Jim Thorpe
Jim Thorpe | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Thorpe in 1913 | |||||||||||||
Born | May 22 or 28, 1887 Near Prague, Oklahoma, U.S.[a] | ||||||||||||
Died | March 28, 1953 Lomita, California, U.S. | (aged 65)||||||||||||
American football career |
|||||||||||||
![]() Thorpe with the Canton Bulldogs, c. 1915 – c. 1920 | |||||||||||||
No. 2, 21, 3 | |||||||||||||
Position: | Tailback | ||||||||||||
Personal information | |||||||||||||
Height: | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | ||||||||||||
Weight: | 202 lb (92 kg) | ||||||||||||
Career information | |||||||||||||
High school: | Carlisle Indian Industrial (Carlisle, Pennsylvania) | ||||||||||||
College: | Carlisle (1907–1908, 1911–1912) | ||||||||||||
Career history | |||||||||||||
As a player: | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
As a coach: | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
As an executive: | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Head coaching record | |||||||||||||
Career: | NFL: 14–25–2 (.366) Ohio League: 32–3–2 (.892) Overall: 46–28–4 (.615) | ||||||||||||
Player stats at PFR | |||||||||||||
Coaching stats at PFR | |||||||||||||
Baseball career |
|||||||||||||
![]() Thorpe with the New York Giants | |||||||||||||
Outfielder | |||||||||||||
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |||||||||||||
MLB debut | |||||||||||||
April 14, 1913, for the New York Giants | |||||||||||||
Last MLB appearance | |||||||||||||
September 25, 1919, for the Boston Braves | |||||||||||||
MLB statistics | |||||||||||||
Batting average | .252 | ||||||||||||
Home runs | 7 | ||||||||||||
RBI | 82 | ||||||||||||
Hits | 176 | ||||||||||||
Teams | |||||||||||||
1st President of the NFL | |||||||||||||
In office 1920–1921 | |||||||||||||
Preceded by | Ralph Hay[b] | ||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Joseph Carr | ||||||||||||
Olympic medal record | ||
---|---|---|
Men's athletics | ||
Representing the ![]() | ||
![]() |
1912 Stockholm | Decathlon |
![]() |
1912 Stockholm | Pentathlon |
James Francis Thorpe (Sac and Fox (Sauk): Wa-Tho-Huk, translated as "Bright Path";[2] May 22 or 28,[3] 1887 – March 28, 1953)[4] 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 (one in classic pentathlon and the other in decathlon). He also played football (collegiate and professional), professional baseball, and professional 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 (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.[5][6][7][8][9]
Thorpe grew up in the Sac and Fox Nation in Indian Territory (what is now the U.S. state of Oklahoma). As a youth, he attended Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he was a two-time All-American for the school's football team under coach Pop Warner. 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. In 1913, he played for the Pine Village Pros in Indiana.[10] Later in 1913, Thorpe signed with the New York Giants, and he played six seasons in Major League Baseball 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 (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 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, and lived his last years in failing health and poverty. He was married three times and had eight children, including Grace Thorpe, an environmentalist and Native rights activist, before suffering from heart failure and dying in 1953.
Thorpe has received numerous accolades for his athletic accomplishments. The Associated Press ranked him as the "greatest athlete" from the first 50 years of the 20th century, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame inducted him as part of its inaugural class in 1963. The town of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, 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 in the 1951 film Jim Thorpe – All-American.
Early life
[edit]Information about Thorpe's birth, name and ethnic background varies widely.[11] He was baptized "Jacobus Franciscus Thorpe" in the Catholic Church. Thorpe was born in Indian Territory of the United States (later Oklahoma), but no birth certificate has been found. He was generally considered to have been born on May 22, 1887,[4] near the town of Prague.[12] 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."[13] Most biographers believe that he was born on May 22, 1887, the date listed on his baptismal certificate.[14] Thorpe referred to Shawnee as his birthplace in his 1943 note to the newspaper.[13]
Thorpe's father, Hiram Thorpe, had an Irish father and a Sac and Fox Indian mother.[15][16] His mother, Charlotte Vieux, was the daughter of Citizen Potawatomi Nation members Elizabeth and Jacob Vieux,[17] and was a descendant of Chief Louis Vieux.[18] Thorpe was raised as a Sac and Fox,[19] and his native name, Wa-Tho-Huk, is translated as "path lit by great flash of lightning" or, more simply, "Bright Path".[11] 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.[20]
Thorpe attended the Sac and Fox Indian Agency school in Stroud, with his twin brother, Charlie. Charlie helped him through school until he died of pneumonia when they were nine years old.[21] Thorpe ran away from school several times. His father sent him to the Haskell Institute, an Indian boarding school in Lawrence, Kansas, so that he would not run away again.[22]
When Thorpe's mother died of childbirth complications two years later,[23] the youth became depressed. After several arguments with his father, he left home to work on a horse ranch.[22]
In 1904, the sixteen-year-old Thorpe returned to his father and decided to attend Carlisle Indian Industrial School 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.[24] Later that year the youth was orphaned after his father Hiram Thorpe died from gangrene poisoning, after being wounded in a hunting accident.[23] The young Thorpe again dropped out of school. He resumed farm work for a few years before returning to Carlisle School.[22]
Amateur career
[edit]College career
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3d/Jim_Thorpe_1912.jpg/220px-Jim_Thorpe_1912.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5e/Glenn_Warner%2C_Jim_Thorpe_tackling_a_dummy.jpg/220px-Glenn_Warner%2C_Jim_Thorpe_tackling_a_dummy.jpg)
