The Mudlavia Project- Pine Village Football Team

If you’re driving through Pine Village, Indiana, don’t blink, or you might just miss it! Outsiders might think there’s not much to the town; a small post office, a little restaurant called The Windy Mill where the old farmers meet up to drink coffee, and a gas station where there’s no option to pay at the pump. It’s a charming place where the men wear overalls and everybody waves. And as you enter town, there’s a few curious signs claiming that Pine Village is where pro football got its start.

Side 1

If you were like me when I first moved to Pine Village six years ago, you might look at the surrounding corn fields and the county with no stoplights, and think, “Yeah right! This place couldn’t have any connection to the multibillion dollar football league we know today!”

Side 2

 I’m a pretty big football fan (although I don’t know if I’ll enjoy it as much this year now that Peyton Manning and Calvin Johnson are retired) and a history buff, so I became fascinated with these signs. Were they really true or were we just a small town trying to find our claim to fame?

I asked around and the common answer was, “Haven’t you read the signs?”

I was finally able to find good information on the Pine Village football team in a local publication called, The Good Ol’ Days, that was put together by Mary Ann Akers, and in the book, Pine Village Football The Inside “Dope” written by Doris Holtman Cottingham.

The first Pine Village team was founded by high school principal, Clint Beckett, in 1989. He was called the “father of Pine Village football” and it was his enthusiasm that turned the small town of Pine Village into football fanatics for over twenty years.

 The team played at the Pine Creek bottom on a cow pasture, where they hired young boys to pick up the cow pies before the games. From 1900 to 1914 the team was considered an amateur team, and the cost to get in was twenty-five cents. From 1915 to 1919, the team became pro and charged one dollar to get into games. Depending on the weather, they could expect anywhere from 300 to 4000 people pulled alongside the cow pasture in their buggies, and later on in their Oldsmobiles and Model T Fords.

The team was made up mostly of locals who worked on their farms during the week and then played in the games on Sunday afternoons. They were considered a “history-making bunch” because in twenty years, they only had six losses. They were not scored against during seven of those years, and went undefeated for eleven of those years!

The Pine Village team officially became a pro team when it was agreed upon that every player on the team would be paid $40 for each game they played in. Their first pro game was played on October 17, 1915, against the Marion Athletic Club. Pine Village was a town of 300 playing against Marion, a town of 10,000. Pine Village beat them 17-0.

In an interview written by Robert Carr, his uncle John Carr, who played on the Pine Village team, says , “That first game as professionals convinced us of one thing, we had to practice more and leave less to brute strength. What we did was start practicing three times a week in the main square at Pine Village. The area wasn’t actually large enough, but we had three 100-watt lightbulbs hanging from wires, so we really had it made.”

Sources say that famous athlete, Jim Thorpe, played at least one, but maybe even three games with the Pine Village team for a price of $250 per game. Newspapers record that Thorpe played in the Thanksgiving Day football game on November 25, 1915. Pine Village played the Wabash team made up of All-Americans from Notre Dame, University of Michigan, and Illinois. Pine Village beat them 29-0. In the article by Carr, he also interviewed Pine Village player, James Hooker, who said, “After that bruising game, Thorpe said he’d never seen anything like this in all his life. ‘Players from a tiny village playing like All-Americans against official All-Americans.’ ”

The Pine Village Football team is such an awesome part of Warren County’s history, and I’m really excited that they played games during the time that my Mudlavia novel is set. Although my focus is on Mudlavia, I love including other pieces of Warren County history into my novel, like my characters going to cheer on their Pine Village team!

Giving credit where credit is due:

Pine Village Football The Inside “Dope”, Doris Holtman Cottingham, Williamsport, IN 2001

Good Ol’ Days, “Game In Progress”, Mary Ann Akers, October 1988 (this contains the interview between Robert Carr and his uncle, John Carr)