Today's Tidbit... Warner and the Inexperienced Cornell Eleven

College coaches today sometimes complain about their team's lack of experience, but at least they can be sure that most of their players have played football before. That was not the case early in the game's history, including in 1897 during Pop Warner's first year coaching Cornell.

'Coach Warner of Cornell,' World (New York), October 11, 1897.

Warner graduated from Cornell two years earlier, coaching Iowa State each August the next two years before heading to Georgia to coach the Bulldogs during the season. One of Warner's main tasks at Cornell was encouraging the school's best athletes to play football, even if they had not played before. He succeeded, causing him to claim:

The material at Cornell is undoubtedly the best we have had in years. Although comparatively few of the old men are back, the new material is very good, and there are plenty of heavy men. However, some of these are inexperienced and it will take a great deal of coaching to bring them into 'Varsity form.