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.[25] His earliest recorded track and field results come from 1907. He also competed in football, baseball, lacrosse, and ballroom dancing, winning the 1912 intercollegiate ballroom dancing championship.[26]
Pop Warner was hesitant to allow Thorpe, his best track and field athlete, to compete in such a physical game as football.[27] 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.[27] Thorpe "ran around past and through them not once, but twice".[27] He walked over to Warner and said, "Nobody is going to tackle Jim", while flipping him the ball.[27]
Thorpe first gained nationwide notice in 1911 for his athletic ability.[28] As a running back, defensive back, placekicker 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 (NCAA).[27][29] 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 touchdowns and 198 points during the season, according to CNN's Greg Botelho.[24] 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.[30]
Carlisle's 1912 record included a 27–6 victory over the West Point Army team.[12] 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.[31] 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.[24]
Thorpe was a third-team All-American in 1908[32] and a first-team All-American in 1911 and 1912.[12] Football was – and remained – Thorpe's favorite sport.[33] He did not compete in track and field in 1910 or 1911,[34] although this turned out to be the sport in which he gained his greatest fame.[12]
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.[12]
The poet Marianne Moore, who taught Thorpe at Carlisle, recalled:
He had a kind of ease in his gait that is hard to describe. Equilibrium with no stricture, but couched in the lineup of football he was the epitome of concentration, wary, with an effect of plenty in reserve.[35]
Olympic career
[edit]For the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, two new multi-event disciplines were included, the pentathlon and the decathlon.[36] A pentathlon, based on the ancient Greek event, had been introduced at the 1906 Intercalated Games.[37] The 1912 version consisted of the long jump, javelin throw, 200-meter dash, discus throw, and 1500-meter run.[36]
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.[38][39]
Thorpe was so versatile that he served as Carlisle's one-man team in several track meets.[12] According to his obituary in The New York Times, 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.[12] He could long jump 23 ft 6 in and high-jump 6 ft 5 in.[12] He could pole vault 11 feet; put the shot 47 ft 9 in; throw the javelin 163 feet; and throw the discus 136 feet.[12]
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.[40] The pentathlon and decathlon teams also included Avery Brundage, a future International Olympic Committee president.[41]
Thorpe was extremely busy in the Olympics. Along with the decathlon and pentathlon, he competed in the long jump and high jump.[42] The first competition was the pentathlon on July 7.[43] He won four of the five events and placed third in the javelin,[44] an event he had not competed in before 1912.[6] 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.[45] 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.[43][46]
Thorpe's final event was the decathlon, his first (and as it turned out, his only) decathlon.[43][47] Strong competition from local favorite Hugo Wieslander was expected.[48] Thorpe, however, defeated Wieslander by 688 points.[49] He placed in the top four in all ten events, and his Olympic record of 8,413 points stood for nearly two decades.[25] 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.[50][51] Overall, Thorpe won eight of the 15 individual events comprising the pentathlon and decathlon.[52]
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 had been 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".[53][54] Thorpe biographer Kate Buford suggests that the story is apocryphal, 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."[55] The anecdote appeared in newspapers by 1948, 36 years after his appearance in the Olympics and time for myth making,[56] and in books as early as 1952.[57]
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.[53] He remembered later, "I heard people yelling my name, and I couldn't realize how one fellow could have so many friends."[53]
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.[58] Thorpe had previous experience in the sport, as the public soon learned.[59]
-
Thorpe shaking hands with Moses Friedman while Glenn "Pop" Warner (left), Lewis Tewanima (center), and a crowd look on
-
Thorpe in Carlisle Indian Industrial School uniform, c. 1909
-
Thorpe, c. 1910
-
Thorpe at the 1912 Summer Olympics
All-Around champion
[edit]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, in Queens, New York (where he had qualified four months earlier for the Olympic Games), to compete in the Amateur Athletic Union's All-Around Championship. Competing against Bruno Brodd of the Irish American Athletic Club and John L. Bredemus of Princeton University, 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.[60][61] 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, "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."[62]
Controversy
[edit]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.[63]
In late January 1913, the Worcester Telegram reported that Thorpe had played semi-professional baseball before the Olympics, and other U.S. newspapers followed up the story.[53][64] Thorpe had played semi-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 ($65 today) per game and as much as US$35 ($1,145 today) per week.[65] College players, in fact, regularly spent summers playing professionally in order to earn some money, but most used aliases, unlike Thorpe.[24] Although the public did not seem to care much about Thorpe's past,[66] the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), and especially its secretary James Edward Sullivan, took the case very seriously.[67]
Thorpe wrote a letter to Sullivan, in which he admitted playing professional baseball:[53]
I hope I will be partly excused by the fact that I was simply an Indian schoolboy and did not know all about such things. In fact, I did not know that I was doing wrong, because I was doing what I knew several other college men had done, except that they did not use their own names ...
