James Francis Thorpe (
Sac and Fox (Sauk): ''Wa-Tho-Huk'', translated as "Bright Path"; May 22 or 28,
1887March 28, 1953)
was an American athlete and Olympic gold medalist. A member of the
Sac and Fox Nation, Thorpe was the first Native American to win a gold medal for the United States in the Olympics. Considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports, he won two Olympic gold medals in the
1912 Summer Olympics
The 1912 Summer Olympics ( sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1912), officially known as the Games of the V Olympiad ( sv, Den V olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Stockholm 1912, were an international multi-sport event held in Stockholm, Sweden, be ...
(one in
classic pentathlon and the other in
decathlon
The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ἄθλος (''áthlos'', or ἄθ ...
). He also played
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...
(collegiate and professional), professional baseball, and basketball.
He
lost his Olympic titles after it was found he had been paid for playing two seasons of semi-professional baseball before competing in the Olympics, thus violating the contemporary
amateurism rules. In 1983, 30 years after his death, the
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...
(IOC) restored his Olympic medals with replicas, after ruling that the decision to strip him of his medals fell
outside of the required 30 days. Official IOC records still listed Thorpe as co-champion in decathlon and pentathlon until 2022, when it was decided to restore him as the sole champion in both events.
Thorpe grew up in the Sac and Fox Nation in
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...
(what is now the U.S. state of
Oklahoma). As a youth, he attended
Carlisle Indian Industrial 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 Carlisl ...
in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he was a two-time
All-America
The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...
n for the
school's football team under coach
Pop Warner
Glenn Scobey Warner (April 5, 1871 – September 7, 1954), most commonly known as Pop Warner, was an American college football coach at various institutions who is responsible for several key aspects of the modern game. Included among his in ...
. After his Olympic success in 1912, which included a record score in the decathlon, he added a victory in the All-Around Championship of the
Amateur Athletic Union
The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It has ...
. In 1913, he played for the Pine Village Pros in Indiana. Later in 1913, Thorpe signed with the
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisio ...
, and he played six seasons in
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...
between 1913 and 1919. Thorpe joined the
Canton Bulldogs American football team in 1915, helping them win three professional championships. He later played for six teams in the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...
(NFL). He played as part of several all-American Indian teams throughout his career, and
barnstormed as a professional basketball player with a team composed entirely of American Indians.
From 1920 to 1921, Thorpe was nominally the
first president
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number 1 (number), one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, D ...
of the
American Professional Football Association, which became the NFL in 1922. He played professional sports until age 41, the end of his sports career coinciding with the start of the
Great Depression. He struggled to earn a living after that, working several odd jobs. He suffered from
alcoholism
Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomina ...
, and lived his last years in failing health and poverty. He was married three times and had eight children, before suffering from heart failure and dying in 1953.
Thorpe has received numerous accolades for his athletic accomplishments. The
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. n ...
ranked him as the "greatest athlete" from the first 50 years of the 20th century, and the
Pro Football Hall of Fame
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coac ...
inducted him as part of its inaugural class in 1963. The town of
Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania
Jim Thorpe is a borough and the county seat of Carbon County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is historically known as the burial site of Native American sports legend Jim Thorpe.
Jim Thorpe is ...
was named in his honor. It has a monument site that contains his remains, which were the subject of legal action. Thorpe appeared in several films and was portrayed by
Burt Lancaster
Burton Stephen Lancaster (November 2, 1913 – October 20, 1994) was an American actor and producer. Initially known for playing tough guys with a tender heart, he went on to achieve success with more complex and challenging roles over a 45-yea ...
in the 1951 film ''
Jim Thorpe – All-American
''Jim Thorpe – All-American'' (UK title: ''Man of Bronze'') is a 1951 American biographical film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Burt Lancaster as Jim Thorpe, the great Native American athlete who won medals at the 1912 Olympics and d ...
''.
Early life
Information about Thorpe's birth, name and ethnic background varies widely.
[O'Hanlon-Lincoln. p. 129.] He was baptized "Jacobus Franciscus Thorpe" in the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
. Thorpe was born in
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...
of the United States (later
Oklahoma), but no
birth certificate
A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a person. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation of the ensui ...
has been found. He was generally considered to have been born on May 22, 1887,
near the town of
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
.
Thorpe said in a note to ''
The Shawnee News-Star'' in 1943 that he was born May 28, 1888, "near and south of
Bellemont –
Pottawatomie County – along the banks of the North Fork River ... hope this will clear up the inquiries as to my birthplace."
[Wheeler. p. 291.] Most biographers believe that he was born on May 22, 1887, the date listed on his
baptismal certificate. Thorpe referred to
Shawnee
The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
as his birthplace in his 1943 note to the newspaper.
Thorpe's parents were both of mixed-race ancestry. His father, Hiram Thorpe, had an Irish father and a
Sac and Fox Indian mother. His mother, Charlotte Vieux, had a French father and a
Potawatomi
The Potawatomi , also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American people of the western Great Lakes region, upper Mississippi River and Great Plains. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a m ...
mother, a descendant of Chief
Louis Vieux. Thorpe was raised as a Sac and Fox, and his native name, ''Wa-Tho-Huk'', is translated as "path lit by great flash of lightning" or, more simply, "Bright Path".
As was the custom for Sac and Fox, he was named for something occurring around the time of his birth, in this case the light brightening the path to the cabin where he was born. Thorpe's parents were both Roman Catholic, a faith which Thorpe observed throughout his adult life.
Thorpe attended the Sac and Fox Indian Agency school in
Stroud
Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021.
Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five ...
