Native American Olympians Celebrated at New Smithsonian Exhibition | Newsdesk Native American Olympians Celebrated at New Smithsonian Exhibition Honored Athletes Include Jim Thorpe, Billy Mills and Duke Kahanamoku May 9, 2012 On the 100th anniversary of the Olympic Games in which athletes Jim Thorpe (Sac and Fox), Duke Kahanamoku (Native Hawaiian), Andrew Sockalexis (Penobscot) and Lewis Tewanima (Hopi) represented the United States in Stockholm, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian presents “Best in the World: Native Athletes in the Olympics.” The exhibition opens Friday, May 25.

In 1912, Thorpe swept both the pentathlon and decathlon at the Olympic Games, becoming the first and only Olympian to accomplish such a feat and earning the accolades of King Gustav V of Sweden, who proclaimed Thorpe to be “the greatest athlete in the world.” Thorpe was joined that year by fellow Native teammates Kahanamoku, who won the 100-meter freestyle; Sockalexis, who placed fourth in the marathon; and Tewanima, who won the silver medal and set an American record for the 10,000 meters that stood for more than 50 years until Billy Mills (Oglala Lakota) won the gold medal in Tokyo in 1964. A century later, the National Museum of the American Indian celebrates the legacy of the 1912 team and the path they paved for future generations of Native American athletes, including Clarence “Taffy” Abel (Ojibwe), who won a silver medal as part of the 1924 U.S.

Olympic ice hockey team and later became the first U.S.-born player in the National Hockey League; Ellison Myers Brown (Narragansett), who ran the marathon at the 1936 Olympics; Sharon and Shirley Firth (Gwich’in), twin sisters who competed in the 1972, 1976, 1980 and 1984 Games in cross-country skiing; Theoren Fleury (Métis/Cree), who won a gold medal in 2002 in ice hockey, and Carolyn Darbyshire-McRorie (Métis), who won a silver medal in curling in 2010, among others. A press preview will be held Friday, May 25, at 10 a.m. in the museum’s Sealaska Gallery, where Mills and members of the Thorpe family will be on hand for interviews and photo opportunities. Olympic Medals and Objects The exhibition will be on view through Sept. 3 in the museum’s Sealaska Gallery. It will feature the gold medals restored to Thorpe’s family in 1983 for his victory in the 1912 decathlon and pentathlon events.

Thorpe’s medals will be on view at the museum through July 9, at which point they will travel to the London 2012 Summer Olympics Games, where they will be celebrated and displayed in front of millions of spectators. The silver medal that Kahanamoku won in the 1912 Olympics will also be on display, as well as the gold medal won by Mills in the 1964 Games. The exhibition also features historic photographs of Native athletes competing in the Olympics, including rare images from the 1912 Games, and a commemorative Wheaties box that was released in 2001 to honor Thorpe as “The World’s Greatest Athlete.” Smithsonian magazine selected this object as its “National Treasure” in the June/July 2012 issue. Related Programs Free public programs related to the exhibition will be offered throughout the exhibition’s run, including a presentation by Mills Saturday, July 14, and a meet-and-greet with Hawaiian surfer and craftsman Tom “Pohaku” Stone Friday, May 25.

The museum will also host Stone as an artist-in-residence from Sunday, May 20, through Friday, May 25, during which time he will share his knowledge of ancient Hawaiian sports while carving a traditional Hawaiian surfboard (Papahe’enalu) and sled (Papahōlua) in the Potomac Atrium during regular museum hours. In June, film screenings will be offered at 12:30 and 3:30 p.m. every day except Wednesday’s in the Rasmuson Theater highlighting Kahanamoku and Thorpe. The 12:30 p.m. film stars Kahanamoku in a 1957 episode of This Is Your Life, the hit television show. The Olympic gold medalist and so-called “Father of Surfing” appeared alongside seven of his siblings, two of whom also competed in the Olympics, former Olympics teammate Johnny Weissmuller, and three of the eight survivors that Kahanamoku rescued from a capsized boat at Newport Beach in 1925. The 3:30 p.m.

film, a documentary called Jim Thorpe, The World’s Greatest Athlete, offers an in-depth look at the life of the Native American sports icon, beginning with his boyhood in Indian Territory to his athletic stardom at Carlisle Indian Industrial School, the 1912 Summer Olympics and the tumultuous events that happened afterwards. The Thorpe medals were lent by the Oklahoma Historical Society, a Smithsonian Affiliate in Oklahoma City, with the support of William and Richard Thorpe. The museum acknowledges Running Strong for American Indian Youth for their sponsorship of this exhibition and the Bishop Museum in Honolulu and Billy Mills for their support. For more information, visit . # # # 1000+ images about Jim Thorpe on Pinterest | Football, American football and Stockholm Forward Jim Thorpe. Still amazing to me that he's not more widely revered. This mixed-race American (white / Native American) won Olympic gold for the 1912 pentathlon & decathlon. He also played pro-football, baseball & basketball but lost his Olympic titles after being paid for playing two seasons of semi-pro baseball before competing in the Olympics. In 1983, 30 yrs after his death, the IOC restored his Olympic medals.