His letter did not help.[68] The AAU decided to withdraw Thorpe's amateur status retroactively.[69] Later that year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) unanimously decided to strip Thorpe of his Olympic titles, medals and awards, and declare him a professional.[70][71][72]
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."[31] The first newspaper reports did not appear until January 1913, about six months after the Stockholm Games had concluded.[31] There is also some evidence that Thorpe was known to have played semi-professional baseball before the Olympics, but the AAU had ignored the issue until being confronted with it in 1913.[73][74] 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.[75]
Professional career
[edit]Baseball
[edit]In 1910, Thorpe had the unusual status of a sought-after free agent at the major league level during the era of the reserve clause, because the minor league team that last held his contract had disbanded that year, so he was free to choose which baseball team to play for.[76] In January 1913, he turned down a starting position with the St. Louis Browns, then at the bottom of the American League. Thorpe signed with the New York Giants baseball club in 1913, the defending 1912 National League champion. 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 for a world tour.[77] Barnstorming across the United States and around the world, Thorpe was the celebrity of the tour.[78]
Thorpe's presence increased the publicity, attendance and gate receipts for the tour.[79] He met with Pope Pius X and Abbas II Hilmi Bey (the last Khedive of Egypt), and played before 20,000 people in London including King George V.[79][80] Thorpe was the last man to compete in both the Olympics (in a non-baseball sport) and Major League Baseball before Eddy Alvarez did the same in 2020.[81]
Thorpe played sporadically with the Giants as an outfielder for three seasons. After playing in the minor leagues with the Milwaukee Brewers in 1916,[82] he returned to the Giants in 1917. He was sold to the Cincinnati Reds early in the season. In the "double no-hitter" between Fred Toney of the Reds and Hippo Vaughn of the Chicago Cubs, Thorpe drove in the winning run in the 10th inning.[83] 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, 82 runs batted in and a .252 batting average over 289 games.[84] He continued to play minor league baseball until 1922,[85] and once played for the minor league Toledo Mud Hens.[86]
Football
[edit]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.[87] He signed with the Canton Bulldogs in 1915. They paid him $250 ($7,530 today) a game, a tremendous wage at the time.[88] Before signing him Canton was averaging 1,200 fans a game, but 8,000 showed up for Thorpe's debut against the Massillon Tigers.[88] 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.[88]
In 1920, the Bulldogs were one of 14 teams to form the American Professional Football Association, which became the National Football League (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.[89] 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.[90] Although the team's record was 3–6 in 1922,[91] and 1–10 in 1923,[92] Thorpe played well and was selected for the Green Bay Press-Gazette's first All-NFL team in 1923. This was later formally recognized in 1931 by the NFL as the league's official All-NFL team.[93]
Thorpe never played for an NFL championship team. He retired from professional football at age 41,[21] having played 52 games for six teams from 1920 to 1928.[94]
Basketball
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Jim_Thorpe_WFI_PC_front_detail.jpg)
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.[95] By 1926, he was the main feature of the World Famous Indians of LaRue, Ohio, a traveling basketball team.[96] The team barnstormed for at least two years (1927–28) in multiple states.[95] Although stories about Thorpe's team were published in some local newspapers at the time, his basketball career is not well-documented.[97]
For a brief time in 1913, he was considering going into professional hockey for the Tecumseh Hockey Club in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[98]
Marriage and family
[edit]Thorpe married three times and had a total of eight children. In 1913, Thorpe married Iva M. Miller,[12] whom he had met at Carlisle. In 1917, Iva and Thorpe bought a house now known as the Jim Thorpe House in Yale, Oklahoma, and lived there until 1923.[99] They had four children: James F., Gale, Charlotte, and Grace Frances, an environmentalist and Native rights activist.[12][100] Miller filed for divorce from Thorpe in 1925, claiming desertion.[101]
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.[102] They had four sons: Phillip, William, Richard, and John Thorpe.[12] Kirkpatrick divorced Thorpe in 1941, after they had been married for 15 years.[102]
Lastly, Thorpe married Patricia Gladys Askew on June 2, 1945.[12] She was with him when he died.[103]
Later life, film career, and death
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/Tomb_of_Jim_Thorpe_b.jpg/220px-Tomb_of_Jim_Thorpe_b.jpg)
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 a movie actor, mostly as an extra, usually playing an American Indian in Westerns,[104] starting with the 1931 serial Battling with Buffalo Bill.[105] 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.[106] He played the captain of the guard in 1935's She,[107] an umpire in the 1940 film Knute Rockne, All American,[108] and a member of the Navajo Nation in the 1950 film Wagon Master.[109] An American Indian Magazine article states Thorpe appeared in over 70 films.[105]
In 1931, during the Great Depression, Thorpe sold the film rights to his life story to MGM for $1,500 ($30,000 today).[110][106] Warner Bros. eventually acquired the rights and memorialized Thorpe in Jim Thorpe – All-American (1951), starring Burt Lancaster. The film was directed by Michael Curtiz.[111] 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's head of publicity.[112] The movie included archival footage of the 1912 and 1932 Olympics.[113] Thorpe was seen in one scene as a coaching assistant.[113] It was also distributed in the United Kingdom, where it was called Man of Bronze.[114]
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 in 1945, during World War II.[104][115] Thorpe was a chronic alcoholic during his later life.[116] He ran out of money sometime in the early 1950s. When hospitalized for lip cancer in 1950, Thorpe was admitted as a charity case.[117] 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."[117]
In early 1953, Thorpe went into heart failure 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.[12]
Victim of racism
[edit]Thorpe, whose parents were both mixed-race, 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.[118] While it is difficult to prove this, the public comment at the time largely reflected this view.[66] 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.[119]
When Thorpe attended Carlisle, the students' ethnicity was used for marketing purposes.[120] The football team was called the Indians. To create headlines, the school and journalists often portrayed sporting competitions as conflicts of Indians against whites.[120] 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."[28] Throughout his life, Thorpe's accomplishments were described in a similar racial context by other newspapers and sportswriters, which reflected the era.[121]
Legacy
[edit]Olympic awards reinstated
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/05/2018_Native_American_Dollar_Reverse.jpg/170px-2018_Native_American_Dollar_Reverse.jpg)
