Some of the
football fans at Reading While White (Sam, KT, and Megan) have read Undefeated
by Steve Sheinkin (Roaring Brook, 2017) and are finding it extraordinarily discussable. If you are
familiar with Sheinkin’s books you’ll be Unsurprised (hehe) to learn that it
has garnered 4 starred reviews. We can’t imagine it won’t be discussed later in
this year as a major award contender. Recently we had an email conversation
wherein we weighed things we greatly appreciated against questions we still have.
The conversation is below, with a few tweaks for the sake of coherency.
Sam: I loved
so much of this book, but I think there is A LOT to talk about with the choices
Sheinkin made.
KT: If you were expecting
the book to be about the Carlisle Indian School, you might be disappointed.It's
actually about the Carlisle football team which was so influential in the
development of modern football. Jim Thorpe is the central figure but he is just
one of the many star players that Sheinkin writes about. Thorpe went to
Carlisle specifically to play football because he wanted to play on the
greatest team at the time – maybe of all time, once Thorpe was was added to the
team. Anyway, the boys on the team were treated very differently from other
students at Carlisle – they had their own dorm, got good food, etc., something
that contrasted with the conditions for the others. So there was a really big
incentive for the athletes to excel because they didn't want to be treated like
one of the regular kids. But even so, they were really exploited (kind of like
college players today) because they brought so much money into the school. I
thought Sheinkin did a really good job of writing that part of the story. The
parallels to modern football are fascinating.
Megan: I agree, KT. I actually started
this book and could not put it down. The stories of the athletes are so
compelling. And there are so many fascinating stories about how this team
influenced the way football is played – including the forward pass! The game
owes so much to the Carlisle Indian School team and individual athletes there.
Sam: Speaking of the forward pass,
Megan, that particular section is one of the most thrilling bits of writing
I’ve seen in years. (It’s on pages 120-123, if you have the book and want to
follow along.) Sheinkin recounts the way Carlisle fullback Pete Hauser’s
“lordly throw, a hurl that went further than many a kick,” set the powerful
Penn football team and fans back on their heels. This is one of countless times
in Undefeated where Sheinkin writes about football in such a skillful
way that fans of the game will certainly be in heaven, but football haters (I
know there are more than a few of you out there!) will also be compelled to
keep reading.
KT: Yes! I loved the story when Thorpe kicked
the football and then ran down the field to catch it himself. It was also
interesting to learn about their coach, Pop Warner, who really helped to
develop the Carlisle team but who wasn’t really the most admirable person. His
ultimate betrayal of Thorpe was terrible. And there were just so many
interesting personal stories of other teammates who were also great athletes
and were so influential in the development of modern American football.
They were the first football players to figure out they could run around,
rather than through, the other team, and they also practiced and practiced to
increase the length of their field goals, kicking distances we take for granted
today but that were unheard of in the early 20th century.
Megan: At the same time, I came away from
the book thinking that if I did not have prior knowledge that the Indian
Boarding School System was brutalizing not only to students but their families,
and that policies forced Native children to attend, I would not come away from this
book understanding this. I think all but one of the Carlisle athletes he
briefly profiles went to Carlisle if not willingly (and sometimes eagerly, at
least as outlined here), then because their family wanted them too. That is so
counter to the overall narrative of boarding schools with which I’m familiar.
And at the least, I wanted an author’s note contextualizing the experience of
these athletes at Carlisle in the larger story of Indian Boarding Schools, so
that readers can understand that this was an experience forced on generations
of Native children and had a profound impact on them and their families. It was
psychically cruel, in addition to the physical cruelty that children often
experienced.
Still, I
thought Sheinkin did a good job of pointing out the elite athletes at Carlisle
had preferential treatment—better food and conditions—compared to the grimmer
reality for most.
KT: I agree, Megan. All those haunting
before and after photographs of the students when they first got to Carlisle,
and then afterwards when they had been forcibly assimilated speak volumes. But
I also agree with Megan that an author’s note would have been helpful for
readers who don’t know much about Indian Board Schools in general.
Sam: There are moments when Sheinkin seems to remember the brutal facts
(such as in the Epilogue, when he writes about the difference in experiences
between athletes and non-athletes: “[I]t becomes clear that these schools
inflicted enormous and lasting pain on entire generations of young people”). In
the acknowledgements Sheinkin admits to struggling “to find some kind of
balance between stories about this thrilling team… and the harsh realities
behind the stories.” Personally, I don’t think he entirely succeeded. I’m not a
fan of didacticism, but like Megan and KT, I wanted more of the “harsh
realities” Sheinkin alludes to in the above quote. I think he owed that to
young readers, and while he gave glimpses, they were too few.
(Plus, let’s be honest: Sheinkin is such a great writer, surely he could
have included more analysis of this complex and painful part of history without
it turning his audience off.)
Megan: In fact, I was struck by his choice to offer a brief mention
of how racism is playing out today in terms of Native people and football when
he brings up the controversy surrounding the Washington R**skins team name. It
felt almost tacked on in the chapter it was part of, and yet I was glad he
acknowledged it. (This topic, too, could have been further discussed in a
Note.)
KT: Even with its faults, I still think it’s a pretty great book
overall. But, again, we’re all reading it as non-Native critics. I’ve given a
copy to a colleague here at the UW-Madison School of Education who is Lakota.
He’s a football fan, too, and he knows a lot about the Carlisle Indian School,
in general, and the story of this team. He also recommended an adult book on
the subject by Sally Jenkins called The Real All Americans. He’ll let me
know what he thinks about the Sheinkin book once he’s read it. I’m eager
to see what he has to say and, with his permission, I’ll share his comments
when they come in.
