Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs: Jim Thorpe and Pop Warner's Carlisle Indian School Football Immortals Tackle Socialites, Bootleggers, Students, Moguls, Prejudice, the Government, Ghouls, Tooth Decay and Rum

by Tom Benjey, Francis Bernie Kish (Foreword by)

Overview

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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780977448678
Publisher:	Tuxedo Press
Publication date:	09/01/2008
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	10 Years

Editorial Reviews

The history of the infamous Carlisle Indian School has received more literary attention in the past several years than at any time since its demise approximately 90 years ago. Much of the credit for this upsurge of interest goes to Dr. Tom Benjey - now the leading authority on the athletic history of the pre-World War I Pennsylvania school for Native Americans - who has written a number of articles about Carlisle topics, and this, his second book on the subject, is the most exhaustively researched and valuable of all his works.

Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs is a collection of biographical essays that deal with the lives and athletic careers of about 50 Native Americans who played impressive roles in Carlisle football history before moving on with their lives - often to play sports for other colleges along the way. The amount of research and work that went into compiling their stories - impressively outlined in the Preface - is staggering. Many of these men went on to professional careers well outside the athletic world - some examples including James Phillips, who was an attorney and served as mayor of Aberdeen, Washington; Edward Rogers, who served as a distinguished county attorney in the state of Minnesota; and Benjamin Caswell, who became a school superintendent and a government agent. There were some men who experienced troubled lives after leaving Carlisle, and of course many went on to become football coaches and/or notable professional athletes. Their stories are all included in this work.

The book is liberally illustrated with many rare photos and artwork from old newspapers, yet the most interesting aspects of the book for this reviewer are the manydescriptions of the post-Carlisle college football days compiled by a substantial number of the players - often at large universities.

For anyone with an interest in the history of Carlisle Indian School football and Native American athletes, Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs is an indispensable reference work and is highly recommended.
—Ray Schmidt

College Football Historical Society