, with his twin brother, Charlie. Charlie helped him through school until he died of
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...
when they were nine years old.
[Jim Thorpe – Fast facts](_blank)
cgmworldwide.com. Retrieved May 20, 2018. Thorpe
ran away from school several times. His father sent him to the
Haskell Institute
Haskell Indian Nations University is a public tribal land-grant university in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Founded in 1884 as a residential boarding school for American Indian children, the school has developed into a university operated by ...
, an
Indian boarding school in
Lawrence, Kansas
Lawrence is the county seat of Douglas County, Kansas, United States, and the sixth-largest city in the state. It is in the northeastern sector of the state, astride Interstate 70, between the Kansas and Wakarusa Rivers. As of the 2020 census ...
, so that he would not run away again.
When Thorpe's mother died of childbirth complications two years later,
the youth became depressed. After several arguments with his father, he left home to work on a horse ranch.
[Jim Thorpe – Olympic Hero and Native American](_blank)
olympics30.com. Retrieved July 30, 2018.
In 1904 the sixteen-year-old Thorpe returned to his father and decided to attend
Carlisle Indian Industrial 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 Carlisl ...
in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania. There his athletic ability was recognized and he was coached by
Glenn Scobey "Pop" Warner, one of the most influential coaches of early American football history.
Later that year the youth was orphaned after his father Hiram Thorpe died from
gangrene
Gangrene is a type of tissue death caused by a lack of blood supply. Symptoms may include a change in skin color to red or black, numbness, swelling, pain, skin breakdown, and coolness. The feet and hands are most commonly affected. If the gan ...
poisoning, after being wounded in a hunting accident.
[Hoxie. p. 628.] The young Thorpe again dropped out of school. He resumed farm work for a few years before returning to Carlisle School.
Amateur career
College career
Thorpe began his athletic career at Carlisle in 1907 when he walked past the track and, still in street clothes, beat all the school's
high jumpers with an impromptu 5-ft 9-in jump.
[''Encyclopedia of World Biography'']
Jim Thorpe
Thomson-Gale
Gale is a global provider of research and digital learning resources. The company is based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, west of Detroit. It has been a division of Cengage since 2007.
The company, formerly known as Gale Research and the Gale G ...
, ''Bookrags'', June 2006. Retrieved April 23, 2007. His earliest recorded track and field results come from 1907. He also competed in football, baseball,
lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensi ...
, and
ballroom dancing
Ballroom dance is a set of partner dances, which are enjoyed both socially and competitively around the world, mostly because of its performance and entertainment aspects. Ballroom dancing is also widely enjoyed on stage, film, and television.
...
, winning the 1912 intercollegiate ballroom dancing championship.
Pop Warner
Glenn Scobey Warner (April 5, 1871 – September 7, 1954), most commonly known as Pop Warner, was an American college football coach at various institutions who is responsible for several key aspects of the modern game. Included among his in ...
was hesitant to allow Thorpe, his best track and field athlete, to compete in such a physical game as football.
[Jeansonne. p. 60.] Thorpe, however, convinced Warner to let him try some rushing plays in practice against the school team's defense; Warner assumed he would be tackled easily and give up the idea.
Thorpe "ran around past and through them not once, but twice".
He walked over to Warner and said, "Nobody is going to tackle Jim", while flipping him the ball.
Thorpe first gained nationwide notice in 1911 for his athletic ability.
As a
running back
A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball,
and block. The ...
,
defensive back
In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...
,
placekicker
Placekicker, or simply kicker (PK or K), is the player in gridiron football who is responsible for the kicking duties of field goals and extra points. In many cases, the placekicker also serves as the team's kickoff specialist or punter.
Sp ...
and
punter, Thorpe scored all of his team's four field goals in an 18–15 upset of
Harvard, a top-ranked team in the early days of the
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athlete, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic sports, ...
(NCAA).
His team finished the season 11–1. In 1912 Carlisle won the national collegiate championship largely as a result of Thorpe's efforts: he scored 25
touchdown
A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Americ ...
s and 198 points during the season, according to
CNN's Greg Botelho.
Steve Boda, a researcher for the NCAA, credits Thorpe with 27 touchdowns and 224 points. Thorpe rushed 191 times for 1,869 yards, according to Boda; the figures do not include statistics from two of Carlisle's 14 games in 1912 because full records are not available.
Carlisle's 1912 record included a 27–6 victory over the West Point
Army team.
In that game, Thorpe's 92-yard touchdown was nullified by a teammate's penalty, but on the next play Thorpe rushed for a 97-yard touchdown.
[Jim Thorpe](_blank)
usoc.org, Retrieved April 26, 2007. Future President
Dwight D. Eisenhower, who played against him in that game, recalled of Thorpe in a 1961 speech:
Here and there, there are some people who are supremely endowed. My memory goes back to Jim Thorpe. He never practiced in his life, and he could do anything better than any other football player I ever saw.[Botelho, Greg]
"Roller-coaster life of Indian icon, sports' first star"
CNN.com, July 14, 2004. Retrieved April 23, 2007.
Thorpe was awarded third-team
All-American honors in 1908, and named a first-team All-American in 1911 and 1912.
Football was – and remained – Thorpe's favorite sport. He did not compete in track and field in 1910 or 1911, although this turned out to be the sport in which he gained his greatest fame.
In the spring of 1912, he started training for the Olympics. He had confined his efforts to jumps, hurdles and shot-puts, but now added pole vaulting, javelin, discus, hammer and 56 lb weight. In the Olympic trials held at Celtic Park in New York, his all-round ability stood out in all these events and so he earned a place on the team that went to Sweden.