Along with Jesse Owens the IOC ruined the lives of the best two US athletes… See More Athletics at the 1912 Stockholm Summer Games: Men's Decathlon | Olympics at Sports-Reference.com Athletics at the 1912 Stockholm Summer Games: Men's Decathlon Venue(s): Stockholm Olympic Stadium, Stockholm Date Started: July 13, 1912 Date Finished: July 15, 1912 Format: Scoring by 1912B point tables. The order of events was as follows: Day 1 (13 July) - 100 metres, Long jump, Shot put; Day 2 (14 July) - High jump, 400 metres, Discus throw, 110 metre hurdles; Day 3 (15 July) - Pole vault, Javelin throw, 1,500 metres. Gold: Gösta Holmér Summary Prior to 1911, the multi-event for track & field athletes was the all-around championship, a 10-event competition emphasizing strength events.

But in preparation for the 1912 Olympics, the Swedes devised another 10-event multi-event with more emphasis placed on speed and jumping ability. The first known competitions in the decathlon were conducted on 15 October 1911, both in Münster, Germany (won by [Karl von Halt]) and Göteberg, Sweden (won by [Hugo Wieslander]). In June 1912, Wieslander won two further Swedish decathlons in preparation for the Olympic Games. He was the Swedish favorite. The American favorite was a remarkable Native American named [Jim Thorpe]. A descendant of the Sac and Fox tribe and an Irish father, Thorpe had starred in both football and baseball, as well as track, at the Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He had never competed in a decathlon prior to Stockholm, but at the eastern U.S. Olympic Trial in the pentathlon, he was so dominant that he was named to represent the United States in both the decathlon and the pentathlon. The Stockholm decathlon was expected to be a closely fought contest between Wieslander and Thorpe. But it was not.

One week after winning the pentathlon, Jim Thorpe won the decathlon by an almost laughable margin, establishing a new world record, and defeating Wieslander by almost 700 points. He won three events, had one second place, four thirds, and two fourths in the ten events. Using point-for-place scoring, he scored 25 points to Wieslander’s 67 and [Charles Lomberg]'s 75. At the closing ceremonies, Thorpe was presented his trophies by Sweden’s King Gustav V. The legend is that the King told him, “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world,” and that Thorpe replied, “Thanks, King.” Whether the legend is true or not, the King was correct. But from 1913 until 1982 the Olympic record books invariably listed Hugo Wieslander as the 1912 Olympic decathlon champion. In January 1913, newspaper stories broke noting that Jim Thorpe had played minor league baseball in North Carolina in 1909 and 1910. The United States AAU reacted quickly and declared Thorpe a professional. The IOC followed suit.

Thorpe’s Olympic victories were taken from him and he was ordered to return his medals and trophies. But the story never died. For years, many efforts were made to right what many perceived as a wrong and have the medals, the trophies, and the recognition returned to Jim Thorpe or his family. The trophies included the Challenge Trophy for the decathlon, which had been donated by the Czar of Russia. In 1982, the International Olympic Committee made partial restitution when they restored Thorpe’s amateur status, and declared him, in an unusual ruling, co-champion with Hugo Wieslander. The story of Thorpe’s disqualification, the many attempts to restore his name, and the final work done which succeeded, is a long and complicated one. See the Jim Thorpe bio for further details. A Sports Reference Site : About SR/Olympics | Privacy Statement | Conditions & Terms of Service | Use of Data Data provided by OlyMADMen , led by Hilary Evans, Arild Gjerde, Jeroen Heijmans, and Bill Mallon.

Members: David Foster, Martin Frank, Jørn Jensen, Carl-Johan Johansson, Taavi Kalju, Martin Kellner, George Masin, Stein Opdahl, Wolf Reinhardt, Ralf Regnitter, Paul Tchir, Magne Teigen, Christian Tugnoli, Morten Aarlia Torp, and Ralf Schlüter. Sports Reference LLC and are not sponsored by or affiliated with the Olympics, the United States Olympic Committee or the International Olympic Committee. Trademarks featured or referred to on this website are the property of their respective trademark holders and not Sports Reference LLC or . Part of the Jim Thorpe | Olympics Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Template:Infobox NFL coach James Francis "Jim" Thorpe (Sac and Fox (Sauk): Wa-Tho-Huk, translated as "Bright Path"; [1] May 28, 1888 Template:Spaced ndash March 28, 1953) [2] was an American athlete of mixed ancestry (Native American and Caucasian).

Considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports, he won Olympic gold medals for the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon , played American football (collegiate and professional), 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. In 1983, 30 years after his death, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) restored his Olympic medals. Of Native American and European American ancestry, 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. 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 . [3] [4] Contents Edit Information about Thorpe's birth, name and ethnic background varies widely. [5] He was born in Indian Territory, but no birth certificate has been found. Thorpe was generally considered born on May 28, 1888, [2] near the town of Prague, Oklahoma. [6] He was baptized "Jacobus Franciscus Thorpe" in the Catholic Church. 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 mother, a descendant of Chief Louis Vieux. He was raised as a Sac and Fox, and his native name, Wa-Tho-Huk, translated as "path lit by great flash of lightning" or, more simply, "Bright Path".

