Springville, New York: Warner Museum

Every town in America, it seems, has a claim to fame. Springville, New York, is no different. Its favorite son has to be Pop Warner, which is why its history museum is named after him.

Glenn "Pop" Warner was born here in 1871, the son of a Cavalry officer in the Civil War who became a farmer. Warner was a good athlete as a child, mostly known for his pitching skills as football was just getting started in America. The family moved to Texas when he was 19, but Warner soon returned to Springville. There he made the fateful decision to apply to Cornell Law School, where he was urged to try out for the football team. Since Warner was in his early 20s at that point, he quickly picked up the nickname of "Pop" because he was older than his teammates.

Warner later turned to coaching, and figured out a way to coach football at Iowa State and Georgia at the same time. (It was a complicated arrangement.) From there it was back to Cornell, and eventually he landed in 1899 at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. That was his football home until 1914, except for a three-year return to Cornell. Warner built a powerhouse at Carlisle, taking on some of the nation's best college teams. He was helped by the presence of Jim Thorpe, one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century. 

Warner eventually moved on to other jobs. He had stops Pittsburgh, Stanford, Temple and San Jose State, and was known as an innovator along the way. The final record was 319-106-32. As you'd expect, he received all sorts of honors and Hall of Fame inductions along the way. The name lives on with Pop Warner Football, a youth program that is sort of the Little League of its sport. 

The Warner Museum serves as the history museum for the town, and Pop gets two rooms for displays. He was one of four football coaches to be among the first to be on a stamp, and some of his personal memorabilia is available for viewing. The rest of the building pays tribute to a couple of other noteworthy residents of Springville. 

A little planning is needed to go through the facility. It is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays from April to December. The people at the museum are knowledgeable and friendly. It was a good place to visit when some pro football researchers had a meeting about a block away.  

(Follow Budd on Twitter @WDX2BB)