Over the years, supporters of Thorpe attempted to have his Olympic titles reinstated.[122] American Olympic officials, including former teammate and later president of the IOC Avery Brundage, rebuffed several attempts. Brundage once said, "Ignorance is no excuse."[26] Most persistent were the author Robert Wheeler and his wife, Florence Ridlon. They succeeded in having the AAU and United States Olympic Committee overturn its decision and restore Thorpe's amateur status before 1913.[123]
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.[65] In an unusual ruling, they declared that Thorpe was co-champion with Ferdinand Bie and Hugo 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.[124][65] Thorpe's original medals had been held in museums, but they were stolen and have never been recovered.[125] The IOC listed Thorpe as a co-gold medalist.[6]
In July 2020, a petition from Bright Path Strong[126][127] 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.[128][129] The IOC voted to reinstate Thorpe as the sole winner of both events on July 14, 2022, after the National Olympic Committees of Norway and Sweden, representing Bie and Wieslander, had given their approval.[8][130]
Honors
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/JimThorpeGoudeycard.jpg/170px-JimThorpeGoudeycard.jpg)
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.[23] The grave rests on mounds of soil from Thorpe's native Oklahoma and from the stadium in which he won his Olympic medals.[131]
Thorpe's achievements received great acclaim from sports journalists, both during his lifetime and since his death. In 1950, an Associated Press poll of almost 400 sportswriters and broadcasters voted Thorpe the "greatest athlete" of the first half of the 20th century.[132] That same year, the Associated Press ranked Thorpe as the "greatest American football player" of the first half of the century.[133] Pro Football Hall of Fame voters selected him for the NFL 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1967.[134] In 1999, the Associated Press placed him third on its list of the top athletes of the century, following Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan.[135] ESPN ranked Thorpe seventh on their list of best North American athletes of the century.[136]
Thorpe was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963, one of seventeen players in the charter class.[137] 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.[24]
In 2018, Thorpe became one of the inductees in the first induction ceremony held by the National Native American Hall of Fame.[138] The fitness center and a hall at Haskell Indian Nations University are named in honor of Thorpe.[139]
President Richard Nixon, 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.[140] 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 college football. The annual Thorpe Cup athletics meeting is named in his honor.[141] The United States Postal Service issued a 32¢ stamp on February 3, 1998, as part of the Celebrate the Century stamp sheet series.[142]
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, Pelé, Babe Ruth, Jesse Owens, Wayne Gretzky, Jack Nicklaus, and Michael Jordan.[143][144]
In 2018, Thorpe was honored on the Native American dollar coin;[145] proposed designs were released in 2015.[146]
In 2024, President Joe Biden announced that Thorpe would be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor given in the United States.[147]
Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania
[edit]After Thorpe's funeral was held at St. Benedict's Catholic Church in Shawnee, Oklahoma,[148] his body lay in state at Fairview Cemetery. Residents had paid to have it returned to Shawnee by train from California.[149] 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.[150]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f1/Jim_Thorpe_Statue.jpg/220px-Jim_Thorpe_Statue.jpg)
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.[151][152] She made a deal with officials which, according to Thorpe's son Jack, was made by the widowed Patricia for monetary considerations.[153] 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. Thorpe had never been there.[154] The monument site contains his tomb,[155] two statues of him in athletic poses,[156] and historical markers recounting his life story.[157]
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.[158][159] Jack Thorpe died at 73 on February 22, 2011.[160]
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.[161] On October 23, 2014, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit 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.[155] 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."[162] The Court of Appeals directed the trial court to enter a judgment in favor of the borough.[155] 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."[163] On October 5, 2015, the United States Supreme Court refused to hear the matter, effectively bringing the legal process to an end.[164]
Jim Thorpe Marathon
[edit]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.[165]
Notes and citations
[edit]- ^ Then part of Indian Territory
- ^ He served as the NFL temporary secretary.
- ^ Cook. p. 115.
- ^ "Jim Thorpe Biography". Encyclopedia of World Biography. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ Sources vary. See, for example, Flatter, Ron. "Thorpe preceded Deion, Bo", ESPN. Retrieved December 9, 2016, and
Golus, Carrie (2012). Jim Thorpe (Revised Edition), Twenty-First Century Books. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-4677-0397-0. - ^ a b Golus, Carrie (2012). Jim Thorpe (Revised ed.). Twenty-First Century Books. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-4677-0397-0.
- ^ "Stockholm 1912 Decathlon Men". International Olympic Committee. December 9, 2020. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
- ^ a b c Jenkins, Sally (July 2012). "Why Are Jim Thorpe's Olympic Records Still Not Recognized?". Smithsonian. Retrieved August 15, 2016.
- ^ Mather, Victor (December 11, 2020). "The 100-Year Dispute for Jim Thorpe's Olympic Golds". The New York Times. p. B9. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
- ^ a b Schaap, Jeremy (July 15, 2022). "IOC reinstates Jim Thorpe as sole winner of 1912 Olympic decathlon and pentathlon". ESPN.com. Retrieved July 15, 2022.
- ^ Mather, Victor; Panja, Tariq (July 15, 2022). "Jim Thorpe Is Restored as Sole Winner of 1912 Olympic Gold Medals". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 15, 2022.
- ^ "1913 – Jim Thorpe Plays for the Pine Village Pros in Indiana". Pro Football Hall of Fame. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
- ^ a b O'Hanlon-Lincoln. p. 129.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Jim Thorpe is Dead on West Coast at 64". The New York Times. March 29, 1953. p. A1. Archived from the original on July 1, 2017. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
- ^ a b Wheeler. p. 291.
- ^ "Author of Jim Thorpe's biography shakes things up". Times News Online. November 22, 2010. Archived from the original on May 5, 2015. Retrieved May 2, 2015.
- ^ Hannigan, Dave (August 3, 2016). "America at Large: Bizarre coda to Olympian Jim Thorpe's epic life". The Irish Times. Retrieved June 4, 2017.
- ^ Redmond, Patrick R. (2014). The Irish and the Making of American Sport, 1835–1920. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company. p. 279. ISBN 978-1-4766-0584-5.
- ^ "The fight to recognize Jim Thorpe as official Olympic gold medal winner". Potawatomi.org. Citizen Potawatomi Nation. January 6, 2021. Retrieved March 21, 2024.
- ^ "Connections between Potawatomi and Kickapoo endure". Potawatomi.org. Citizen Potawatomi Nation. April 12, 2022. Retrieved March 21, 2024.
- ^ "Jim Thorpe Leaps To Fame On Carlisle Athletic Field". The Washington Post. December 15, 1912. p. 2. Retrieved October 24, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ O'Hanlon-Lincoln. p. 131.