[5] 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. [7] Thorpe attended the Sac and Fox Indian Agency school in Stroud, Oklahoma, with his twin brother Charlie. Charlie helped him through school, but died of pneumonia when they were nine years old. [8] He ran away from school several times. His father then sent him to the Haskell Institute, an "Indian" boarding school in Lawrence, Kansas, so that he would not run away again. [9] When his mother died of childbirth complications two years later, [10] he became depressed. After several arguments with his father, he left home to work on a horse ranch. [9] 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.

[11] Later that year, Hiram Thorpe died from gangrene poisoning after being wounded in a hunting accident, [10] and Jim again dropped out of school. He resumed farm work for a few years and then returned to Carlisle Indian Industrial School. [9] Amateur career File:Jim Thorpe.jpg Thorpe reportedly began his athletic career at Carlisle in 1907 when he walked past the track and beat all the school's high jumpers with an impromptu 5-ft 9-in jump still in street clothes. [12] His earliest recorded track and field results come from 1907. He also competed in football, baseball, lacrosse and even ballroom dancing , winning the 1912 intercollegiate ballroom dancing championship. [13] Reportedly, Pop Warner was hesitant to allow Thorpe, his best track and field athlete, to compete in a physical game such as football. [14] 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.

[14] Thorpe "ran around past and through them not once, but twice". [14] He then walked over to Warner and said "Nobody is going to tackle Jim," while flipping him the ball. [14] Thorpe gained nationwide attention for the first time in 1911. [15] As a running back , defensive back , placekicker and punter , Thorpe scored all his team's points—four field goals and a touchdown—in an 18–15 upset of Harvard, a top ranked team in those early days of the National Collegiate Athletic Association . [14] His team finished the season 11–1. In 1912 Carlisle won the national collegiate championship largely as a result of his efforts – he scored 25 touchdowns and 198 points during the season. [11] Carlisle's 1912 record included a 27–6 victory over Army . [6] 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.

[16] Future President Dwight Eisenhower , who played against him that season, 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." [11] He was awarded All-American honors in both 1911 and 1912. [6] Football was - and would remain - Thorpe's favorite sport. [17] He competed only sporadically in track and field, even though 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 riveted a claim to a place on the team that went to Sweden.

[6] Olympic career File:Jim Thorpe olympic.png For the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, two new multi-event disciplines were included, the pentathlon and the decathlon . A pentathlon, based on the ancient Greek event, had been introduced at the 1906 Summer Olympics . The 1912 version consisted of the long jump , javelin throw , 200-meter dash, discus throw and 1500-meter run. The decathlon was a relatively new event in modern athletics, although it had been part of American track meets since the 1880s and a 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 seemed appropriate for Thorpe, who was so versatile that he served as Carlisle's one-man team in several track meets.

[6] 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. [6] He could long jump 23 ft 6 in and high-jump 6 ft 5 in. [6] He could pole vault 11 feet, put the shot 47 ft 9 in, throw the javelin 163 feet, and throw the discus 136 feet. [6] Thorpe entered the U.S. Olympic trials for both the pentathlon and the decathlon. He won the awards easily, winning three events, and was named to the pentathlon team, which also included future International Olympic Committee president Avery Brundage . There were only a few candidates for the decathlon team, however, and the trials were cancelled. His schedule in the Olympics was busy.

Along with the decathlon and pentathlon, he competed in the long jump and high jump. The first competition was the pentathlon. 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. He won the gold medal. That same day, he qualified for the high jump final in which he placed fourth, and also took seventh place in the long jump. Even more remarkably, because someone had stolen his shoes just before he was due to compete, he found some discarded ones in a rubbish bin and won his medals wearing them. [18] He is shown in the 1912 photo wearing two different shoes and extra socks because one shoe was too big. Template:MedalTop Template:Medal Template:Medal Template:Medal Template:Medal Template:MedalBottom Thorpe's final event was the decathlon, his first — and as it turned out, his only — Olympic decathlon. Strong competition from local favorite Hugo Wieslander was expected.

Thorpe, however, easily defeated Wieslander by more than 700 points. He placed in the top four in all ten events, and his Olympic record of 8,413 points would stand for nearly two decades. [12] 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". [19] [20] Contemporary sources from 1912 are lacking, suggesting that the story was apocryphal, however.

[21] The anecdote appeared in newspapers as early as 1948, 36 years after his appearance in the Olympics, [22] and in books as early as 1952. [23] Thorpe's successes had not gone unnoticed at home, and he was honored with a ticker-tape parade on Broadway . [19] He remembered later, "I heard people yelling my name, and I couldn't realize how one fellow could have so many friends." [19] Apart from his track and field appearances, he also played in one of two exhibition baseball games at the 1912 Olympics , which featured two teams composed of U.S. track and field athletes. It was not Thorpe's first try at baseball, as the public would soon learn. All-Around Champion Edit After his victories at the Olympic Games in Sweden, on September 2, 1912, he 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 J.

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 set at Celtic Park), by Martin Sheridan , the champion athlete of the Irish American Athletic Club. [24] Sheridan, a five-time Olympic gold medalist, was present to watch his record broken, 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 The 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." [25] 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 and were barred from competition.