Olympic career
For the
1912 Summer Olympics
The 1912 Summer Olympics ( sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1912), officially known as the Games of the V Olympiad ( sv, Den V olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Stockholm 1912, were an international multi-sport event held in Stockholm, Sweden, be ...
in Stockholm, Sweden, two new multi-event disciplines were included, the
pentathlon
A pentathlon is a contest featuring five events. The name is derived from Greek: combining the words ''pente'' (five) and -''athlon'' (competition) ( gr, πένταθλον). The first pentathlon was documented in Ancient Greece and was part of t ...
and the
decathlon
The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ἄθλος (''áthlos'', or ἄθ ...
.
[Buford. p. 112.] A pentathlon, based on the ancient Greek event, had been introduced at the
1906 Intercalated Games
The 1906 Intercalated Games or 1906 Olympic Games was an international multi-sport event that was celebrated in Athens, Greece. They were at the time considered to be Olympic Games and were referred to as the "Second International Olympic Games i ...
. The 1912 version consisted of the
long jump
The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...
,
javelin throw
The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's decathlon and the ...
, 200-meter dash,
discus throw
The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors. It is an ancient sport, as demonstrated by t ...
, and 1500-meter run.
The decathlon was a relatively new event in modern athletics, although a similar competition known as the all-around championship had been part of American track meets since the 1880s. A
men's version had been featured on the program of the
1904 St. Louis Olympics. The events of the new decathlon differed slightly from the American version.
Both events seemed appropriate for Thorpe, who was so versatile that he served as Carlisle's one-man team in several track meets.
According to his obituary in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', he could run the 100-yard dash in 10 seconds flat; the 220 in 21.8 seconds; the 440 in 51.8 seconds; the 880 in 1:57, the mile in 4:35; the 120-yard high hurdles in 15 seconds; and the 220-yard low hurdles in 24 seconds.
He could long jump 23 ft 6 in and high-jump 6 ft 5 in.
He could
pole vault
Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the My ...
11 feet;
put the shot
The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's co ...
47 ft 9 in;
throw the javelin 163 feet; and throw the
discus 136 feet.
Thorpe entered the U.S. Olympic trials for both the pentathlon and the decathlon. He easily earned a place on the pentathlon team, winning three events. The decathlon trial was subsequently cancelled, and Thorpe was chosen to represent the U.S. in the event. The pentathlon and decathlon teams also included
Avery Brundage
Avery Brundage (; September 28, 1887 – May 8, 1975) was an American sports administrator who served as the fifth president of the International Olympic Committee from 1952 to 1972. The only American and only non-European to attain that p ...
, a future
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...
president.
Thorpe was extremely busy in the Olympics. Along with the decathlon and pentathlon, he competed in the long jump and high jump. The first competition was the pentathlon on July 7.
He won four of the five events and placed third in the javelin, an event he had not competed in before 1912.
Although the pentathlon was primarily decided on place points, points were also earned for the marks achieved in the individual events. Thorpe won the gold medal. That same day, he qualified for the high jump final, in which he finished in a tie for fourth. On July 12, Thorpe placed seventh in the long jump.
Thorpe's final event was the decathlon, his first (and as it turned out, his only) decathlon.
Strong competition from local favorite
Hugo Wieslander was expected. Thorpe, however, defeated Wieslander by 688 points. He placed in the top four in all ten events, and his Olympic record of 8,413 points stood for nearly two decades.
Even more remarkably, because someone had stolen his shoes just before he was due to compete, he found a mismatched pair of replacements, including one from a trash can, and won the gold medal wearing them. Overall, Thorpe won eight of the 15 individual events comprising the pentathlon and decathlon.
As was the custom of the day, the medals were presented to the athletes during the closing ceremonies of the games. Along with the two gold medals, Thorpe also received two challenge prizes, which were donated by King
Gustav V of Sweden for the decathlon and Czar
Nicholas II of Russia for the pentathlon. Several sources recount that, when awarding Thorpe his prize, King Gustav said, "You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world", to which Thorpe replied, "Thanks, King".
[Flatter, Ron]
"Thorpe preceded Deion, Bo"
ESPN.com. Retrieved April 23, 2007. Thorpe biographer Kate Buford suggests that the story is
apocryphal
Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...
, as she believes that such a comment "would have been out of character for a man who was highly uncomfortable in public ceremonies and hated to stand out." The anecdote appeared in newspapers by 1948, 36 years after his appearance in the Olympics and time for myth making, and in books as early as 1952.
Thorpe's successes were followed in the United States. On the Olympic team's return, Thorpe was the star attraction in a
ticker-tape parade on
Broadway.
He remembered later, "I heard people yelling my name, and I couldn't realize how one fellow could have so many friends."
Apart from his track and field appearances, Thorpe also played in one of two exhibition
baseball games at the 1912 Olympics, which featured two teams composed mostly of U.S. track and field athletes. Thorpe had previous experience in the sport, as the public soon learned.
File:Photograph of Jim Thorpe with Admirers - NARA - 595392.tif, Thorpe shaking hands with Moses Friedman
Moses Friedman (born 1874) was a superintendent of schools. He was the second leader of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Friedman was born in Cincinnati. His father was a Jewish immigrant from Germany.
Friedman ...
while Glenn "Pop" Warner (left), Lewis Tewanima (center), and a crowd look on
File:Jim Thorpe.jpg, upThorpe in Carlisle Indian Industrial 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 Carlisl ...
uniform, c. 1909
File:Photograph of Jim Thorpe - NARA - 595347.jpg, Thorpe, c. 1910
File:Jim Thorpe, 1912 Summer Olympics.jpg, Thorpe at the 1912 Summer Olympics
All-Around champion
After his victories at the Olympic Games in Sweden, on September 2, 1912, Thorpe returned to Celtic Park, the home of the
Irish American Athletic Club
The Irish American Athletic Club was an amateur athletic organization, based in Queens, New York, at the beginning of the 20th century.
