Who Invented The Hidden Ball Trick, And When?

It is often claimed that Pop Warner's Carlisle Indians executed the first hidden ball trick against Harvard in 1903, but that claim is wrong several times over. During the 1903 game, the last game played on Harvard’s Soldiers' Field with the nearly-finished Harvard Stadium looming in the background, Carlisle came close to upsetting the Crimson, as the Bostonians won 12-11.

Jimmy Johnson, Carlisle Q, is stopped on a run as Harvard Stadium looms in the background. ('Smashing Up A Flank Movement,' Boston Globe, November 11, 1903.)

Game reports and a Pop Warner interview in the next day's Boston Globe tell us the hidden ball trick came when Harvard kicked to Carlisle to start the second half. Executing a play they had practiced for weeks, Carlisle's quarterback, Jimmy Johnson, fielded the kick while the rest of the Carlisle players gathered around him, making it appear they would run forward in a wedge. Instead, Johnson stuffed the ball under the back of guard Charles Dillon's jersey, which had a "stout band of elastic at the bottom." Once inserted under the jersey, the eleven Carlisle players ran in different directions as Dillon, with both arms free, appeared to try to block a few Harvard opponents. Naturally, the Crimson players avoided Dillon, chasing the Carlisle backs instead, and allowed Dillon to pass through and head downfield untouched.