In late January 1913, the Worcester Telegram published a story announcing that Thorpe had played professional baseball, and other U.S. newspapers followed up the story. [19] [26] Thorpe had indeed 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 $2 ($ Template:Inflation today) per game and as much as $35 ($ Template:Inflation today) per week. [27] College players, in fact, regularly spent summers playing professionally but most used aliases, unlike Thorpe. [11] Although the public didn't seem to care much about Thorpe's past, [28] the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), and especially its secretary James Edward Sullivan , took the case very seriously. [29] Thorpe wrote a letter to Sullivan, in which he admitted playing professional baseball: [19] Template:Quote His letter didn't help. The AAU decided to withdraw Thorpe's amateur status retroactively and asked the International Olympic Commission (IOC) to do the same.

Later that year, the 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 the 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. [16] The first newspaper reports did not appear until January 1913, about six months after the Stockholm Games had concluded. [16] There is also some evidence that Thorpe's amateur status had been questioned long before the Olympics, but the AAU had ignored the issue until being confronted with it in 1913. The only positive element 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.

[30] Professional career Edit Because the minor league team that last held Jim Thorpe's contract had disbanded in 1910, he found himself in the rare position of being a sought after free agent at the major league level during the era of the reserve clause , and thus had a choice of baseball teams for which to play. [31] In January 1913, he turned down a starting position with the American League cellar-dwelling St. Louis Browns , choosing instead to join the 1912 National League champion New York Giants , who with Thorpe playing in 19 of their 151 games, would repeat 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. [32] Barnstorming across the United States and then around the world, Thorpe was the celebrity of the tour. [33] Thorpe's presence increased the publicity, attendance and gate receipts for the tour.

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 . While in Rome, he was filmed wrestling with another baseball player on the floor of the Colosseum (although no known copy of that film has survived). Edit Thorpe signed with the New York Giants 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 in 1916, [34] he returned to the Giants in 1917 but 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. [35] 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. [36] He continued to play minor league baseball until 1922. 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. [37] He then signed with the Canton Bulldogs in 1915. They paid him $250 ($ Template:Inflation today) a game, a tremendous wage at the time. [38] Before signing him Canton was averaging 1,200 fans a game, but 8,000 showed up for his debut against the Massillon Tigers . [38] The team won titles in 1916, 1917, and 1919. He 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.

[38] In 1920, the Bulldogs were one of 14 teams to form the American Professional Football Association (APFA), which would become the National Football League (NFL) two years later. Thorpe was nominally the APFA's first president, but spent most of the year playing for Canton and a year later was replaced as president by Joseph Carr . [39] He continued to play for Canton, coaching the team as well. Between 1921 and 1923, he helped organize and played for the LaRue, Ohio , ( Marion County , Ohio) Oorang Indians , an all-Native American team. [40] Although the team's record was 3–6 in 1922, [41] and 1–10 in 1923, [42] he played well and was selected for the Green Bay Press-Gazette's first All-NFL team in 1923, which would later be formally recognized by the NFL as the league's official All-NFL team in 1931). [43] Thorpe never played for an NFL championship team.

He retired from professional football at age 41, [8] having played 52 NFL games for six teams from 1920 to 1928. File:WFI.jpg Until 2005, most of Thorpe's biographers were unaware of his basketball career [44] until a ticket discovered in an old book that year documented his career in basketball. By 1926, he was the main feature of the "World Famous Indians" of LaRue which sponsored traveling football, baseball and basketball teams. "Jim Thorpe and His World-Famous Indians" barnstormed for at least two years (1927–28) in parts of New York and Pennsylvania as well as Marion, Ohio . Although pictures of Thorpe in his WFI basketball uniform were printed on postcards and published in newspapers, this period of his life was not well documented. Edit In 1913, Thorpe married Iva Miller, [6] whom he had met at Carlisle. They had four children: Jim Jr. (who died at age 2), Gale, Charlotte and Grace.

[6] Miller filed for divorce from Thorpe in 1925, claiming desertion. [45] In 1926 Thorpe married Freeda V. 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. [46] They had four sons: Carl, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, [47] William, Richard and John "Jack". [6] Kirkpatrick divorced Thorpe in 1941 after 15 years of marriage. Lastly, Thorpe married Patricia Askew, who was with him when he died. Later life Edit 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 .

He also worked as a construction worker, a doorman (bouncer) , a security guard and a ditchdigger, and briefly joined the United States Merchant Marine in 1945. [48] [49] Thorpe was a chronic alcoholic during his later life. [50] He ran out of money sometime in the early 1950s. When hospitalized for lip cancer in 1950, he was admitted as a charity case. [51] At a press conference announcing the procedure, his wife Patricia wept and pleaded for help, saying, "[W]e'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." [51] Death Edit 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 and died on March 28 at the age of 64. [6] Racism Edit Thorpe, whose parents were both half Caucasian, was raised as an American Indian.