Early years
Established on January 30, 1898, originally as the "Greater New York Irish Athletic Association", ...
, in
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
, New York (where he had qualified four months earlier for the Olympic Games), to compete in the
Amateur Athletic Union
The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It has ...
's All-Around Championship. Competing against
Bruno Brodd Bruno Brodd (July 2, 1886 – April 24, 1956) was an American track and field athlete, born in Finland, who specialized in the javelin throw. He competed for the Irish American Athletic Club and the Kaleva Athletic Club.
1910 American javelin cha ...
of the Irish American Athletic Club and
John L. Bredemus
John L. Bredemus (November 20, 1884 - May 8, 1946) was a track and field athlete, teacher, principal, and golf course designer from the United States. He finished second in the 1906 Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) all-around competition, won in 1908, ...
of
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...
, he won seven of the ten events contested and came in second in the remaining three. With a total point score of 7,476 points, Thorpe broke the previous record of 7,385 points set in 1909 (also at Celtic Park), by
Martin Sheridan, the champion athlete of the Irish American Athletic Club. Sheridan, a five-time Olympic gold medalist, was present to watch his record broken. He approached Thorpe after the event and shook his hand saying, "Jim, my boy, you're a great man. I never expect to look upon a finer athlete." He told a reporter from ''
New York World
The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publ ...
'', "Thorpe is the greatest athlete that ever lived. He has me beaten fifty ways. Even when I was in my prime, I could not do what he did today."
Controversy
In 1912,
strict rules regarding
amateurism were in effect for athletes participating in the Olympics. Athletes who received money prizes for competitions, were sports teachers, or had competed previously against professionals were not considered amateurs. They were barred from competition.
In late January 1913, the ''
Worcester Telegram'' reported that Thorpe had played professional baseball before the Olympics, and other U.S. newspapers followed up the story.
Thorpe had played professional baseball in the
Eastern Carolina League for
Rocky Mount, North Carolina, in 1909 and 1910, receiving meager pay; reportedly as little as US$2 ($ today) per game and as much as US$35 ($ today) per week.
College players, in fact, regularly spent summers playing professionally in order to earn some money, but most used aliases, unlike Thorpe.
Although the public did not seem to care much about Thorpe's past,
[Schaffer and Smith. p. 50.] the
Amateur Athletic Union
The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It has ...
(AAU), and especially its secretary
James Edward Sullivan, took the case very seriously.
Thorpe wrote a letter to Sullivan, in which he admitted playing professional baseball:
His letter did not help. The AAU decided to withdraw Thorpe's amateur status retroactively. Later that year, the
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...
(IOC) unanimously decided to
strip Thorpe of his Olympic titles, medals and awards, and declare him a professional.
Although Thorpe had played for money, the AAU and IOC did not follow their own rules for disqualification. The rulebook for the 1912 Olympics stated that protests had to be made "within 30 days from the closing ceremonies of the games."
The first newspaper reports did not appear until January 1913, about six months after the Stockholm Games had concluded.
There is also some evidence that Thorpe was known to have played professional baseball before the Olympics, but the AAU had ignored the issue until being confronted with it in 1913. The only positive aspect of this affair for Thorpe was that, as soon as the news was reported that he had been declared a professional, he received offers from professional sports clubs.
Professional career
Baseball free agent
Because the minor league team that last held Jim Thorpe's contract had disbanded in 1910, the athlete had the unusual status as a sought-after
free agent
In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...
at the major league level during the era of the
reserve clause
The reserve clause, in North American professional sports, was part of a player contract which stated that the rights to players were retained by the team upon the contract's expiration. Players under these contracts were not free to enter into ano ...
. He could choose the baseball team for which to play. In January 1913, he turned down a starting position with the
St. Louis Browns, then at
the bottom of the American League. He chose to join the
1912 National League champion New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisio ...
. With Thorpe playing in 19 of their 151 games, they repeated as the
1913 National League champions. Immediately following the Giants' October loss in the
1913 World Series, Thorpe and the Giants joined the
Chicago White Sox
The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...
for a world tour. Barnstorming across the United States and around the world, Thorpe was the celebrity of the tour. Thorpe's presence increased the publicity, attendance and
gate receipts Gate receipts, or simply "gate", is the sum of money taken at a sporting venue for the sale of tickets.
Traditionally, gate receipts were largely or entirely taken in cash. Today, many sporting venues will operate a season ticket scheme, which will ...
for the tour.
[Clavin, Tom]
"The Inside Story of Baseball's Grand World Tour of 1914"
''Smithsonian'', March 21, 2014. Retrieved May 18, 2017. He met with
Pope Pius X
Pope Pius X ( it, Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of ...
and
Abbas II Hilmi Bey (the last
Khedive
Khedive (, ota, خدیو, hıdiv; ar, خديوي, khudaywī) was an honorific title of Persian origin used for the sultans and grand viziers of the Ottoman Empire, but most famously for the viceroy of Egypt from 1805 to 1914.Adam Mestyan" ...
of
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...
), and played before 20,000 people in London including
King George V
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936.
Born during the reign of his grandmother Q ...
.
Thorpe was the last man to compete in both the Olympics (in a non-baseball sport) and
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...
before
Eddy Alvarez did the same in 2020.
