Western New Yorkers LOVE their football… but how many know that the man dubbed the “Father of Modern Football” came from Springville in southern Erie County?
Around the turn of the 20th century, Glenn “Pop” Warner either invented or was an early adopter of much of what we now take for granted in the sport: the single wing formation, double wing formation and three-point stance; signal-calling, jersey numbers, knee guards, shoulder pads and early headgear; the “wildcat” center snap to the ball carrier, bootleg, reverse and screen pass; trap blocking and the rolling body block---all the product of (or perfected by) Warner’s fertile football imagination. And, having written so much of this gridiron gospel, he spread it all over the land, coaching at eight universities over the course of 44 years.
In 1881, at the age of 10, Warner and his family moved to a house with a huge front yard, both still intact at 253 E. Main Street in Springville. It was on that front yard that big, husky Glenn, his younger brother, Bill, and their friends habitually played a game that resembled football, rugby, or perhaps soccer. No one knew the rules — largely because the game itself was so young; the rules were still being formulated and hadn’t spread to small towns like Springville yet—so it must have looked more like a free-for-all. When a neighbor told Glenn’s mother that the roughhousing was damaging her lawn, she replied, “I’m raising boys, not grass.”
Indeed, nobody in town had a proper football, so Glenn and his friends used an inflated cow’s bladder instead. He still hadn’t ever held a football after graduating from Griffith Institute in town; moving to Texas to work at a cattle ranch; returning to Springville and losing all his money betting on horse racing; convincing his father to fund his matriculation at Cornell; and being asked to join the football team on the train ride to Ithaca by the Cornell coach. When Glenn admitted he’d never even seen a real football, the coach, blown away by the sight of the brawny 210-pounder, told him not to worry about it and show up anyway.
At Cornell from 1892 to ’94, Warner played guard and, as one of the older students, earned the nickname “Pop”. Upon graduation, he worked briefly at a Buffalo law firm but within a year had signed on to coach football at Iowa State… and at Georgia as well. Thanks to Georgia’s later start and the judicious use of the telegraph, Warner coached both teams successfully for two years.
From there, Warner returned to Ithaca to coach Cornell. In 1899, he moved on to Carlisle Indian Industrial School, where he started what would become one of the nation’s premier football programs. He spent 12 years there in all and coached Carlisle’s most famous athlete, Jim Thorpe. More stints followed, at Pitt (nine seasons), Stanford (nine), and Temple (six). His last coaching job was at San Jose State in 1939 and ’40; the ’39 team scored 324 points and allowed… 0.
Pop Warner retired as the winningest coach in college football at the time. His 341-118-33 record included four consensus national titles. And although he didn’t found the youth football program that bears his name---Pop Warner Little Scholars---he contributed to and heavily influenced the nonprofit in its early years.
So next time you think about football in Western New York, from the Buffalo Bills, to the UB Bulls, to all the high school and flag football teams, all the way down to the little kids playing Pop Warner football, think of… well, think of Pop Warner.
Cast (in order of appearance):
Neighbor: Jeff Z. Klein
Adaline Warner: Cindy Eberl
Glenn “Pop” Warner: Steve Anderson
Narrator: Susan Banks
Sound recording: Brandon Nightingale
Sound editing: Micheal Peters
Piano theme: Excerpt from “Buffalo City Guards Parade March,” by Francis Johnson (1839)
Performed by Aaron Dai
Produced by the Niagara Frontier Heritage Project
Associate producer: Karl-Eric Reif
Webpage written by Jeff Z. Klein (Niagara Frontier Heritage Project)
Special thanks to:
Kathryn Larsen, vice president, content distribution, Buffalo Toronto Public Media
S.J. Velasquez, director of audio strategy, Buffalo Toronto Public Media
Jerry Urban, senior radio broadcast engineer