Today's Tidbit... The Unlikely 1910 Carlisle-Harvard Law School Game

Football history is always surprising. You think you have heard every odd story and then come across a new one. This one is about a legendary coach of a Top 25 team being challenged to a game by a bunch of law school students. He, Pop Warner, accepted the challenge and lost the game, to Harvard Law School.

Carlisle once competed with the top football schools in the nation. Based in the small town of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, they played anywhere and everywhere. They took on anyone who would have them, so Virginia was the southernmost team they played, but they played several top Eastern teams every year, and were solid with or without Jim Thorpe, who did not play for Carlisle in 1910.

Like most teams, Carlisle started the 1910 season playing six gimmes, outscoring them 151-3. Their next eight games were different. While they beat Virginia, they lost to Syracuse, Princeton, Penn, and Navy, setting up a November 13 game with Harvard Law. Not Harvard, but Harvard Law.

Carlisle, the federally funded Indian school coached by Pop Warner. Always looking for a payday for his school or himself, Warner received the challenge from current law student and two-time All-American tackle, Hamilton Fish, so he took the deal.

Before 1910, it was not unusual for medical, dental, and law schools to have football teams, even schools with varsity undergraduate teams. But few of the professional schools were good, at least relative to the nation's best, so this was an unusual matchup, even in 1910.

Hamilton Fish at Harvard (Wiki)

Harvard Law did not normally have a football team, but Fish noticed his fellow law students included enought former players to field a competitive team. Fish found those interested in playing and arranged a practice game with Harvard's varsity. Played in Harvard Stadium, the October game proved close, with the varsity kicking two field goals to win 6-0.

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