Baseball, football, and other sports
Thorpe signed with the
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisio ...
baseball club in 1913 and played sporadically with them as an outfielder for three seasons. After playing in the minor leagues with the
Milwaukee Brewers
The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. The Brewers are named for the city's association wi ...
in 1916, he returned to the Giants in 1917. He was sold to the
Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...
early in the season. In the "double
no-hitter
In baseball, a no-hitter is a game in which a team was not able to record a hit. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in at least nine innings recorded no hits. A pitcher w ...
" between
Fred Toney
Fred Toney (December 11, 1888 – March 11, 1953) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball for the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, New York Giants and St. Louis Cardinals from 1911 to 1923. His career record was 139 wins, 102 ...
of the Reds and
Hippo Vaughn of the
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is locate ...
, Thorpe drove in the winning run in the 10th inning. Late in the season, he was sold back to the Giants. Again, he played sporadically for them in 1918 before being traded to the
Boston Braves on May 21, 1919, for
Pat Ragan. In his career, he amassed 91
runs scored
In baseball, a run is scored when a player advances around first, second and third base and returns safely to home plate, touching the bases in that order, before three outs are recorded and all obligations to reach base safely on batted balls ...
, 82
runs batted in
A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the ba ...
and a .252
batting average
Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic.
Cricket
In cricket, a player's batting average i ...
over 289 games. He continued to play
minor league baseball until 1922, and once played for the minor league
Toledo Mud Hens
The Toledo Mud Hens are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. They are located in Toledo, Ohio, and play their home games at Fifth Third Field. A Mud Hens team has played ...
.
But Thorpe had not abandoned football either. He first played professional football in 1913 as a member of the Indiana-based
Pine Village Pros, a team that had a several-season winning streak against local teams during the 1910s. He signed with the
Canton Bulldogs in 1915. They paid him $250 ($ today) a game, a tremendous wage at the time.
[Neft, Cohen, and Korch. p. 18.] Before signing him Canton was averaging 1,200 fans a game, but 8,000 showed up for Thorpe's debut against the
Massillon Tigers
The Massillon Tigers were an early professional football team from Massillon, Ohio. Playing in the " Ohio League", the team was a rival to the pre-National Football League version of the Canton Bulldogs. The Tigers won Ohio League championshi ...
.
The team won titles in 1916, 1917, and 1919. Thorpe reportedly ended the 1919 championship game by kicking a wind-assisted 95-yard punt from his team's own 5-yard line, effectively putting the game out of reach.
In 1920, the Bulldogs were one of 14 teams to form the
American Professional Football Association, which became the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...
(NFL) two years later. Thorpe was nominally
their first president, but spent most of the year playing for Canton; a year later, he was replaced as president by
Joseph Carr
Joseph Francis Carr (October 22, 1879 – May 20, 1939) was an American sports executive in American football, baseball, and basketball. He is best known as the president of the National Football League from 1921 until 1939. He was also one of ...
. He continued to play for Canton, coaching the team as well. Between 1921 and 1923, he helped organize and played for the
Oorang Indians (
LaRue, Ohio), an all-Native American team. Although the team's record was 3–6 in 1922, and 1–10 in 1923, Thorpe played well and was selected for the ''
Green Bay Press-Gazette
The ''Green Bay Press-Gazette'' is a newspaper whose primary coverage is of northeastern Wisconsin, including Green Bay. It was founded as the ''Green Bay Gazette'' in 1866 as a weekly paper, becoming a daily newspaper in 1871. The ''Green Ba ...
'' first All-NFL team in 1923. This was later formally recognized in 1931 by the NFL as the league's official All-NFL team).
Thorpe never played for an NFL championship team. He retired from professional football at age 41,
having played 52 games for six teams from 1920 to 1928.
Most of Thorpe's biographers were unaware of his basketball career until a ticket that documented his time in professional basketball was discovered in an old book in 2005.
By 1926, he was the main feature of the "World Famous Indians" of
LaRue, a traveling basketball team. "Jim Thorpe's world famous Indians" barnstormed for at least two years (1927–28) in multiple states.
Although stories about Thorpe's team were published in some local newspapers at the time, his basketball career is not well-documented. For a brief time in 1913, he was considering going into professional
hockey
Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...
for the Tecumseh Hockey Club in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...
, Ontario, Canada.
Marriage and family
Thorpe married three times and had a total of eight children. In 1913, Thorpe married Iva M. Miller,
whom he had met at Carlisle. In 1917, Iva and Thorpe bought a house now known as the
Jim Thorpe House
The Jim Thorpe House is a historic house in Yale, Oklahoma.
In 1917, Jim Thorpe bought a small home in Yale, Oklahoma and lived there until 1923 with his wife, Iva Miller, and children, one of whom, Jim Jr., died at the age of two. The house ...
in
Yale, Oklahoma, and lived there until 1923. They had four children: James F., Gale, Charlotte, and Frances Thorpe.
Miller filed for divorce from Thorpe in 1925, claiming desertion.
In 1926, Thorpe married Freeda Verona Kirkpatrick (September 19, 1905 – March 2, 2007). She was working for the manager of the baseball team for which he was playing at the time.
They had four sons: Phillip, William, Richard, and John Thorpe.
Kirkpatrick divorced Thorpe in 1941, after they had been married for 15 years.
Lastly, Thorpe married Patricia Gladys Askew on June 2, 1945.
She was with him when he died.
Later life, film career, and death
After his athletic career, Thorpe struggled to provide for his family. He found it difficult to work a non-sports-related job and never held a job for an extended period of time. During the
Great Depression in particular, he had various jobs, among others as an
extra for several movies, usually playing an American Indian chief in
Westerns.
