Thorpe, Jim 1888-1953

THORPE, JIM 1888-1953

Olympic champion

America's Greatest Athlete?

Jim Thorpe, who many believe was America's finest all-around athlete, was certainly the nation's greatest Native American sportsman. The son of Hiram Thorpe, a farmer of mixed Irish and Sac and Fox Indian descent, and Charlotte Vieux Thorpe, of French and Chippewa heritage, Jim was born in the Oklahoma Indian Territory. As a boy he attended the Sac and Fox Reservation School and the Haskell Institute for Indians at Lawrence, Kansas. Thorpe, who preferred outdoor activities like horseback riding, swimming, hunting, and baseball over books, often found himself in classroom brawls. When Thorpe was orphaned at age sixteen, authorities enrolled him in the Carlisle Institute in Pennsylvania, the nation's foremost school for Indian youth, renowned for its strict discipline and code of conduct.

College All-American

At Carlisle, Thorpe was trained as a tailor and a farmer. He came under the tutelage of the legendary football coach Glenn "Pop" Warner. In 1908 he scored two touchdowns in Carlisle's tie with the University of Pennsylvania. Despite his grid-iron success, Thorpe left Carlisle in 1909 to play semi-professional baseball in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. In 1911 he returned to Carlisle and led the football team to 11 victories in 12 games, including an 18-15 triumph over Harvard University, in which Thorpe dashed seventy yards for a touchdown and booted four field goals. Walter Camp named Thorpe to his annual All-American team that year.

Olympic Triumph and Tragedy

Thorpe, an all-around track and field athlete at Carlisle, participated in the 1912 Summer Olympic Games at Stockholm, winning both the pentathlon and the decathlon. Thorpe's score in the decathlon was a world record of 8,412 points. Upon presenting him with the gold medal for the decathlon, King Gustav V of Sweden said, "Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world," to which Thorpe replied, "Thanks, King." Thorpe returned to a hero's welcome in America, led Carlisle to another fabulous football season and was named to another Camp All-American squad. In 1913 the IOC learned that he had played semiprofessional baseball from 1909 to 1911. In response to his violation of the Olympic amateur code, the IOC barred Thorpe from future Olympic competition and demanded that he return the medals.

A Professional Athletic Career

Unable to compete as an amateur, Thorpe left Carlisle and embarked on a career in major league baseball and professional football. He played six seasons as an outfielder for the New York Giants (1913-1915, 1917-1919), Cincinnati Reds (1917), and Boston Braves (1919). His best season came in 1920, when he batted. 358 and drove in 112 runs for Akron, Ohio, of the International League. He also played professional football for the Canton Bulldogs (1915-1920) and for the New York Giants and other teams in the fledgling National Football League in the early 1920s.

An Athlete Down and Out

Throughout his professional athletic career, Thorpe drank and caroused excessively. After retiring from sports he remained dependent on the charity of friends and admirers, since he had squandered his earnings and lacked the skills to hold gainful employment. For income Thorpe often starred in B-movies and lectured on Indian life and his athletic career. During World War II he served in the U.S. merchant marine. Thorpe, who was married three times and divorced twice, fathered seven children. In 1950 an AP poll of American sportswriters named him the outstanding male athlete and the best football player of the first half of the twentieth century. Three years later Thorpe died of a heart attack in Lomita, California. In 1982 the IOC returned Thorpe's 1912 gold medals to his family.

Source:

Robert W. Wheeler, Jim Thorpe: World's Greatest Athlete, revised edition (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1979),