Pine Village football was an important Indiana precursor to modern professional football organizations. Clinton Beckett introduced football to Pine Village High School in 1898, and town and high school teams began playing on bottomland northwest of here, starting a local football tradition. The town team, the Villagers, was managed by C. J. Shackleton and later by Clair Rhode. The team became professional in 1915 and claimed state and regional championships. Jim Thorpe, an All-American, played for the Villagers in a 1915 Thanksgiving Day game against the Purdue All-Stars, which the Villagers won 29 to 0. The team was a founder of the Indiana Football League in 1917. Following World War I, the Villagers played intermittently until 1927.