In the 1932 comedy ''Always Kickin'', Thorpe was prominently cast in a speaking part as himself, a kicking coach teaching young football players to
drop-kick. In 1931, during the Great Depression, he sold the film rights to his life story to
MGM for $1,500 ($ today). Thorpe portrayed an umpire in the 1940 film ''
Knute Rockne, All American''. He played a member of the Navajo Nation in the 1950 film ''
Wagon Master''.
Thorpe was memorialized in the
Warner Bros. film ''
Jim Thorpe – All-American
''Jim Thorpe – All-American'' (UK title: ''Man of Bronze'') is a 1951 American biographical film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Burt Lancaster as Jim Thorpe, the great Native American athlete who won medals at the 1912 Olympics and d ...
'' (1951), starring
Burt Lancaster
Burton Stephen Lancaster (November 2, 1913 – October 20, 1994) was an American actor and producer. Initially known for playing tough guys with a tender heart, he went on to achieve success with more complex and challenging roles over a 45-yea ...
. The film was directed by
Michael Curtiz
Michael Curtiz ( ; born Manó Kaminer; since 1905 Mihály Kertész; hu, Kertész Mihály; December 24, 1886 April 10, 1962) was a Hungarian-American film director, recognized as one of the most prolific directors in history. He directed cla ...
. Although there were rumors that Thorpe received no money, he was paid $15,000 by Warner Bros. plus a $2,500 donation toward an annuity for him by the studio head of publicity. The movie included archival footage of the 1912 and 1932 Olympics.
Thorpe was seen in one scene as a coaching assistant.
It was also distributed in the United Kingdom, where it was called ''Man of Bronze''.
Apart from his career in films, he worked as a construction worker, a
doorman/bouncer, a security guard, and a ditchdigger. He briefly joined the
United States Merchant Marine
United States Merchant Marines are United States civilian mariners and U.S. civilian and federally owned merchant vessels. Both the civilian mariners and the merchant vessels are managed by a combination of the government and private sectors, an ...
in 1945, during World War II.
[O'Hanlon-Lincoln. pp. 144–145.][Briefs](_blank)
''Time'', February 22, 1943, available online via time.com. Retrieved May 21, 2007. Thorpe was a chronic alcoholic during his later life. He ran out of money sometime in the early 1950s. When hospitalized for lip cancer in 1950, Thorpe was admitted as a charity case.
At a press conference announcing the procedure, his wife, Patricia, wept and pleaded for help, saying, "We're broke ... Jim has nothing but his name and his memories. He has spent money on his own people and has given it away. He has often been exploited."
In early 1953, Thorpe went into
heart failure
Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, ...
for the third time while dining with Patricia in their home in
Lomita, California. He was briefly revived by
artificial respiration and spoke to those around him, but lost consciousness shortly afterward. He died on March 28 at the age of 65.
Victim of racism
Thorpe, whose parents were both half Caucasian, was raised as a Native American. He accomplished his athletic feats despite the severe racial inequality of the United States. It has often been suggested that his Olympic medals were stripped by the athletic officials because of his ethnicity. While it is difficult to prove this, the public comment at the time largely reflected this view.
At the time Thorpe won his gold medals, not all Native Americans were recognized as U.S. citizens (the U.S. government had frequently demanded that they make concessions to adopt European-American ways to receive such recognition). Citizenship was not granted to all American Indians until 1924.
When Thorpe attended Carlisle, the students' ethnicity was used for marketing purposes.
The football team was called the Indians. To create headlines, the school and journalists often portrayed sporting competitions as conflicts of Indians against whites.
[Bloom quoted in Bird. p. 97.] The first notice of Thorpe in ''The New York Times'' was headlined "Indian Thorpe in Olympiad; Redskin from Carlisle Will Strive for Place on American Team."
Throughout his life, Thorpe's accomplishments were described in a similar racial context by other newspapers and sportswriters, which reflected the era.
Legacy
Olympic awards reinstated
Over the years, supporters of Thorpe attempted to have his Olympic titles reinstated. US Olympic officials, including former teammate and later president of the IOC
Avery Brundage
Avery Brundage (; September 28, 1887 – May 8, 1975) was an American sports administrator who served as the fifth president of the International Olympic Committee from 1952 to 1972. The only American and only non-European to attain that p ...
, rebuffed several attempts. Brundage once said, "Ignorance is no excuse."
Most persistent were the author Robert Wheeler and his wife, Florence Ridlon. They succeeded in having the AAU and
United States Olympic Committee
The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is the National Olympic Committee and the National Paralympic Committee for the United States. It was founded in 1895 as the United States Olympic Committee, and is headquartered in Col ...
overturn its decision and restore Thorpe's amateur status before 1913.
In 1982, Wheeler and Ridlon established the Jim Thorpe Foundation and gained support from the
U.S. Congress. Armed with this support and evidence from 1912 proving that Thorpe's disqualification had occurred after the 30-day time period allowed by Olympics rules, they succeeded in making the case to the IOC. In October 1982, the IOC Executive Committee approved Thorpe's reinstatement.
In an unusual ruling, they declared that Thorpe was co-champion with
Ferdinand Bie and Wieslander, although both of these athletes had always said they considered Thorpe to be the only champion. In a ceremony on January 18, 1983, the IOC presented two of Thorpe's children, Gale and Bill, with commemorative medals.
Thorpe's original medals had been held in museums, but they were stolen and have never been recovered. The IOC listed Thorpe as a co-gold medalist.