His accomplishments occurred during a period of heavy racial inequality in the United States. It has often been suggested that his medals were stripped because of his ethnicity. [52] While it is difficult to prove this, the public comment at the time largely reflected this view. [53] At the time Thorpe won his gold medals, not all Native Americans were recognized as U.S. citizens. (The U.S. government had wanted them to make concessions to adopt European-American ways to receive such recognition.) Citizenship was not granted to all American Indians until 1924. [54] While Thorpe attended Carlisle, students' ethnicity was used for marketing purposes. [55] A photograph of Thorpe and the 1911 football team emphasized racial differences among the competing athletes. The inscription on the most important game ball of that season reads, "1911, Indians 18, Harvard 15." [56] Additionally, the school and journalists often categorized sporting competitions as conflicts of Indians against whites; newspaper headings such as "Indians Scalp Army 27–6" or "Jim Thorpe on Rampage" made stereotypical journalistic play of the Indian background of Carlisle's football team.

[55] 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." [15] His accomplishments were described in a similar racial context by other newspapers and sportswriters throughout his life. [57] Legacy Edit Over the years, supporters of Thorpe attempted to have his Olympic titles reinstated. [58] US Olympic officials, including former teammate and later president of the IOC Avery Brundage , rebuffed several attempts, with Brundage once saying, "Ignorance is no excuse." [59] 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 prior to 1913. [60] 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. [27] In an unusual ruling, they declared that Thorpe was co-champion with 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. [27] Thorpe's original medals had been held in museums, but they had been stolen and have never been recovered. [61] Honors File:Jim Thorpe (Indiana).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. [10] The grave rests on mounds of soil from Thorpe's native Oklahoma and from the stadium in which he won his Olympic medals. [62] 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. [63] That same year, the Associated Press named Thorpe the "greatest American football player" of the first half of the century. [64] In 1999, the Associated Press placed him third on its list of the top athletes of the century, following Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan . [65] ESPN ranked Thorpe seventh on their list of best North American athletes of the century. [66] Thorpe was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963, one of seventeen players in the charter class. [67] 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. [11] President Richard Nixon , as authorized by U.S.

Senate Joint Resolution 73, proclaimed Monday, April 16, 1973, as "Jim Thorpe Day" to promote the nationwide recognition of Thorpe. [68] 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. [69] Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania Edit Thorpe's widow was angry when the Oklahoma state government would not erect a memorial in his honor. [70] When she heard that the small Pennsylvania towns of Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk were desperately seeking to attract business, she made a deal with officials which, according to Thorpe's son Jack, was done by Patricia for monetary considerations. [71] The towns bought Thorpe's remains, erected a monument to him, merged, and renamed the newly united town in his honor Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania even though Thorpe had never been there. [72] The monument site contains his tomb, two statues of him in athletic poses, and historical markers describing 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, where they would 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, Pa., borough officials was made against the wishes of other family members who want him buried in Native American land. [73] [74] Jack Thorpe died at 73 on February 22, 2011. [75] In film Edit In the 1930s, Thorpe appeared in several short films and features. Usually, his roles were cameo appearances as an Indian, although 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 $1,500 ($ Template:Inflation today). Template:Inflation-fn [76] The movie included archival footage of the 1912 and 1932 Olympics, as well as a banquet in which Thorpe was honored. Thorpe was seen in some long shots in the film; and one scene showed him as a coaching assistant. It was also distributed in the United Kingdom, where it was called Man of Bronze. Thorpe was memorialized in the Warner Bros. film Jim Thorpe – All-American (1951) starring Burt Lancaster , with Billy Gray performing as Thorpe as a child. The film was directed by Michael Curtiz . 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. [77] He is mentioned twice in Disney's 1973 film The World's Greatest Athlete .

Thorpe is featured as a ghost figure in the 1994 film WindRunner: A Spirited Journey, where he is portrayed by Russell Means . Notes U.S. Olympic standouts: A look back in photos | ShareAmerica U.S. Olympic standouts: A look back in photos Aug 2, 2016 1276 As the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro bring us new heroes from around the world, we’re taking time to remember American athletes who broke records in their sports and barriers in society from earlier Olympics. Prev Next 1. Jim Thorpe | Stockholm 1912. Jim Thorpe won gold medals in the pentathlon and the decathlon. Of Native American descent, he is considered one of the greatest athletes of all time. (Public domain) 2. Duke Kahanamoku | Antwerp 1920. Duke Kahanamoku earned gold in swimming and is considered the “father of modern surfing.” He was one of the last full-blooded Hawaiians. (© Everett Collection Historical/Alamy) 3. Helen Wills | Paris 1924.

Helen Wills won gold medals in singles and doubles tennis. She was the most dominant tennis player of the 20th century. (© AP Images) 4. Babe Didrikson | Los Angeles 1932. Babe Didrikson medaled in the hurdles, javelin throw and high jump, the only three individual track events that women could compete in at the time. (© AP Images) 5. Jesse Owens | Berlin 1936. Jesse Owens became the first U.S. track and field athlete to win four gold medals in a single Olympiad. He became an icon in the fight for racial equality. (© Alamy/INTERFOTO) 6. Vicki Draves | London 1948. Vicki Draves was the first Asian American to win an Olympic medal, earning golds in both springboard and platform diving. She was named among the two best U.S. athletes of the 1948 games. (© AP Images) 7. Mal Whitfield | Helsinki 1952. Mal Whitfield repeated his Olympic gold performance in the 800-meter track at the 1952 games.

