Evening star., 1953-03-29
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him earlier as the greatest foot.
ball player Of this century, rank.
ing him ahead Of Red Grange
Illinois "galloping ghost" Of tn.
1905 In another poll he anC
Grange were almost unanimou.
choices for halfback posts or
an all-time All-America football
team.
For many gridiron followers
Thorpe's exhibition In the 1911
game against Harvard, then thu
ruler Of the football universe, wa,
the greatest OF his career. With
his legs encased in bandages be.
cause of pounding In othel
games, he kicked four field goals
the last from the 48-yard line, te
upset the Crimson. 18 to is.
Thorpe also ranked among hi.
top memories the 1912 victory
over Army. He caught an Army
kick on his 5 and raced 95 yard.
for the score. However. the rur
was nullified by a penalty. Army
kicked again. Thorpe caught the
ball, this time on the goal line
and weaved his way for 100 yards
for the touchdown.
The Indians won, 27-6. A cadet
named Dwight D. Eisenhower
played on the Army team thai
day.
That year Carlisle. with
Thorpe as captain, won l;
games. lost one and tied one
Thorpe scored Is Of his teams
66 touchdowns and kicked goal,
for a total of 1913 points.
Thorpe made the varsity al
Carlisle in 1907 under Coach
Glenn (Pop) Warner. He gave
his first stellar football perform.
ance the next year when hi
kicked three field goals to beat
Penn State, 1875, and Squirmec
60 yards to tie Pennsylvania
6-6. He played left halfback.
The Indian Institute was O
preparatory school rather than
a college, since it had no classes
above the 18th grade, but the
players were older than the boys
in prep school. Some were In
the late twenties. though Thorpe
was only 10 in 1907.
Dropped Out for Two Years.
He dropped out of school in
1909 and 1910, then returned al
the insistent coaxing of Warner
in 1911. That year he was on
Walter Camps All-American
team. He repeated in 1912.
Asked years later what grid
iron thrills fingered most in his
memory, he said:
Thrills were mostly hard
work for me. That's what I re-
member best about them. But
I did get a kick out of running
back two straight kickoffs for
touchdowns against Army in
1912 and kicking four field goals
to beat Harvard, 1915, in 1911"
Thorpe played professional
baseball and football for Is years
after leaving Carlisle. For six
years he was in the big leagues.
But in the autumn of his life,
he fell upon lean days. In 1851 il
was revealed that he was fiat
broke and a charity case in, a
Philadelphia hospital. where he
underwent surgery for removal
OF a cancerous growth on his
lower lip.
His third wife, Patricia, wept
openly at a news conference in a
hospital anteroom as she told OF
her gratitude to the unnamed
surgeon who performed the op.
Grafton
Were broke" she said. "Jin
has nothing but his name anc
his memories. He has spent
money on his own people ano
has given it away. He has Otter
been exploited"
The bulky Thorpe, then So
with thin gray hair, presented
a sharp contrast to the football
wonder of the Carlisle Indian
school who carried 1876 pounds
on 6 foot ! inch frame.
But the great athlete of yes
teryear was not forgotten. His
career had been depicted in q
motion picture. Jim Thorpe
All-American." (Mrs. Thorpe sale
he had sold the rights to his
life story 20 years previously. }
Various movements were start.
ed to aid him financially anc
to get back the Olympic medals
that had been taken from him
Baseball, the sport in which he
~S y