Born in Oklahoma of Fox and Sauk heritage, Jim Thorpe was sent to a local Indian boarding school as a young child but ran away so many times he was finally, at age 11, sent far away to the Haskell Institute. He hated the school but discovered football and learned about one of the nation’s greatest teams, the Carlisle Indians. By age 15, he was at the Carlisle Indian School, playing for the storied team under the direction of Coach Pop Warner. Sheinkin skillfully weaves Thorpe’s life story with that of Pop Warner and the evolution of football, a sport that was very greatly shaped by the Carlisle Indians. This amazingly gifted team, built by Pop Warner from Carlisle’s most athletic students, who came from various Native nations, invented plays and techniques that are standard today, from the forward pass and spiral pass to field goals kicked from a distance greater than 30 feet. Plenty of play-by-play action, pieced together from contemporaneous newspaper accounts, provide details about the skill, athleticism, and inventiveness that led to frequent Indian victories over the likes of Harvard, Yale, Penn, and Princeton. Sheinkin does not shy away from the pain, racism, and exploitation the Carlisle students faced on a regular basis, although an account of government policy that forced most Native children to attend the schools is lacking. (Age 10 and older)

A great American sport and Native American history come together in this true story for middle grade readers about how Jim Thorpe and Pop Warner created the legendary Carlisle Indians football team, from New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Award recipient Steve Sheinkin.

“Sheinkin has made a career of finding extraordinary stories in American history.” —The New York Times Book Review

A Boston Globe-Horn Book Nonfiction Honor Book
A New York Times Notable Children's Book
A Washington Post Best Book

Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team is an astonishing underdog sports story—and more. It’s an unflinching look at the U.S. government’s violent persecution of Native Americans and the school that was designed to erase Indian cultures. Expertly told by three-time National Book Award finalist Steve Sheinkin, it’s the story of a group of young men who came together at that school, the overwhelming obstacles they faced both on and off the field, and their absolute refusal to accept defeat.

Jim Thorpe: Super athlete, Olympic gold medalist, Native American
Pop Warner: Indomitable coach, football mastermind, Ivy League grad

Before these men became legends, they met in 1907 at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, where they forged one of the winningest teams in American football history. Called "the team that invented football," they took on the best opponents of their day, defeating much more privileged schools such as Harvard and the Army in a series of breathtakingly close calls, genius plays, and bone-crushing hard work.

This thoroughly-researched and documented book can be worked into multiple aspects of the common core curriculum.

“Along with Thorpe's fascinating personal story, Sheinkin offers a thought-provoking narrative about the evolution of football and the development of boarding schools such as the Carlisle Indian School.” —The Washington Post

Also by Steve Sheinkin:

Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon
The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery
Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War
The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights
Which Way to the Wild West?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About Westward Expansion
King George: What Was His Problem?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the American Revolution
Two Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the Civil War
Born to Fly: The First Women's Air Race Across America