- ^ a b Jim Thorpe – Fast facts, cgmworldwide.com. Retrieved May 20, 2018. Archived May 3, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c Jim Thorpe – Olympic Hero and Native American, Archived June 21, 2011, at the Wayback Machine olympics30.com. Retrieved July 30, 2018.
- ^ a b c Hoxie. p. 628.
- ^ a b c d e Botelho, Greg. "Roller-coaster life of Indian icon, sports' first star", CNN.com, July 14, 2004. Retrieved April 23, 2007.
- ^ a b Encyclopedia of World Biography. Jim Thorpe, Thomson-Gale, Bookrags, June 2006. Retrieved April 23, 2007.
- ^ a b "Jim Thorpe cruelly treated by authorities". CNN Sports Illustrated. Reuters. August 8, 2004. Archived from the original on November 14, 2007. Retrieved April 15, 2008.
- ^ a b c d e Jeansonne. p. 60.
- ^ a b "Indian Thorpe in Olympiad: Redskin from Carlisle Will Strive for Place on American Team". The New York Times. April 28, 1912. p. T9. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
- ^ Richmond, Sam (November 11, 2015). "Jim Thorpe leads Carlisle to upset of Harvard in 1911". National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved August 29, 2018.
- ^ Buford. p. 151.
- ^ a b c Jim Thorpe, usoc.org, Retrieved April 26, 2007. Archived September 30, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Cook. p. 42.
- ^ O'Hanlon-Lincoln. p. 144.
* Jim Thorpe, profootballhalloffame.com. Retrieved April 23, 2007. - ^ Buford. p. 113.
- ^ Maraniss. p. 147.
- ^ a b Buford. p. 112.
- ^ Zarnowski (2013). p. 150.
- ^ Zarnowski (2005). pp. 29–30, 240.
- ^ "Athletics at the 1904 St. Louis Summer Games: Men's All-Around Championship". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
- ^ Buford. p. 114.
- ^ Findling and Pelle. pp. 473–474.
- ^ "Jim Thorpe". Olympedia. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
- ^ a b c "Jim Thorpe". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
- ^ Buford. pp. 127–128.
- ^ "Athletics at the 1912 Stockholm Summer Games: Men's Pentathlon". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020. Retrieved June 30, 2018.
- ^ "Athletics at the 1912 Stockholm Summer Games: Men's High Jump Qualifying Round". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020. Retrieved June 30, 2018.
- ^ "Jim Thorpe". National Track and Field Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on January 22, 2018. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
- ^ "Hugo Wieslander". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
- ^ Buford. p. 130.
- ^ Tucker, Neely. "Battle over athlete Jim Thorpe's burial site continues". The Washington Post, March 15, 2012. Retrieved July 7, 2012.
- ^ Dodge. p. 145.
- ^ Jenkins, Sally (August 10, 2012). "Greatest Olympic athlete? Jim Thorpe, not Usain Bolt". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 7, 2017.
- ^ a b c d e Flatter, Ron. "Thorpe preceded Deion, Bo", ESPN.com. Retrieved April 23, 2007.
- ^ Jim Thorpe, Sac and Fox Athlete, by Bob Berontas, Chelsea House Publications (London, 1993), ISBN 978-0-7910-1722-7.
- ^ Buford. p. 131.
- ^ e.g., "Sports in Brief", Amarillo (TX) Daily News, Saturday, March 13, 1948, p. 2 (available at newspaperarchive.com).
- ^ John Durant and Otto Bettmann, Pictorial History of American Sports, from Colonial Times to the Present (A. S. Barnes, 1952) p. 143.
- ^ Cava. pp. 8–9.
- ^ Buford. pp. 158–161.
- ^ "Indian Thorpe is Best Athlete – Olympic Champion Wins All-Around Championship and Breaks Record". The New York Times. September 3, 1912. p. 9. Retrieved July 15, 2022.
- ^ "Hopes to Set New Record". Albert Lea Evening Tribune. August 29, 1912. p. 6. Retrieved September 14, 2018.
- ^ Wheeler. p. 118.
- ^ Buford. p. 121.
- ^ ""Jim" Thorpe Admits He Is Professional, and Retires from Athletics", The Washington Post, January 28, 1913, p. 8. "Charges that Thorpe had played professional baseball in Winston Salem, N.C. were first published in a Worcester (Mass.) newspaper last week."
- ^ a b c Anderson, Dave (February 7, 1983). "Jim Thorpe's Family Feud". The New York Times. p. C4. Retrieved April 23, 2007.
- ^ a b Schaffer and Smith. p. 50.
- ^ Schaffer and Smith. p. 40.
- ^ Buford. p. 161.
- ^ Campagna, Jeff (May 28, 2010). "Wishing Jim Thorpe a Happy Birthday". Smithsonian. Retrieved May 11, 2017.
- ^ Buford. p. 167.
- ^ Thomas, Louisa (July 29, 2016). "Doping and an Olympic Crisis of Idealism". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 11, 2017.
- ^ Quirk. p. 42.
- ^ Buford. p. 162.
- ^ Dyreson. p. 171.
- ^ Rogge, Johnson, and Rendell. p. 60.
- ^ "Thorpe is to Play Ball with Giants; Famous Indian Athlete Accepts McGraw's Terms Over the Telephone". The New York Times. February 1, 1913. p. 1. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
- ^ "Sox and Giants on World's Tour; Comiskey-McGraw Party Leaves Chicago Oct 19 and Arrives in New York March 6". The New York Times. July 7, 1913. p. S2. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
- ^ Elfers. p. 210.
- ^ a b Clavin, Tom. "The Inside Story of Baseball's Grand World Tour of 1914", Smithsonian, March 21, 2014. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
- ^ Elfers. pp. 185–187, 233.
