Pop Warner

It is always a thrill to catch up with my friend Jeff Miller and have the opportunity to pick his brain about the football history he is so passionate about. One subject is a legendary pigskin innovator that grew up in the town that Jeff currently resides in, Pop Warner. Jeffrey in fact has penned a very extensive biography on the legend titled, "Pop Warner: A Life on the Gridiron." We are happy to have the author share some of the knowledge of Coach Warner with us in this podcast.

Jeffrey Miller is a longtime gridiron historian, author and researcher. Jeff has a collection of published titles including 100 Things Bills Fans Should Know and Do with a forward by former Head Coach Marv Levy, Rockin’ the Rockpile: The Buffalo Bills of the American Football League, and Pop Warner: A Life on the Gridiron. Jeff also co-wrote a great work on Buffalo Bills history with Greg Tranter using pieces from their collections titled, Relics in addition to the others.

Here are a couple of other posts that on Pigskin Dispatch that Jeff helped us out on: 

Buffalo Bisons

Relics

Miller's book Pop Warner: A Life on the Gridiron is a wonderfully written piece on the legendary player and coach. It covers the full gambit of Glenn Scobey Warner's life that spanned from 1871 through 1954. It gives a depiction of the good and the bad in Warner's life and is probably the closest thing possible to living in the man's shoes.

On April 5, 1871 in the town Springville, New York a child was born at the Warner residence whom the parents named Glenn Scobee Warner. This youngeter would grow up to be one of the most influential innovators of American football in the game's history.

Becoming "Pop"

Young Glenn grew up in near the New York town where he was born and took an interest to sports. It took some time though. According to a great books by authors Jeff Miller Pop Warner: A Life on the Gridiron and another by Lars Anderson titled: Carlisle vs. Army: Jim Thorpe, Dwight Eisenhower Pop Warner and the Forgotten Story of Football's Greatest Battle, Warner was a plump youngster who was often the target of local schoolyard bullies. A group of boys would constantly pick on the boy that they called "Butter" because of his soft disposition. One winter's day this all changed and Butter's usually mild temperment curdled into something altogether different. Warner's father William as a Union Civil War hero, and he often put the boy on his knee to teach him how bravery and standing up in face of adversity helped him suruvive the ravages of war. Fast forward to the the trip home from school as the bully pulled off Butter's hat and stmped it into a half frozen puddle. The enraged, overly victimized ten year-old had reached his limit and barrelled into his surprised his tormentor, taking him to the ground and then pummeling the bully. Warner reflected later in life that it was at this moment he realized he could assert his will on others and influence an outcome. This moment also gave his some self confidence. As he got a to this age he also experienced working hard on the family's when farm with his brothers, and this hard work transformed hid pudgy body into the a more athletic tone to match his new found confidence. After a failed attempt to become a miliatry man like his father, Glenn moved with his family from New York to Wichita Falls, Texas. After a few years there he decided to attend college, back in the East.

In June of 1894 he graduated from Cornell University. While attending the school he played football and was nominated as the team captain during his senior season. He was 22 years old during that final playing season and by far the oldest man on the squad. The others team members as a quasi tribute and friendly jest referred to their elder-statesman fondly as "Pop." It was a name that would stick and it is more well known to those of us in later eras to denote him by than his God given name of Glenn.

After graduation Pop took a job in Buffalo, New York practicing law but after four months he left the firm and decided to take a different career course, coaching football. The University of Georgia with its whopping enrollment of 248 students at the time hired Warner to lead their football eleven in September of 1895. The program had just recently started and needed guidance, and boy did they ever make the right hire to do so. UGA went 3-4 in Warner's first season but then rebounded in year 2 with a perfect 4-0 record. Warner though left the school after that banner season because of the poor pay and even poorer facilities he and his team had in Georgia. He returned North to his beloved Cornell in 1897 to coach there.

Warner and his Cornell squads proved to be quite formidable as they registered a fantastic 15-5-1 record during his tenure at the helm. However the two year itch got Pop again and he took an opportunity to move on to the employment of the Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. It was a move that was historic as he transformed the school of Native Americans into a National powerhouse!

Carlisle Indians

Pop Warner immediately brought organization and discipline to his new team. The players responded with dilligently listening to their coaches instructions and game plans and as a result the gifted athletes started producing win after win for thier school. By 1903 the Carlisle Indians were the talk of the gridiron world of the day with a stellar 11-2 record. From the seasons of 1904 through 1914 four of of his teams recorded but one loss during their seasons. One big reason was perhaps the greatest athlete of a generation in a guy named Jim Thorpe. Thorpe interestingly enough in hist first season was considered too small by Warner to even get ont he field. Thorpe begged and pleaded with the legendary coach to get some playing time. Finally Warner gave in and much to his surprise it was probably the best decision he had ever made in his coaching career, as the athleticism of Thorpe far outmatched most opponents they faced.

Pitt and a Move West

In 1915 Pop was on the move again as the University of Pittsburgh lured him into their fold with a lucrative pay and improved facilities. This paid off for both parties as four different Pittsburgh teams under Warner from 1915 to 1923 went undefeated.

Riding his sucess in Pittsburgh, the folks at Stanford took notice and offereed him a coaching job at their school that Pop could not turn down. His Cardinal teams won three Rose Bowls and went without a loss in 1926. While at the helm he had some top notch players at Stanford too including the legendary back Ernie Nevers. Alas the desire to coach back in the East took hold and Warner returned to Pennsylvania to Coach Temple University from 1933 through the 1938 season.

Innovations

A picture of Jim Thorpe tackling dummy that is made of weights and pulley on wire, with Coach Glenn Pop Warner in 1912 courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

We have told you about some of the outstanding players behind Warner's coaching success but remember at the beginning of this post we said he was a great innovator of the game? To his credit Coach Glenn Warner is repsonsible for such items in football as the three-point stance, screen passes, spiral punt, naked bootleg, double reverse, the single-wing and double-wing formations, he also takes some credit for the modern day the numbering of players’ jerseys, the requirement of wearing of shoulder pads by players, thigh pads, lightweight uniforms, and safer helmets, and the use of blocking sleds and tackling dummies at practice sessions to prepare players with proper technique while not beating up on teammates.

Perhaps Pop Warner's biggest contribution to the game was the developement of youth players and their prerparation in the fundamentals of the game to be ready to take higher levels of the gridiron to new places with the creation of the Pop Warner Leagues for kids in 1929. Warner himself said this was his biggest achievement in football. Pop Warner football almost a century later is still going strong introducing youths to the game of football in a safe and organized environment. And as a testament to its founder it still bears the name of Pop Warner Football.

Pop Warner is a name that is closely associated with youth football. The name is in honor to the man who not only founded the organization but who forever made his mark on the game we love. Let's take a look at the accomplishments of Pop Warner.

Photos are courtesy of Wikimedia Commons such as the banner photo of  the 1896 University of Georgia team Pop Warner coached as well as a picture of Jim Thorpe tackling dummy that is made of weights and pulley on wire, with Coach Glenn Pop Warner. in 1912 taken by an unknown photographer.