Hawley Pierce was an early professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player for the

Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, the team became the Oaklan ...

of the first National Football League and later for the

Syracuse Athletic Club A nameless professional American football team, based in Syracuse, New York and generically known as the Syracuse Pros or Syracuse Eleven, was once thought to have joined the National Football League, American Professional Football Association (no ...

during the 1902 and 1903 World Series of Football. In 1901, he began his professional career playing on the

1901 Homestead Library & Athletic Club football team The 1901 Homestead Library & Athletic Club football team won the professional football championship of 1901. The team was affiliated with the Homestead Library & Athletic Club in Homestead, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. The team featured a line ...

. Prior to his professional career, Pierce, a

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...

Native American, played for the

Carlisle Indian School The United States Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, generally known as Carlisle Indian Industrial School, was the flagship Indian boarding school in the United States from 1879 through 1918. It took over the historic Carlisle ...

, located in

Carlisle, Pennsylvania Carlisle is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Carlisle is located within the Cumberland Valley, a highly productive agricultural region. As of the 2020 United States census, ...

. He was the brother of college and professional football's

Bemus Pierce Bemus Pierce (February 27, 1875 – February 15, 1957) was an American football player and coach. He played as a guard in the 1890s and 1900s. Pierce played college football for the Carlisle Indian School teams from 1894 to 1898 and played profe ...

Role in development of the overhead spiral forward pass

Howard Reiter, a teammate of Pierce during his time with football's Philadelphia Athletics, claimed to have invented the overhead spiral

forward pass In several forms of football, a forward pass is the throwing of the ball in the direction in which the offensive team is trying to move, towards the defensive team's goal line. The forward pass is one of the main distinguishers between gridiron ...

while playing professional football as a

player-coach A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

for the team in the 1902 National Football League. Pierce reportedly taught Reiter to throw an underhand spiral pass, but Reiter had short arms and was unable to throw for distance from an underhand delivery. Accordingly, Reiter began working on an overhand spiral pass. Reiter recalled trying to imitate the motion of a baseball catcher throwing to second base. After practice and experimentation, Reiter "discovered he could get greater distance and accuracy throwing that way."

World Series of Football

Prior to the start of the series, Syracuse A.C. under

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

coach,

Frank "Buck" O'Neill Frank J. "Buck" O'Neill (March 6, 1875 – April 21, 1958) was an American football player and coach. He served as head football coach at Colgate University (1902, 1904–1905), Williams College (1903), Syracuse University (1906–1907, 1913–1 ...

, signed three running backs from the

Watertown Red & Black The Watertown Red & Black is a semi-professional American football team based in Watertown, New York. The team is the oldest active semi-pro football team in the United States, and can trace its history to 1896, although the Professional Football ...

, along with Hawley and his brother Bemus. He also signed Bill Warner and his brother Glenn. O'Neill conducted daily practices in preparation for the series. Syracuse defeated the heavily favored " New York team" in what has been called the first indoor pro football game. The final score of the game was recorded as 6-0, but in reality it was 5-0, since touchdowns only counted for five points in 1902 and Pop Warner missed the extra point. The finale on New Year's night against the

Orange Athletic Club The Orange Tornadoes and Newark Tornadoes were two manifestations of a long-lived professional American football franchise that existed in some form from 1887 to 1941 and from 1958 to 1970, having played in the American Amateur Football Union from ...

resulted in another 36-0 win, and the series championship, for Pierce and Syracuse. Pierce played for Syracuse again in the 1903 World Series of Football.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pierce, Hawley 1877 births Year of death unknown 19th-century players of American football American football tackles Carlisle Indians football coaches Carlisle Indians football players Homestead Library & Athletic Club players Philadelphia Athletics (NFL) players Syracuse Athletic Association players Players of American football from New York (state) Seneca Nation of New York people American Episcopalians