When word got around that the Carlisle Indians had an outstanding track team, Harold Anson Bruce, coach of the powerful Lafayette College team, invited “Pop” Warner’s athletes to a dual meet on Alumni Day. Reluctantly, he agreed to pay a large guarantee. The meet was sold out. But when Bruce when to greet the visitors, he was disconcerted to find only a few young men getting off the train with Warner. “Where are your Indians?” Bruce demanded.
“I’ve got enough,” answered Warner.
“How many?”
“Five.”
“But, Pop, I’ve got a team of forty-six; it’s an eleven-event program. This is a disaster. You haven’t a chance.”
“Wanna bet?” asked Warner.
Jim Thorpe won the high jump, the broad jump, the pole vault, the shot put, and the low hurdles, and was second in the 100. Two others ran first and second in the half-mile, the mile, and the two-mile; another won the quarter-mile, and the fifth the high hurdles. Carlisle won 71-31.