By: Valery Warner and Laila Schwin
November 11, 2021
James (Jim) Francis Thorpe was the first Native American in the United States to win an Olympic gold medal. He was a member of the Sac and Fox Nation, specifically a Sauk community, and lived on their native territory in what is now the state of Oklahoma. His given name at birth was Wa-Tho-Huk, which translates to “Bright Path”. Thorpe’s birth date is unknown as he never had a birth certificate, but it is widely believed that his birthday was either May 22 or 28, 1887.
Thorpe spent nearly his whole life boasting an extensive and successful athletic career in various sports. These sports included both college and professional football, basketball, baseball, and track and field. His most notable success was his participation in the 1912 Summer Olympics, during which he won gold medals for both the pentathlon and decathlon.
Thorpe started out his lifetime of athletic achievements at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where in 1907, he joined the school’s track team. He later went on to join the football team at the school where he excelled. Between all of this, he also played baseball, lacrosse, and participated in competitive ballroom dancing. After his time in the Olympics, Thorpe signed with the New York Giants (now known as the San Francisco Giants) and played baseball on the team from 1913-1919. In 1915, he also joined the Canton Bulldogs football team, helping them win three championships. Later on, he would play with six different NFL teams. Throughout this, he continued to be a part of various different professional baseball teams such as the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Braves (now the Atlanta Braves).
Thorpe’s athletic career hit a low point in January of 1913 when he was retroactively stripped of his amateur status and both of his Olympic medals. There were strict rules around the Olympics at the time, dictating that all athletes had to hold an amateur status, not having played on any professional or paid sports teams prior to the Olympics. The removal of his medals was widely considered to be a potential act of discrimination against Thorpe as the AAU and IOC broke their own rules to strip Thorpe of his medals. A formal protest had to be made within 30 days of the closing ceremony of the Olympics to hold any value. However, this was still used against Thorpe over six months after that deadline had passed.
Thorpe eventually had his Olympic medals reinstated on January 18, 1983. Given that Thorpe passed away nearly 30 years before this, the medals were reinstated to two of his children, but he was recognized as a co-medalist for both events despite being the sole winner.
Throughout his life, Thorpe was married three times and had a total of eight children. He married his first wife Iva Miller in 1913. They had four children: James, Gale, Charlotte, and Frances. Marriage number one ended in divorce in 1925. In 1926, Thorpe married his second wife, Freeda Verona Kirkpatrick. Together, they had four sons: Phillip, William, Richard, and John. Marriage number two ended in divorce in 1941. In 1945, Thorpe married Patricia Gladys Askew who he was with until his death in 1953.
Upon Thorpe’s death on March 28, 1953, his wife sold his remains to a small town in Pennsylvania in exchange for having the town renamed after Thorpe. The town is now known as Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, where his body still currently remains. Through the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, there have been several legal battles, brought on by Thorpe’s children, throughout the years to allow Thorpe’s body to be brought back to his tribe and land in Oklahoma, although none have been successful thus far.
Overall, Jim Thorpe has left a lasting legacy for both himself and his tribe through his outstanding athletic career and legacy that many consider to be the best, all-around athlete of the 20th century or perhaps of all time.
{Information for this article was retrieved from Biography.com and Wikipedia.}
THE RETURN OF THE EYE 