As a Tuskegee Airman , he had won gold in 1948 in the same event while on active military duty. (© AP Images) 8. Wilma Rudolph | Rome 1960. Wilma Rudolph overcame polio as a child to win three gold medals in sprint events on the track, making her at the time the “fastest woman in the world.” (© AP Images) 9. Mark Spitz | Munich 1972. Mark Spitz won seven gold medals in swimming, a record for the most gold at a single Olympics until 2008, when American swimmer Michael Phelps won eight medals. (© Everett Collection Historical/Alamy) 10. Carl Lewis | Los Angeles 1984. Carl Lewis won four gold medals in track, equaling Jesse Owens’ 1936 performance. He later became one of four athletes to win nine gold medals while competing in four Olympics. (© AP Images) 11. Michael Jordan | Barcelona 1992. Michael Jordan earned gold as part of the “Dream Team” in basketball that included Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and other U.S. professional basketball players.

(© AP Images) 12. Oscar de la Hoya | Barcelona 1992. Oscar de la Hoya was the only U.S. boxer to win gold at the games in Barcelona. He later became the first Hispanic to own a national boxing promotional company. (© AP Images) 13. Dominique Dawes | Atlanta 1996. Dominique Dawes became the first African American to win an individual Olympic medal in women’s gymnastics. (© AP Images) 14. Mia Hamm | Athens 2004. Mia Hamm won Olympic gold medals in 1996 and 2004, plus two world championships in 1991 and 1999. She inspired generations of girls to play soccer. (© Alamy) 15. Michael Phelps | Beijing 2008. Michael Phelps broke Mark Spitz’s 1972 record of gold medals in a single Olympic Games with his eighth gold. As a four-time Olympian, he is the most decorated Olympian of all time, winning 22 Olympic medals, including 18 gold medals. He will compete in Rio de Janeiro.

(© Alamy) Jim Thorpe (American Football Player) - Pics, Videos, Dating, & News Show Less However, most biographers believe that he was born on May 22, 1887, as that is what is listed on his baptismal certificate. … Read More Bellemont was a small community, now disappeared, on the line between Pottawatomie and Lincoln Counties. While the town of Prague, Lincoln County, now claims to be the birthplace of Thorpe, there is no evidence that Thorpe himself called Prague his hometown. All his personal references were either Shawnee (the county seat of Pottawatomie County and about ten miles (16 km) southwest of his birthplace) or "Pott County". The Sac and Fox agency is in Stroud, Lincoln County, which could cause some of the confusion.<br /><br /> 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 mother, a descendant of Chief Louis Vieux.

He was raised as a Sac and Fox, and his native name, Wa-Tho-Huk, 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. Read Less He was generally considered to have been born on May 22, 1887, near the town of Prague, Oklahoma. … Read More Thorpe himself said in an article in The Shawnee News-Star in 1949 that he was born May 28, 1888, on his mother's allotment "near and south of Bellemont â Pottawatomie County â along the banks of the North Fork River...

hope this will clear up the inquiries as to my birthplace." Read Less TEENAGE 1904 17 Years Old In 1904 the sixteen-year-old Thorpe returned to his father and decided to attend Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. … Read More 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 he became orphaned after Hiram Thorpe died from gangrene poisoning after being wounded in a hunting accident, and Jim again dropped out of school. He resumed farm work for a few years and then returned to Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Read Less TWENTIES Show Less In late January 1913, the Worcester Telegram published a story announcing that Thorpe had played professional baseball, and other U.S. newspapers followed up the story. … Read More College players, in fact, regularly spent summers playing professionally but most used aliases, unlike Thorpe.<br /><br /> Although the public didn't seem to care much about Thorpe's past, the Amateur Athletic Union (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: <br /><br /> His letter didn't help. The AAU decided to withdraw Thorpe's amateur status retroactively and asked the International Olympic Commission (IOC) to do the same. Later that year, the IOC unanimously decided to strip Thorpe of his Olympic titles, medals and awards and declare him a professional.<br /><br /> Although Thorpe had played for money, the AAU and IOC did not follow the 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. Read Less There is also some evidence that Thorpe's amateur status had been questioned long before the Olympics, but the AAU had ignored the issue until being confronted with it in 1913.

… Read More The only positive element 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.<br /><br /> Because the minor league team that last held Jim Thorpe's contract had disbanded in 1910, he found himself in the rare position of being a sought after free agent at the major league level during the era of the reserve clause, and thus had a choice of baseball teams for which to play. Read Less In January 1913, he turned down a starting position with the American League cellar-dwelling St. Louis Browns, choosing instead to join the 1912 National League champion New York Giants, who, with Thorpe playing in 19 of their 151 games, would repeat 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. … Read More Barnstorming across the United States and then around the world, Thorpe was the celebrity of the tour. Thorpe's presence increased the publicity, attendance and gate receipts for the tour.

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. While in Rome, he was filmed wrestling with another baseball player on the floor of the Colosseum, although no known copy of that film has survived. Read Less Thorpe signed with the New York Giants baseball club in 1913 and played sporadically with them as an outfielder for three seasons. … Read More After playing in the minor leagues with the Milwaukee Brewers in 1916, he returned to the Giants in 1917 but 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. 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. He continued to play minor league baseball until 1922. Read Less 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. Thorpe married three times and had eight children (one of whom died in childhood). In 1913 Thorpe married Iva M. Miller, whom he had met at Carlisle. … Read More In 1917 Iva and Thorpe bought a house now known as the Jim Thorpe House in Yale, Oklahoma, and lived there until 1923. They had four children: Gail Margaret (October 31, 1917 â June 3, 2005), James F.

