"The Walter Camp of Cornell"

"One of the greatest difficulties against which football at Cornell has been obliged to contend has been the lack of competent coaches among our alumni. This disadvantage is now overcome. Probably no man in the country has had a wider football experience than Carl M. Johanson. Certainly there is no one who is a more widely recognized authority on the subject than he unless it is the renowned."

- Walter Camp on Carl M. Johanson

 

Carl M. Johanson received the title of "Father of Cornell Football" for holding the dual role of first captain and coach of the earliest football squads in the 1890s. In the Novmeber 6, 1934 issue of the Cornell Daily Sun posthumously honoring Johanson, it is written: "During his career in the '90's as a captain and coach of the Cornell team he took charge of a sport which excited only mild interest in the newly-founded university and established Cornell as a power in the football world. The difficulties he encountered can be imagined from the fact that throughout most of the football season there were not enough men on the squad to form a second team to oppose the varsity."

 

Furthermore, Johanson is credited for introducing Glenn "Pop" Warner to the game of football - a passion to which Warner would later dedicate his entire life. From the Sept 26, 1933 issue of the Cornell Daily Sun:  "Johanson, acting as tackle, captain, and coach of the [Cornell] football team, 'discovered' Glenn S. Warner, a 210-pound student in the Law School and persuaded him to come out for the team. Johanson gave Warner his first football instruction and the two played shoulder to shoulder on the line for many years. Warner completed his law course but did not set up a practice, immediately turning to football coaching as a means of livelihood."

 

Johanson's exploits are that of legend.

 

This is a remarkable piece. It is not only a cabinet card of Carl M. Johanson (which alone is an incredible find), but also a signed photograph from the legend himself.