- ^ Chandan, Sachin Dave (August 8, 2020). "From Olympic medalist to MLB infielder: How speedskater Eddy Alvarez made it to The Show". ESPN. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
- ^ "Jim Thorpe's Speed Big Hit In A.A." The Janesville Daily Gazette , July 10, 1916. Retrieved January 19, 2017.
- ^ Daley, Arthur (April 17, 1949). "Baseball's 'Ten Greatest Moments'". The New York Times. p. SM14. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
- ^ Jim Thorpe, baseball-reference.com. Retrieved April 23, 2007.
- ^ Buford. p. 232.
- ^ Meade, Dick (April 6, 1921). "Hens Win Another and Depart From Training Camp". The Toledo News-Bee. p. 12. Retrieved July 5, 2019.
- ^ "NFL History by Decade, 1911–1920". National Football League. Retrieved September 7, 2009.
- ^ a b c Neft, Cohen, and Korch. p. 18.
- ^ Neft, Cohen, and Korch. p. 20.
- ^ C. Richard King (2006). Native athletes in sport & society: a reader. Bison Books. pp. 11–12. ISBN 978-0-8032-7828-8.
- ^ Neft, Cohen, and Korch. p. 34.
- ^ Neft, Cohen, and Korch. p. 40.
- ^ Neft, Cohen, and Korch. p. 41.
- ^ "Jim Thorpe". Pro Football Reference. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
- ^ a b "History Detectives – Episode 10, 2005: Jim Thorpe Ticket, Jamestown, New York" (PDF). pbs.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 14, 2022. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
- ^ Buford. pp. 253–254.
- ^ Pennington, Bill (March 29, 2005). "Jim Thorpe and a Ticket to Serendipity". The New York Times. p. D1. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
- ^ "Jim Thorpe may take up professional hockey". The Liberal Democrat. Liberal, Kansas. February 4, 1913. p. 5. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
- ^ "National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved December 19, 2014.
- ^ "Thorpe, Grace: Daughter of Jim Thorpe passes on". Indian Country News. Associated Press. April 2008. Archived from the original on August 6, 2017. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
- ^ List of marriages, divorces, births, and deaths, Time, April 6, 1925, available online via time.com. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
- ^ a b "Athlete Thorpe's 2nd wife, Freeda, dies at 101". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Associated Press. March 7, 2007. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
- ^ Buford. p. 366.
- ^ a b O'Hanlon-Lincoln. pp. 144–145.
- ^ a b Wheeler, Bob; Ridlon, Florence; Wheeler, Rob (Spring 2015). "Akapamata: The Forgotten Hollywood Legacy Of Jim Thorpe". American Indian Magazine. Vol. 16, no. 1. Retrieved August 17, 2024.
- ^ a b O'Hanlon-Lincoln. p. 145.
- ^ Shaffer, George (April 11, 1935). "Penny matching piles up $3,000 charity fund". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 19. ProQuest 181569593.
- ^ Buford. pp. 313–314.
- ^ Hilger. p. 324.
- ^ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
- ^ Buford. pp. 341, 353.
- ^ Buford. pp. 355–356.
- ^ a b Thorp, Charles. "8 Olympic Movies That Medal". Men's Journal. Retrieved June 15, 2017.
- ^ Williams. p. 133.
- ^ Briefs, Time, February 22, 1943, available online via time.com. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
- ^ Jeansonne. p. 61.
- ^ a b "Thorpe Has Cancerous Growth Removed From Lip in Hospital at Philadelphia". The New York Times. Associated Press. November 10, 1951. p. S12. Retrieved April 23, 2007.
- ^ Watterson. p. 151.
* Elfers. p. 18. - ^ Lincoln and Slagle. p. 282.
- ^ a b Bloom quoted in Bird. p. 97.
- ^ Demaree, Al. "Thorpe, the Indian, Best All-American", Los Angeles Times, November 24, 1926. p. C4.
* "Jim Thorpe Dies of Heart Attack at 64", Chicago Tribune, Associated Press, March 29, 1953. p. A1.
* Roetman, Sheena L. "America's Greatest Athlete Ever, Jim Thorpe, Was Indigenous", Vice Media, November 27, 2014. Retrieved January 4, 2018. - ^ Anderson, Dave (June 22, 1975). "Jim Thorpe's Medals". The New York Times. p. S5. Retrieved June 19, 2016.
- ^ Wethe, David and Whiteley, Michael. "Legends lunches begin this fall with Bob Lilly", Dallas Business Journal, July 19, 2002. Retrieved April 27, 2007.
- ^ Mather, Victor; Panja, Tariq (July 15, 2022). "Jim Thorpe Is Restored as Sole Winner of 1912 Olympic Gold Medals". The New York Times. Retrieved May 30, 2024.
- ^ O'Hanlon-Lincoln. p. 132.
- ^ Bengel, Chris (July 16, 2020). "Petition filed to restore Jim Thorpe's status as sole gold medalist". CBS Sports. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
- ^ "Jim Thorpe is reinstated as the sole winner of two events in the 1912 Olympics". NPR. Associated Press. July 15, 2022. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
- ^ Carlson, Jenni (July 15, 2020). "Jim Thorpe petition drive starts to restore his status as sole winner of 1912 Olympic gold medals". The Oklahoman. Retrieved July 17, 2020.
- ^ Barker, Philip (July 15, 2020). "Campaign launched to recognise Thorpe as sole champion from Stockholm 1912". Inside the Games. Retrieved July 17, 2020.
- ^ "IOC to display the name of Jim Thorpe as sole Stockholm 1912 pentathlon and decathlon gold medallist". International Olympic Committee. July 15, 2022. Retrieved October 2, 2023.
- ^ Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania: Jim Thorpe's Tourist Attraction Grave, Roadside America. Retrieved May 28, 2017.
- ^ "Jim Thorpe", Archived September 8, 2007, at the Wayback Machine encarta.msn.com. Retrieved April 23, 2007.
