Most folks do not know much if anything about Jim Thorpe, one of the greatest athletes of all time. He was raised on an Indian Reservation in Oklahoma and educated at the Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, PA. Jim Thorpe became an all-around all-star athlete during the early years of the 20th Century. He starred in football, basketball, baseball, and track and field.
Once he and his single teammate, a long-distance runner, beat a college track team in a dual meet with Susquehanna College all by themselves. Thorpe took first place in every event except the mile and two-mile runs. His teammate won those events, and so that allowed second and third place to the other team in every event. The only event Thorpe and his teammate lost was the relay, which requires four runners.
Jim Thorpe went on to be a great professional athlete in both football and baseball, playing and starring on National Football and Major League Baseball teams. When the Olympic Games were revived in 1912 in Stockholm, Sweden, Thorpe not only made the team but won several evets. He was especially strong in the shotput and discus throw, winning first place in both. His specialty was the newly revived ten-event Decathlon. He won that event as well. Obviously, Jim Thorpe was the main event at the 1912 Olympic Games.
After the Olympics Thorpe played both professional baseball and football for a number of years, notably with the New York Giants. In 1953 the American Olympic Committee found out that before the Games Thorpe had played a couple of years of semi-professional baseball. Because this involved earning money as an athlete it made hm officially a “professional”. Therefore, the Committee stripped Thorpe of all his medals. Such rules have been reinterpreted in modern times, as with professional basketball players being allowed to play in the Olympics today. Eventually Thorpes First place medals were returned, but long after his death.
There was a film made in 1952, starring Burt Lancaster as Jim Thorpe, portraying Thorpe’s life and accomplishments. This followed the standard Hollywood practice of that time to have Native characters played by non-native actors. The only Native American actor of any repute at that time was one Jay Silverheels, who played Tonto in the Lone Ranger films. In those days it took a long time for Hollywood to catch up to the times. Even the “Negroes” in regular early vaudeville acts and films were played by white actors.
As all-time records go, Jim Thorpe was not the greatest athlete of color in any given sport or event. I’ve already written about Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson. Nevertheless, for his time, Thorpe was by far the greatest athlete of color the world has ever seen. Today, of course, athletes of color tend to dominate almost all professional sports. But for his time and place Jim Thorpe was by far the best American athlete of color. Indeed, even by any scale, Thorpe ranks right up there with the best. He truly was an “All-American”.