(May 8, 1918 â September 28, 1919), Charlotte Marie (September 16, 1919 â December 8, 1998) and Grace Frances (December 10, 1921 â April 1, 2008). Read Less 1915 28 Years Old He then signed with the Canton Bulldogs in 1915. … Read More Before signing him Canton was averaging 1,200 fans a game, but 8,000 showed up for his debut against the Massillon Tigers. The team won titles in 1916, 1917, and 1919. Read Less THIRTIES 1919 32 Years Old He 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.

… Read More In 1920, the Bulldogs were one of 14 teams to form the American Professional Football Association (APFA), which would become the National Football League (NFL) two years later. Thorpe was nominally the APFA's first president, but spent most of the year playing for Canton and a year later was replaced as president by Joseph Carr. 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 3â6 in 1922, and 1â10 in 1923, he played well and was selected for the Green Bay Press-Gazette's first All-NFL team in 1923, which would later be formally recognized by the NFL as the league's official All-NFL team in 1931).

Read Less Show Less From 1920 to 1921, Thorpe was nominally the first president of the American Professional Football Association (APFA), which would become the National Football League (NFL) in 1922. … Read More 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.<br /><br /> 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.<br /><br /> Information about Thorpe's birth, name and ethnic background varies widely. He was baptized "Jacobus Franciscus Thorpe" in the Catholic Church. Thorpe was born in Indian Territory, but no birth certificate has been found. Read Less Thorpe never played for an NFL championship team.

He retired from professional football at age 41, having played 52 NFL games for six teams from 1920 to 1928. … Read More Until 2005, most of Thorpe's biographers were unaware of his basketball career until a ticket discovered in an old book that year documented his career in basketball. By 1926, he was the main feature of the "World Famous Indians" of LaRue which sponsored traveling football, baseball and basketball teams. "Jim Thorpe and His World-Famous Indians" barnstormed for at least two years (1927â28) in parts of New York and Pennsylvania as well as Marion, Ohio. Although pictures of Thorpe in his WFI basketball uniform were printed on postcards and published in newspapers, this period of his life was not well documented. Read Less 1925 38 Years Old Miller filed for divorce from Thorpe in 1925, claiming desertion.

1926 39 Years Old In 1926 Thorpe married Freeda Verona Kirkpatrick (September 19, 1905 â March 2, 2007). … Read More She was working for the manager of the baseball team for which he was playing at the time. They had four sons: Carl Phillip (May 1, 1927 â March 18, 1986), a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, William K., Richard A. and John R. "Jack" (June 29, 1937 â February 22, 2011). Read Less FIFTIES Show Less Lastly, Thorpe married Patricia Gladys Evelyn "Patsy" Askew (nÃ©e Woodbury) on June 2, 1945; she was with him when he died. … Read More 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. Read Less He also worked as a construction worker, a doorman (bouncer), a security guard and a ditch digger, and briefly joined the United States Merchant Marine in 1945. … Read More Thorpe was a chronic alcoholic during his later life.<br /><br /> He ran out of money sometime in the early 1950s. Read Less LATE ADULTHOOD Why Are Jim Thorpe’s Olympic Records Still Not Recognized? | History | Smithsonian Contact Privacy Policy Terms of Use Why Are Jim Thorpe’s Olympic Records Still Not Recognized? 100 years ago, Jim Thorpe became the greatest American Olympian of all time, but not if you ask the IOC Jim Thorpe's epic performance in the 15 events that made up the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Summer Games remains the most solid reflection we have of him.

(Bettmann / Corbis) By Sally Jenkins Smithsonian Magazine | Subscribe July 2012 It’s been 100 years since Jim Thorpe dashed through the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, and we’re still chasing him. Greatest-evers are always hard to quantify, but Thorpe is especially so, a laconic, evasive passerby who defies Olympic idealizing. A breakfast of champions for Thorpe was no bowl of cereal. It was fried squirrel with creamed gravy after running all night in the woods at the heels of his dogs. Try catching up with that. From This Story [×] CLOSE It took a letter-writing campaign to get Jim Thorpe on the box 48 years after he died. (Stephen Voss) Thorpe's epic performance in the 15 events that made up the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Summer Games remains the most solid reflection we have of him. (Bettmann / Corbis) Celebrating Olympics Season at the American Indian Museum He was a reticent Sac and Fox Indian from the Oklahoma frontier, orphaned as a teenager and raised as a ward of government schools, uncomfortable in the public eye.