- ^ Jim Thorpe Biography, cgmworldwide.com. Retrieved April 23, 2007.
- ^ "Unitas QBs NFL Team". The Tampa Tribune. Associated Press. September 7, 1969. p. 5-F. Retrieved May 1, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Associated Press. Top 100 athletes of the 20th century, Archived March 12, 2009, at the Wayback Machine USA Today, December 21, 1999. Retrieved October 7, 2017.
- ^ "Top N. American athletes of the century", espn.com. Retrieved March 15, 2007.
- ^ "Hall of Famers by Year of Enshrinement". Pro Football Hall of Fame. Retrieved September 6, 2012.
- ^ "National Native American Hall of Fame names first twelve historic inductees". IndianCountryToday.com. October 22, 2018. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
- ^ "Haskell Indian Nations University Directory". Haskell Indian Nations University. November 10, 2016. Retrieved January 10, 2018.
- ^ Richard Nixon: Proclamation 4209 – Jim Thorpe Day, The American Presidency Project. Retrieved November 8, 2016.
- ^ "16 Jahre "Thorpe Cup"". Zehnkampf.de (in German). Archived from the original on April 5, 2010. Retrieved August 10, 2010.
- ^ "American Indian Subjects on United States Postage Stamps" (PDF). United States Postal Service. February 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 30, 2013. Retrieved July 28, 2013.
- ^ "Wide World of Sports athlete of the century". ESPN Network. January 14, 2000. Retrieved February 6, 2012.
- ^ "Jim Thorpe: All-Around Athlete and American Indian Advocate". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved February 6, 2012.
- ^ "United States Mint to Release 2018 Native American $1 Coin Products on February 15". United States Mint. February 8, 2018. Retrieved April 26, 2019.
- ^ Unser, Mike (November 6, 2015). "2018 Native American $1 Coin Designs Depict Jim Thorpe". CoinNews. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
- ^ Schad, Tom (May 3, 2024). "Katie Ledecky, Jim Thorpe among 2024 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients by Joe Biden". USA Today. Retrieved May 30, 2024.
- ^ "Jim Thorpe Body Arrives Home For Burial Rite". The Wilmington News. United Press. April 13, 1953. p. 9. Retrieved July 14, 2016.
- ^ Buford. pp. 367–369.
- ^ Wheeler. pp. 228–229.
- ^ Hagerty, James R. (July 21, 2010). "Is There Life After Jim Thorpe For Jim Thorpe, Pa.?". The Wall Street Journal. p. A14.
- ^ Zucchino, David (October 18, 2013). "Jim Thorpe, Pa., fights to keep its namesake". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 28, 2018.
- ^ "Frank Deford of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel interviews Jack Thorpe". HBO (official channel on YouTube). September 17, 2010. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved July 9, 2012.
- ^ O'Hanlon-Lincoln. p. 148.
- ^ a b c "Pennsylvania town named for Jim Thorpe can keep athlete's body". CBS News. October 23, 2014. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
- ^ Hedes, Jarrad (May 19, 2017). "Jim Thorpe plans to add third Olympian statue" Archived January 19, 2018, at the Wayback Machine. Lehighton Times News. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
- ^ Loverro, Thom (August 2, 2013). "Jim Thorpe sleeps on – for now – in town where everyone knows his name". The Guardian. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
- ^ Lee, Peggy (June 24, 2010). "Son Of Jim Thorpe Sues for His Remains". wnep.com. Archived from the original on March 1, 2012. Retrieved June 25, 2010.
- ^ "Jim Thorpe's son sues town of Jim Thorpe over location of athlete's remains". The Patriot-News. Associated Press. June 24, 2010. Retrieved May 19, 2017.
- ^ Zagofsky, Al (February 24, 2011). "Jim Thorpe's son Jack dies". Lehighton Times News. Retrieved July 9, 2012.
- ^ "Judge Sides With Sons About Legendary Athlete Jim Thorpe's Remains". KOTV-DT. April 21, 2013. Retrieved April 21, 2013.
- ^ 25 USC Ch. 32: Native American Graves Protection And Repatriation. Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
- ^ John Thorpe (et al) v. Borough of Jim Thorpe, No. 13-2446 (3d Cir.).
- ^ Hall, Peter (October 6, 2015). "U.S. Supreme Court: Jim Thorpe's body to remain in town that bears his name". Pocono Record. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
- ^ "Jim Thorpe running festival benefits Turn To Us". Times News. October 22, 2020. Retrieved June 21, 2021.
General and cited sources
[edit]- Bird, Elizabeth S. Dressing in Feathers: The Construction of the Indian in American Popular Culture. Boulder: Westview Press, 1996. ISBN 978-0-8133-2667-2.
- 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. ISBN 978-0-8133-2667-2.
- Buford, Kate. Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-8032-4089-6
- Cava, Pete (Summer 1992). "Baseball in the Olympics" Archived August 9, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. Citius, Altius, Fortius. 1 (1): 7–15. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
- Cook, William A. Jim Thorpe: A Biography. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 2011. ISBN 978-0-7864-6355-8.
- Dodge, Robert. Which Chosen People? Manifest Destiny Meets the Sioux: As Seen by Frank Fiske, Frontier Photographer. New York: Algora Publishing, 2013. ISBN 978-1-62894-029-9.
- Dyreson, Mark. Making the American Team: Sport, Culture, and the Olympic Experience. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998. ISBN 978-0-252-06654-2.
- Elfers, James E. The Tour to End All Tours. Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0-8032-6748-0.
- Findling, John E. and Pelle, Kimberly D., eds. Encyclopedia of the Modern Olympic Movement. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0-313-32278-5.
- Gerasimo, Luisa and Whiteley, Sandra. The Teacher's Calendar of Famous Birthdays. McGraw-Hill, 2003. ISBN 978-0-07-141230-8.
