Jim Thorpe - Amazing Athlete

James Francis Thorpe (Meskwaki: Wa-Tho-Huk; May 22 or 28, 1887 – March 28, 1953) was an American athlete who won Olympic gold medals and played professional football, baseball, and basketball. A citizen of the Sac and Fox Nation, Thorpe was the first Native American to win a gold medal for the United States in the Olympics. Considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports, he won two Olympic gold medals in the 1912 Summer Olympics (one in classic pentathlon and the other in decathlon).

He lost his Olympic titles after it was found he had been paid for playing two seasons of semi-professional baseball before competing in the Olympics, thus violating the contemporary amateurism rules. In 1983, 30 years after his death, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) restored his Olympic medals with replicas, after ruling that the decision to strip him of his medals fell outside of the required 30 days. Official IOC records still listed Thorpe as co-champion in decathlon and pentathlon until 2022, when it was decided to restore him as the sole champion in both events.

Thorpe grew up in the Sac and Fox Nation in Indian Territory (what is now the U.S. state of Oklahoma). As a youth, he attended Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he was a three-time All-American for the school's football team under coach Pop Warner. After his Olympic success in 1912, which included a record score in the decathlon, he added a victory in the All-Around Championship of the Amateur Athletic Union. Later in 1913, Thorpe signed with the New York Giants, and he played six seasons in Major League Baseball between 1913 and 1919. Thorpe joined the Canton Bulldogs American football team in 1915, helping them win three professional championships. He later played for six teams in the National Football League (NFL). 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, which became the NFL in 1922. He played professional sports until age 41, the end of his sports career coinciding with the start of the Great Depression. He struggled to earn a living after that, working several odd jobs. He suffered from alcoholism, and lived his last years in failing health and poverty. He was married three times and had eight children, including Grace Thorpe, an environmentalist and Native rights activist, before suffering from heart failure and dying in 1953.

Thorpe has received numerous accolades for his athletic accomplishments. The Associated Press ranked him as the "greatest athlete" from the first 50 years of the 20th century, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame inducted him as part of its inaugural class in 1963. The town of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, was named in his honor. It has a monument site that contains his remains, which were the subject of legal action. Thorpe appeared in several films and was portrayed by Burt Lancaster in the 1951 film Jim Thorpe – All-American.

1897 Football Team

1899 Football Team photo of the Carlisle Indian football team, who were going to play the Cal Berkeley in California in 1899. Sorry about the quality of the photo, it is on newsprint paper from the San Francisco Examiner newspaper. That’s Pop Warner, in the back row, far right

 

The 1899 team played against the University of California to decide the East - West Championship, this was the first East - West game ever. Accompanied by Warner, Thompson, and Connors, the Indians journeyed to San Francisco, and after a real battle, came out victors, with a final score of 2 - 0. On their way home, which was a really a recruiting trip for Pop, they stopped at Phoenix Az., to defeat the Indian School there, 104 - 0. Eleven men and three substitutes made the trip. The game with California was played on a sandy plot of ground, and a heated dispute arose over the type of ball to be used. The Californians refused to play with the regulation ball agreed upon earlier. The Californians used every dirty trick in the book to try to beat Carlisle, but nothing worked. Isaac Seneca was chosen by Walter Camp as All - American back and was numbered among the first to be selected by Camp from teams outside the biggest eastern colleges

 

1902 Carlisle Football Team
 
The Carlisle Indians football team entertained and kept captivated the entire nation for 22 glorious years . Royalty, Presidents, and heads of state came to witness - to see the World famous Indian Team.
During those trendsetting coming out years in the infancy of big football, Carlisle had a succession of worldly athletes and football players, track athletes, baseball players who lit up the sports skyway.
Here is a complete list of the Quarterbacks from 1895 and on

 

               

 

Foster Charles is the only known Paiute (Shivwits-Utah) tribal member to ever play with & star for the Carlisle Indians Football Team. He primarily played in 1902 and was a star running back while the 1st string right halfback was out for injuries.

 

George Bent (Cheyenne) attended Carlisle from 1895-1896

James Thorpe, Henry Roberts, Clifford Taylor, Stansil Powell, Joel Wheelock, Bruce Groesbeck..1912 Carlisle Indians Basketball Team

 

 

1919 Canton Bulldogs with Thorpe, Guyon, Calac

 

Pete Calac (Rincon Luiseno) 1892-1968
Origin - Southern California
Former school attendance- Sherman Indian School, Carlisle Indian School.
Football career ;
Canton Bulldogs
Cleveland Indians
Union Quakers
Washington Senators
Oorang Indians
Buffalo Bisons

---