In July 2020, a petition from Bright Path Strong began circulating that called upon the IOC to reinstate Thorpe as the sole winner in his events in the 1912 Olympics. It was backed by Pictureworks Entertainment, which is making a film about Thorpe. The petition was supported by Olympian
Billy Mills, who won a gold medal in the 10,000 meters at the
1964 Tokyo Games. The IOC voted to reinstate Thorpe as the sole winner of both events on July 14, 2022.
Honors
Thorpe's monument, featuring the quote from Gustav V ("You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world."), still stands near the town named for him,
Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania
Jim Thorpe is a borough and the county seat of Carbon County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is historically known as the burial site of Native American sports legend Jim Thorpe.
Jim Thorpe is ...
.
The grave rests on mounds of soil from Thorpe's native Oklahoma and from the stadium in which he won his Olympic medals.
Thorpe's achievements received great acclaim from sports journalists, both during his lifetime and since his death. In 1950, an
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. n ...
poll of almost 400 sportswriters and broadcasters voted Thorpe the "greatest athlete" of the first half of the 20th century. That same year, the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. n ...
ranked Thorpe as the "greatest American football player" of the first half of the century.
Pro Football Hall of Fame
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coac ...
voters selected him for the
NFL 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1967. In 1999, the Associated Press placed him third on its list of the top athletes of the century, following
Babe Ruth
George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Su ...
and
Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. His biography on the official NBA website states: "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the g ...
.
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
ranked Thorpe seventh on their list of best North American athletes of the century.
Thorpe was inducted into the
Pro Football Hall of Fame
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coac ...
in 1963, one of seventeen players in the charter class. Thorpe is memorialized in the Pro Football Hall of Fame rotunda with a larger-than-life statue. He was also inducted into halls of fame for college football, American Olympic teams, and the national track and field competition.
In 2018, Thorpe became one of the inductees in the first induction ceremony held by the
National Native American Hall of Fame. The fitness center and a hall at
Haskell Indian Nations University are named in honor of Thorpe.
President
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was t ...
, as authorized by U.S. Senate Joint Resolution 73, proclaimed Monday, April 16, 1973, as "Jim Thorpe Day" to promote nationwide recognition of Thorpe's life. In 1986, the Jim Thorpe Association established an award with Thorpe's name. The
Jim Thorpe Award is given annually to the best
defensive back
In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...
in
college football. The annual
Thorpe Cup
The Thorpe Cup is an annual international decathlon and heptathlon meeting between the United States and Germany.
First held in 1993 in Aachen, the 2009 and 2010 events were staged at the Georg-Gaßmann-Stadion in Marburg. The meeting is named af ...
athletics meeting is named in his honor. The
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the Federal government of the Uni ...
issued a 32¢ stamp on February 3, 1998, as part of the
Celebrate the Century
Celebrate the Century is the name of a series of postage stamps made by the United States Postal Service featuring images recalling various important events in the 20th century in the United States. stamp sheet series.
In a poll of sports fans published in 2000 by
ABC Sports, Thorpe was voted the Greatest Athlete of the Twentieth Century; the pool of 15 other top athletes included
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, ...
,
Babe Ruth
George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Su ...
,
Jesse Owens
James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games.
Owens specialized in the sprints and the long jump and was recognized in his lifeti ...
,
Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Douglas Gretzky ( ; born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "the Great One ...
,
Jack Nicklaus
Jack William Nicklaus (born January 21, 1940), nicknamed The Golden Bear, is a retired American professional golfer and golf course designer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time. He won 117 professional tou ...
, and
Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. His biography on the official NBA website states: "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the g ...
.
In 2018, Thorpe was honored on the
Native American dollar coin; proposed designs were released in 2015.
Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania
After Thorpe's funeral was held at St. Benedict's Catholic Church in Shawnee, Oklahoma, his body lay in state at Fairview Cemetery. Residents had paid to have it returned to Shawnee by train from California. The people began a fund-raising effort to erect a memorial for Thorpe at the town's athletic park. Local officials had asked state legislators for funding, but a bill that included $25,000 for their proposal was vetoed by Governor
Johnston Murray
Johnston Murray (July 21, 1902 – April 16, 1974) was an American lawyer, politician, and the 14th governor of Oklahoma from 1951 to 1955. He was a member of the Democratic Party.
Murray was the first Native American to be elected as governor ...
.
Meanwhile, Thorpe's third wife, unbeknownst to the rest of his family, took Thorpe's body and had it shipped to Pennsylvania when she heard that the small Pennsylvania towns of
Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk were seeking to attract business.
She made a deal with officials which, according to Thorpe's son Jack, was made by the widowed Patricia for monetary considerations. The towns "bought" Thorpe's remains, erected a monument to him at the grave, merged, and renamed the newly united town in his honor as
Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania
Jim Thorpe is a borough and the county seat of Carbon County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is historically known as the burial site of Native American sports legend Jim Thorpe.
Jim Thorpe is ...
. Thorpe had never been there. The monument site contains his tomb,
two statues of him in athletic poses, and historical markers recounting his life story.
In June 2010, Jack Thorpe filed a federal lawsuit against the borough of Jim Thorpe, seeking to have his father's remains returned to his homeland and re-interred near other family members in Oklahoma. Citing the
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, Jack was arguing to bring his father's remains to the reservation in Oklahoma, to be buried near those of his father, sisters and brother, a mile from the place he was born. He claimed that the agreement between his stepmother and Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, borough officials was made against the wishes of other family members, who want him buried in Native American land. Jack Thorpe died at 73 on February 22, 2011.