- Hilger, Michael. Native Americans in the Movies: Portrayals from Silent Films to the Present. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. ISBN 978-1-4422-4002-5.
- Hoxie, Frederick E. Encyclopedia of North American Indians. New York: Houghton Mifflin Books, 1996. ISBN 978-0-395-66921-1.
- Jeansonne, Glen. A Time of Paradox: America Since 1890. Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. ISBN 978-0-7425-3377-6.
- Landrum, Dr. Gene. Empowerment: The Competitive Edge in Sports, Business & Life. Brendan Kelly Publishing Incorporated, 2006. ISBN 978-1-895997-24-8.
- Lincoln, Kenneth and Slagle, Al Logan. The Good Red Road: Passages into Native America. University of Nebraska Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0-8032-7974-2.
- Magill, Frank Northern. Great Lives from History. New York: Salem Press, 1987. ISBN 978-0-89356-529-9.
- Maraniss, David. Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2022. ISBN 978-1-4767-4841-2
- 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. ISBN 978-0-312-11435-0.
- O'Hanlon-Lincoln, Ceane. Chronicles: A Vivid Collection of Fayette County, Pennsylvania Histories. Mechling Bookbindery, 2006. ISBN 978-0-9760563-4-8.
- Quirk, Charles E., ed. Sports and the Law: Major Legal Cases. London: Routledge, 2014. ISBN 978-1-135-68222-4.
- Rogge, M. Jacque, Johnson, Michael, and Rendell, Matt. The Olympics: Athens to Athens 1896–2004. Sterling Publishing, 2004. ISBN 978-0-297-84382-5.
- Schaffer, Kay and Smith, Sidonie. The Olympics at the Millennium: Power, Politics and the Games. Rutgers University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-8135-2820-5.
- Watterson, John Sayle. College Football: history, spectacle, controversy. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-8018-7114-6.
- Wheeler, Robert W. Jim Thorpe, World's Greatest Athlete. University of Oklahoma Press, 1979. ISBN 978-0-8061-1745-4.
- Williams, Randy. Sports Cinema 100 Movies: The Best of Hollywood's Athletic Heroes, Losers, Myths, and Misfits. Pompton Plains: Limelight Editions, 2006. ISBN 978-0-87910-331-6.
- Zarnowski, Frank. All-Around Men: Heroes of a Forgotten Sport. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0-8108-5423-9
- Zarnowski, Frank. The Pentathlon of the Ancient World. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 2013. ISBN 978-0-7864-6783-9.
Further reading
[edit]- Benjey, Tom. Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Tuxedo Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-9774486-7-8.
- "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. ISBN 978-0-7864-1047-7.
- Newcombe, Jack. The Best of the Athletic Boys: The White Man's Impact on Jim Thorpe. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1975. ISBN 978-0-385-06186-5.
- Updyke, Rosemary Kissinger. Jim Thorpe, the Legend Remembered. Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican, 1997. ISBN 978-1-56554-539-7.
- Wallechinsky, David. The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics. Woodstock, New York: Overlook Press, 2000. ISBN 978-1-58567-046-8.
External links
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Jim Thorpe at the Team USA Hall of Fame
- Jim Thorpe at Olympics.com
- Jim Thorpe at Olympedia
- Jim Thorpe at the Pro Football Hall of Fame
- Jim Thorpe at the College Football Hall of Fame
- Career statistics and player information from NFL.com · Pro Football Reference
- Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference, or Baseball Reference (Minors)
- Jim Thorpe at IMDb
- 1887 births
- 1953 deaths
- 20th-century American male actors
- 20th-century Native Americans
- Akron Buckeyes players
- All-American college football players
- American ballroom dancers
- American football drop kickers
- American football running backs
- American male decathletes
- American male film actors
- American men's basketball players
- American pentathletes
- American people of Irish descent
- American people of Potawatomi descent
- American sailors
- American twins
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1912 Summer Olympics
- Baseball controversies
- Baseball players at the 1912 Summer Olympics
- Baseball players from Oklahoma
- Basketball players from Oklahoma
- Basketball players from Pennsylvania
- Boston Braves players
- Canton Bulldogs coaches
- Canton Bulldogs players
- Canton Bulldogs (Ohio League) players
- Carlisle Indians baseball players
- Carlisle Indians football players
- Catholics from California
- Catholics from Oklahoma
- Catholics from Pennsylvania
- Chicago Cardinals players
- Cincinnati Reds players
- Cleveland Indians (NFL) players
- Cleveland Tigers-Indians coaches
- College Football Hall of Fame inductees
- Fayetteville Highlanders players
- Harrisburg Senators players
- Hartford Senators players
- Identical twins
- Indiana Hoosiers football coaches
- Jersey City Skeeters players
- Major League Baseball outfielders
- Male actors from Oklahoma
- Medalists at the 1912 Summer Olympics
- Military personnel from Oklahoma
- Milwaukee Brewers (minor league) players
- National Football League commissioners
- National Football League founders
- Native American male actors
- Native American players of American football
- Native American Roman Catholics
- Native American sportspeople
- Native American United States military personnel
- New York Giants (baseball) players
- New York Giants players
- Newark Indians players
- Olympic baseball players for the United States
- Olympic decathletes
- Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field
- Olympic male pentathletes
- Oorang Indians players
- People from Carlisle, Pennsylvania
- People from Lincoln County, Oklahoma
- People from Lomita, California
- People from Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma
- Players of American football from Oklahoma
- Portland Beavers players
- Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
- Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees
- Rock Island Independents players
- Rocky Mount Railroaders players
- Sac and Fox Nation people
- Sportspeople from Cumberland County, Pennsylvania
- Sportspeople from Los Angeles County, California
- Sportspeople from Shawnee, Oklahoma
- Toledo Mud Hens players
- Track and field athletes from Oklahoma
- United States Merchant Mariners
- United States Merchant Mariners of World War II
- Worcester Boosters players