When King Gustaf V of Sweden placed two gold medals around Thorpe’s neck for winning the Olympic pentathlon and decathlon and pronounced him the greatest athlete in the world, he famously muttered, “Thanks,” and ducked more illustrious social invitations to celebrate at a succession of hotel bars. “I didn’t wish to be gazed upon as a curiosity,” he said. Thorpe’s epic performance in the 15 events that made up the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Summer Games remains the most solid reflection we have of him. Yet even that has a somewhat shadowy aspect. The International Olympic Committee stripped his medals and struck his marks from the official record after learning that he had violated the rules of amateurism by playing minor-league baseball in 1909-10. “Those Olympic records are the best proof that he was superb, and they aren’t official,” says Kate Buford, author of a new biography of Thorpe, Native American Son. “He’s like the phantom contender.” Phantomness has left him open to stigma and errors. For instance, it was popularly believed that Thorpe was careless of his feats, a “lazy Indian” whose gifts were entirely bestowed by nature.

But he was nonchalant only about celebrity, which he distrusted. “He was offhand, modest, casual about everything in the way of fame or eminence achieved,” recalled one of his teachers, the poet Marianne Moore. In fact, Thorpe was a dedicated and highly trained athlete. “I may have had an aversion for work,” he said, “but I also had an aversion for getting beat.” He went to Stockholm with a motive: He wanted to marry his sweetheart, Iva Miller. Her family disapproved of the match, and Thorpe was out to prove that a man could make a good enough living at games to support a wife. Point proved: They would be married in 1913. Photographs of him at the time verify his seriousness of purpose, showing a physique he could only have earned with intense training. He was a ripped 185 pounds with a 42-inch chest, 32-inch waist and 24-inch thighs. “Nobody was in his class,” says Olympic historian Bill Mallon. “If you look at old pictures of him he looks almost modern. He’s cut. He doesn’t look soft like the other guys did back then.

He looks great.” The physique was partly the product of hard labor in the wilderness of the Oklahoma Territory. By age 6, Thorpe could already shoot, ride, trap and accompany his father, Hiram, a horse breeder and bootlegger who would die of blood poisoning, on 30-mile treks stalking prey. Jim Thorpe was an expert wrangler and breaker of wild horses, which he studied for their beautiful economy of motion and tried to emulate. Clearly the outdoors taught him the famous looseness of movement so often mistaken for lassitude. “He moved like a breeze,” sportswriter Grantland Rice observed. The discovery of Thorpe at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, the government-run boarding institution for Native Americans he attended from 1904 to 1913, between bouts of truancy, is a well-worn story. In 1907 he was ambling across the campus when he saw some upperclassmen practicing the high jump. He was 5-foot-8, and the bar was set at 5-9. Thorpe asked if he could try—and jumped it in overalls and a hickory work shirt.

The next morning Carlisle’s polymath of a football and track coach, Glenn “Pop” Warner, summoned Thorpe. “Have I done anything wrong?” Thorpe asked. Single Page Previous Page 1 of 4 Next 1 2 3 4 Like this article? Olympian Jim Thorpe's remains should not be moved: U.S. court Olympian Jim Thorpe's remains should not be moved: U.S. court By Jonathan Stempel The Jim Thorpe Memorial in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania on April 24, 2013. (REUTERS/Joe McDonald) More By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) - Jim Thorpe 's remains will stay in the Pennsylvania hamlet named for the legendary Native American athlete and Olympics champion, after a federal appeals court on Thursday rejected an effort by two sons to move them to tribal lands in his native Oklahoma. Addressing an unusual dispute between two generations of descendants, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia said a lower court judge was wrong to order that Thorpe's remains be turned over to the Sac and Fox Nation.

Chief Judge Theodore McKee said it would be "patently absurd" to disinter Thorpe and ignore the wishes of his third wife Patricia, by blindly enforcing the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The 1990 federal law was meant to stop the plundering of burial grounds. "NAGPRA was intended as a shield against further injustices to Native Americans," McKee wrote for a three-judge 3rd Circuit panel. "It was not intended to be wielded as a sword to settle familial disputes within Native American families." One of the 20th century's greatest athletes, Thorpe won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon in the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, and later played professional baseball. Following Thorpe's death at age 64 in 1953, Patricia Thorpe arranged for his burial in what became the Borough of Jim Thorpe after learning that the struggling towns Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk wanted to merge under a new name. Jim Thorpe was interred there in 1957. Jack Thorpe, one of Jim's sons, sued in 2010 to reclaim his father's remains.

He died the next year, and his brothers Richard and William became plaintiffs. Two grandsons, Mike Koehler and John Thorpe, wanted Jim Thorpe's remains left alone. In April 2013, U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo in Scranton, Pennsylvania, found that the Borough of Jim Thorpe was a "museum" under NAGPRA. As such, it was required to return Thorpe's remains if a lineal descendant asked for them. McKee, however, said Congress' intent in adopting the law "is not advanced by interpreting 'museum' to include a gravesite that Thorpe's widow intended as Thorpe's final resting place." Stephen Ward, a lawyer for the Thorpe sons, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The sons could not immediately be reached. Koehler, 76, said in a phone interview: "To think that the tribe could disinter the remains against the wishes of the family is ridiculous. The important thing is that my grandfather, according to Indian custom, was returned to mother earth.

We're very happy." William Schwab, a lawyer for the borough, said in a phone interview: "It is my hope that Jim Thorpe's two families can move together in peace, and put this unusual chapter to rest." (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio) Reblog

Question: What Native American athlete won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon?
Answer: Jim Thorpe