In April 2013, U.S. District Judge Richard Caputo ruled that Jim Thorpe borough amounts to a museum under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act ("NAGPRA"), and therefore is bound by that law. A lawyer for Bill and Richard Thorpe said the men would pursue the legal process to have their father's remains returned to Sac and Fox land in central Oklahoma. On October 23, 2014, the
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (in case citations, 3d Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts for the following districts:
* District of Delaware
* District of New Jersey
* E ...
reversed Judge Caputo's ruling. The appeals court held that Jim Thorpe borough is not a "museum", as that term is used in NAGPRA, and that the plaintiffs therefore could not invoke that federal statute to seek reinterment of Thorpe's remains.
In NAGPRA language, "'museum' means any institution or State or local government agency (including any institution of higher learning) that receives Federal funds and has possession of, or control over, Native American cultural items." The Court of Appeals directed the trial court to enter a judgment in favor of the borough.
The appeals court said Pennsylvania law allows the plaintiffs to ask a state court to order reburial of Thorpe's remains, but noted, "once a body is interred there is great reluctance in permitting same to be moved, absent clear and compelling reasons for such a move." On October 5, 2015, the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point ...
refused to hear the matter, effectively bringing the legal process to an end.
Jim Thorpe Marathon
The Jim Thorpe Area Running Festival is a series of races started in 2019 in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. It includes a marathon, a 26.2 mile footrace that features a steady elevation drop from start to finish.
See also
*
*
*
*
Citations
General and cited sources
* Bird, Elizabeth S. ''Dressing in Feathers: The Construction of the Indian in American Popular Culture''. Boulder: Westview Press, 1996. .
* Bloom, John. ''There is a Madness in the Air: The 1926 Haskell Homecoming and Popular Representations of Sports in Federal and Indian Boarding Schools''. ed. in Bird. Boulder: Westview Press. 1996. .
* Buford, Kate. ''Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe''. Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press
The University of Nebraska Press, also known as UNP, was founded in 1941 and is an academic publisher of scholarly and general-interest books. The press is under the auspices of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the main campus of the Uni ...
, 2010.
* Cava, Pete (Summer 1992)
"Baseball in the Olympics". ''Citius, Altius, Fortius''. 1 (1): 7–15. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
* Cook, William A. ''Jim Thorpe: A Biography''. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 2011. .
* Dodge, Robert. ''Which Chosen People? Manifest Destiny Meets the Sioux: As Seen by Frank Fiske, Frontier Photographer''. New York: Algora Publishing, 2013. .
* Dyreson, Mark. ''Making the American Team: Sport, Culture, and the Olympic Experience''. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998. .
* Elfers, James E. ''The Tour to End All Tours''. Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2003. .
* Findling, John E. and Pelle, Kimberly D., eds. ''Encyclopedia of the Modern Olympic Movement''. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2004. .
* Gerasimo, Luisa and Whiteley, Sandra. ''The Teacher's Calendar of Famous Birthdays''.
McGraw-Hill
McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes referen ...
, 2003. .
* Hilger, Michael. ''Native Americans in the Movies: Portrayals from Silent Films to the Present''. Lanham:
Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. .
* Hoxie, Frederick E. ''Encyclopedia of North American Indians''. New York:
Houghton Mifflin Books, 1996. .
* Jeansonne, Glen. ''A Time of Paradox: America Since 1890''. Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. .
* Landrum, Dr. Gene. ''Empowerment: The Competitive Edge in Sports, Business & Life''. Brendan Kelly Publishing Incorporated, 2006. .
* Lincoln, Kenneth and Slagle, Al Logan. ''The Good Red Road: Passages into Native America''. University of Nebraska Press, 1997. .
* Magill, Frank Northern. ''Great Lives from History''. New York: Salem Press, 1987. .
* Neft, David S., Cohen, Richard M., and Korch, Rick. ''The Complete History of Professional Football from 1892 to the Present''. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994. .
* O'Hanlon-Lincoln, Ceane. ''Chronicles: A Vivid Collection of Fayette County, Pennsylvania Histories''. Mechling Bookbindery, 2006. .
* Quirk, Charles E., ed. ''Sports and the Law: Major Legal Cases''. London: Routledge, 2014. .
* Rogge, M. Jacque, Johnson, Michael, and Rendell, Matt. ''The Olympics: Athens to Athens 1896–2004''. Sterling Publishing, 2004. .
* Schaffer, Kay and Smith, Sidonie. ''The Olympics at the Millennium: Power, Politics and the Games''. Rutger University Press, 2000. .
* Watterson, John Sayle. ''College Football: history, spectacle, controversy''. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. .
* Wheeler, Robert W. ''Jim Thorpe, World's Greatest Athlete''. University of Oklahoma Press, 1979. .
* Williams, Randy. ''Sports Cinema 100 Movies: The Best of Hollywood's Athletic Heroes, Losers, Myths, and Misfits''. Pompton Plains: Limelight Editions, 2006. .
*
Zarnowski, Frank. ''All-Around Men: Heroes of a Forgotten Sport''. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2005.
* Zarnowski, Frank. ''The Pentathlon of the Ancient World''. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 2013. .
Further reading
* Benjey, Tom. ''Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs''. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Tuxedo Press, 2008. .
* "In the Matter of Jacobus Franciscus Thorpe" in Bill Mallon and Ture Widlund, ''The 1912 Olympic Games: Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2002. .
*
* Newcombe, Jack. ''The Best of the Athletic Boys: The White Man's Impact on Jim Thorpe''. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1975. .
* Updyke, Rosemary Kissinger. ''Jim Thorpe, the Legend Remembered''. Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican, 1997. .
* Wallechinsky, David. ''The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics''. Woodstock, New York: Overlook Press, 2000. .
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorpe, Jim
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