- Jim Thorpe demonstrating the drop kick
(1888–1953). One of the most accomplished all-round athletes in history, Jim Thorpe had a career that was marked by great success as well as great controversy. The seat of Carbon County in eastern Pennsylvania is named after him. Early lifeJames Francis Thorpe was born on May 28, 1888, near Prague, Indian Territory, in what is now the state of Oklahoma. He attended Haskell Indian School in Lawrence, Kansas, and Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. Thorpe played football at Carlisle and was chosen for the All-America football teams in 1911 and 1912. CareerIn 1912 Jim Thorpe participated in the Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden. He competed in four events: the high jump, long jump, decathlon, and pentathlon. The decathlon is an athletic contest with ten events and the pentathlon is a contest of five events. Thorpe won gold medals in the decathlon and the pentathlon by wide margins. Unfortunately, in 1913, Thorpe's medals were taken away from him. A rule stated that professional athletes could not participate in the Olympic Games. Thorpe had played semiprofessional baseball in 1909 and 1910. Therefore the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States (AAU) disqualified him. Thorpe then took up baseball and played in the National League as an outfielder from 1913 through 1919. He was more successful as one of the early stars of American professional football from 1919 through 1926. In 1920–21 he served as the first president of the American Professional Football Association, later called the National Football League. He also excelled in such diverse sports as basketball, boxing, lacrosse, swimming, and hockey. Later yearsThorpe fell on hard times and was often unable to find work in the later years of his life. In fact, his inability to adjust to any work outside sports reduced him to near poverty. In 1950 American sports writers and broadcasters selected Jim Thorpe as the greatest American athlete and the greatest football player of the first half of the 20th century. DeathThorpe died in Lomita, California, on March 28, 1953. From 1955 onward, the Jim Thorpe Trophy was awarded annually to the most valuable player in the National Football League. The International Olympic Committee returned his Olympic gold medals to Thorpe's family in 1983 after declaring that he should have been considered an amateur during the Olympic Games. |