physical prowess of Thorpe, but he also shows his flaws, as well as the more obvious ones of Pop Warner. -- Common Sense Media
Young readers of this biography may be surprised that Jim Thorpe, an athlete they may never have heard of, was once considered “the best athlete on the planet.”
Most students at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania were shocked by the treatment they received under superintendent Richard Henry Pratt, who believed white American culture was superior and to “help” his students meant to “kill the Indian in him, and save the man.” New students were given new names, new clothes, and haircuts and were allowed to speak English only. It was a harsh, alien world, and only a small percentage of students ever graduated. The child of a Sac and Fox/Irish father and Potawatomi/French-Canadian mother, Jim Thorpe grew up in a mix of white and Indian culture and was better prepared than many when he entered Carlisle at the age of 15. Sheinkin weaves complicated threads of history—the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the story of Carlisle, the early days of football, and the dual biographies of Thorpe and his coach Pop Warner—with the narrative skills of a gifted storyteller who never forgets the story in history. He is unflinchingly honest in pointing out the racism in white American culture at large and in football culture, including headlines in the newspapers (“INDIANS OUT TO SCALP THE CADETS”), preferential officiating, and war whoops from the stands. Sheinkin easily draws a parallel in the persisting racism in the names of current football teams, such as the Braves and Redskins, bringing the story directly to modern readers.
Superb nonfiction that will entertain as it informs. -- Kirkus Reviews