height_ft death_date birth_date weight_lbs death_place collegehof image_size number image college name caption nflnew birth_place coachrecord hof position height_in article_title
6 28 march 1953 22 may 1887 202 lomita , california 10005 265px 31 , 21 , 2 , 1 jim thorpe canton bulldogs 1915-20 . png carlisle -lrb- 1907 & ndash ; 1912 -rrb- jim thorpe thorpe 1920 with the canton bulldogs sometime between 1915 and jimthorpe/2527396 pottawatomie county , oklahoma 14 -- 25 -- 2 213 back 1 jim thorpe

jim thorpe

james francis `` jim '' thorpe -lrb- sac and fox -lrb- sauk -rrb- : `` wa-tho-huk '' , translated as `` bright path '' ; may 22 , 1887march 28 , 1953 -rrb- was a sac and fox athlete of native american and european ancestry .
considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports , he won olympic gold medals for the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon , played american football -lrb- collegiate and professional -rrb- , and also played professional baseball and basketball .
he lost his olympic titles after it was found he was paid for playing two seasons of semi-professional baseball before competing in the olympics , thus violating the amateurism rules that were then in place .
in 1983 , 30 years after his death , the international olympic committee -lrb- ioc -rrb- restored his olympic medals .
thorpe grew up in the sac and fox nation in oklahoma .
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 -lrb- apfa -rrb- , which would become the national football league -lrb- nfl -rrb- in 1922 .
he played professional sports until age 41 , the end of his sports career coinciding with the start of the great depression .
thorpe struggled to earn a living after that , working several odd jobs .
thorpe suffered from alcoholism , and lived his last years in failing health and poverty .
in a poll of sports fans conducted by abc sports , thorpe was voted the greatest athlete of the twentieth century out of 15 other athletes including muhammad ali , babe ruth , jesse owens , wayne gretzky , jack nicklaus , and michael jordan .
