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Reporter AT LARGE
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By PAUL B. BEERS

Most Central Pennsylvanians probably underestimate what fascinating legends the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and Jim Thorpe are to other Americans, especially youngsters. Even though the Indian School closed in 1918 and Thorpe died in 1953, to us they are still local history. But to thousands of other Americans, they have the magic of mythology. Jim Thorpe ranks with Babe Ruth as a folk hero.
A new book for youngsters is "Go, Indians: Stories of the Great Indian athletes of the Carlisle School." It is by Moss Hall, a Californian, and is published by Ward Ritchie Press ($4.95).

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In another decade or so, the Carlisle Indian story will be history from secondary sources. Not many of the famous Indian athletes are still around. Albert Exendine, twice an All-American end, became a lawyer and still lives in Oklahoma. Thorpe, Frank Hudson, Fran Mount Pleasant, Thaddeus Redwater, Isaac Seneca, Delos Lone Wolf, Chief Bender and most of the rest are all gone. Gus Welch, the Chippewa quarterback on the Thorpe teams who went on to Dickinson Law School, died a year ago.
Athletes who played against the Indians also are passing out of the scene. One of the last remarkable ones is Hyman Goldstein, the noted lawyer in Carlisle. Goldstein could write a book about his legal adventures, but he gets his biggest kick out of quoting a 1911 newspaper clipping: "Not withstanding the sensational running by Goldstein and Thorpe, the score at half-time was 0-0." Goldstein, 5 - foot - 8, 160 pounds, quarterbacked Dickinson, while Thorpe, 6-foot and 185 pounds (the same size as Jack Dempsey) was the running back of the Indians. What delights Goldstein is having his name mentioned before Thorpe. But that was just the first half of the game. In the second half, the Indians scored 17 points to Dickinson's zip. In fact, in 1911 the Indians shut out their first three opponents, Lebanon Valley, Muhlenberg and Dickinson, and had a season of 11 wins and one loss, a 12-11 defeat to powerful Syracuse.
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As Moss Hall writes, Thorpe 'could run the 100 in 10 flat. He was tough, shifty and he ran through tacklers like a buzz saw. But his greatest talent was the natural ability to control his body. That magnificent frame would do anything he told it to. It never failed him."
Contrary to most legends, there's a lot of truth to what youngsters read about the Indian School and Jim Thorpe.
The teams were great. Their overall record was 169 wins, 87 losses and 13 tie. The average game they played ended with a score of 21-8. Lebanon Valley from 1900 to 1915 never scored a single point against the Redskins.
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In 1912, Thorpe was 23 and had the greatest of his six seasons with the Indians. He scored 25 touchdowns and 198 points to lead the nation. At West Point on Nov. 9, 1912, against a strong team that included Dwight D. Eisenhower at right halfback, Thorpe ran wild for a 27-6 Indian triumph.
As Moss Hall points out, Thorpe's personal marks hardly seem exceptional when compared to modern athletes. He did the 100-yard dash in 10 seconds; the mile in 4:35; a 11-foot pole vault and a 23 1/2-foot broad jump. But he could punt a football for 80 yards. In the 1912 Olympics, he took four first-places out of five in the Pentathlon and in the Decathlon he took four first-places, two thirds and a fourth place.
The rest of the Indian story is almost as exceptional. Coach Pop Warner invented the single-wing formation, as well as the pulling guard. He devised the trick of hiding the ball under a jersey to defeat Harvard.
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Mount Pleasant played before Thorpe's big years, but was almost as good. He probably was the greatest 5-foot-7, 140-pound triple-threat player ever to don a football uniform. Mount Pleasant, like Frank Cayou, Antonio Lubo and a number of other Indians, later entered Dickinson College. Lehigh chickened out and canceled its 1909 Dickinson game when it learned Mount Pleasant had moved over from the Indian School. Incidentally, Mount Pleasant went on to work for the post office in Buffalo, N.Y., and died in 1937.
One of Moss Hall's best stories is about Louis Tewanima, a 5-foot-6, 110 pound Hopi with bowed-out knees who used to run from Harrisburg to Carlisle just for the fun of it. Pop Warner sent Mount Pleasant and Tewanima to the 1908 Olympics. Mount Pleasant might have won the broad jump, but was injured. The Hopi took ninth place in the 26-mile Marathon. In 1912, as Thorpe was winning laurels, Tewanima just as incredibly finished second in the 10,000 meters, perhaps the greatest long-distance run an American has ever made. After that, Tewanima returned to Carlisle and then his Hopi village of Shongopovi in Arizona, where Hall found him 50 years later with his trophies.

Transcription Notes:
[[image - head shot, probably of the writer of the article, Paul Beers. A man in glasses, wearing a suit and tie]] [[image - photo of Jim Thorpe. Dark jersey with a large letter "C." Football nestled in the crook of his right arm. Light pants, dark socks, football shoes that came up over his ankles.