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”.

James Madison, Founding Father was in my view the real genius behind the birth of the United States of America. Not only was he the intellectual genius behind the idea of a new form of government, “real democracy”, but in addition, Madison was the youngest of all those who dreamed and put together what is known as the Constitution of the United States of America. Madison was only 25 years old in 1776 when America was born, and he led it through the early years of framing the first Constitution and forming a fresh form of democratic government.
James Madison is known as the “Father of our Constitution” because he initially called for the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. He attended every session of that Convention and took notes on every speech. He led the fight for its ratification in his native Virginia, co-authored The Federalist Papers, and shepherded the Bill of Rights through the first Congress, even though he was by far the youngest of the Founding Fathers.
Moreover, Madison formed working relationships with other leaders, such as Washington, Hamilton, and Jefferson and founded the first American political party, the ancestor of the Democratic Party. He married one of the very first politically-minded wives, Dolley Madison, pioneered political journalism, and was a student of popular opinion. More specifically, and importantly, Madison “invented” the two-party system and the check-and-balance understanding of Congressional politics centered in the three branches of government.
After winning the Presidency in 1809 Madison went on to guide America through the various difficulties and upsets leading up to the War of 1812. He was the last President to actually lead troops in battle. Near the close of his life Madison joined with Thomas Jefferson to fulfill the latter’s life-long dream of founding the first American University, the University of Virginia. Together they chose books for its library, planned its curriculum, and before he died Jefferson sent a “valedictory” letter to his friend, James Madison, saying in part:
“The friendship which has subsisted between us, now a half a century, and that harmony of our political principles and pursuits, have been sources for constant happiness to me through that long period…you have been a pillar of support through life. Take care of me when dead, and be sure that I shall leave you my last affections.” Madison died a few years later after trying to help the nation to which he had helped give birth struggle through the slavery issue. Neither he nor others could actually solve that puzzle until Lincoln appeared on the scene. It is, of course, clear that in in a deep sense we have yet to solve that puzzle.
After months, even years, of previous thought and study, Madison put together the outline of what we today know as “The Constitution of the United States of America.” It took months, even years to get the main ideas of this document ratified, but Madison and others persisted in getting it done. In essence, it was Madison’s creation, complete with the three parts of government and majority rule. This three-part “check and balance” system was essentially Madison’s brainchild and it has stood all these years as the centerpiece of our unique form of government.
For those who want to read further I strongly recommend the book James Madison by Richard Brookhiser. I have cherry-picked freely from it in the above remarks. I really do find James Madison to be an extremely remarkable person and the true “inventor” of the American Constitution.