Jim Thorpe

Background

Ethnicity: Thorpe was of Sac and Fox, Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Irish, and French ancestry.

James Francis Thorpe was born on May 28, 1888, near Prague in the Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, to Hiram Thorpe and Charlotte Vieux. His father was of Irish and Sac and Fox ancestry, while his mother was of Potawatomi and Kickapoo ancestry. Thorpe was raised on a farm with his twin brother, Charlie, who died during childhood. His mother died before he was a teenager, and his father died soon after Thorpe entered Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

Thorpe's childhood unfolded in the Sac and Fox community and in schools established for Native American students during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His Native American name, Wa-Tho-Huk, is commonly translated as "Bright Path." The combination of rural Oklahoma, Indigenous family background, and institutional schooling formed the setting for the athletic career that later made him internationally famous.

Education

Thorpe attended the Sac and Fox Indian Agency school in Stroud, Oklahoma, and later Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas, now Haskell Indian Nations University. Haskell was established in 1884 as a federal boarding school for American Indian students and later developed into a university serving Indigenous communities. Thorpe's athletic abilities became especially visible during this period, when he participated in several sports.

In 1904, at sixteen, Thorpe entered Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Carlisle was a federally operated institution founded in 1879 that combined academic instruction, vocational training, and organized athletics within an assimilationist boarding-school system. Under coach Glenn S. "Pop" Warner, Thorpe became a leading football and track athlete; after leaving in 1909, he returned in 1911 and remained associated with Carlisle during his most important collegiate athletic seasons.

Career

Thorpe first attracted national attention at Carlisle, where he developed into an exceptional football and track-and-field athlete under Glenn S. "Pop" Warner. In 1908 he helped Carlisle defeat the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1911 and 1912 he was selected as a consensus first-team All-American. Carlisle's victories over nationally prominent teams, including Harvard, Army, Georgetown, and Pittsburgh, made Thorpe one of the most celebrated college athletes of his era.

Before the 1912 Olympics, Thorpe played semiprofessional baseball in North Carolina during 1909 and 1910. He then returned to Carlisle and represented the United States at Stockholm in 1912, winning the pentathlon and decathlon and setting a decathlon world record. The Amateur Athletic Union and Olympic authorities later removed his medals after learning of his paid baseball appearances, although his medals and Olympic victories were restored posthumously. In 2022, the International Olympic Committee recognized Thorpe as the sole winner of both events.

Thorpe played Major League Baseball from 1913 to 1919 for the New York Giants, Cincinnati Reds, and Boston Braves. His six-season major-league career was followed by a longer professional football career. He joined the Canton Bulldogs in 1915, helped make the team a major attraction, and later played for the Cleveland Indians, Oorang Indians, Rock Island Independents, New York Giants, Canton Bulldogs, and Chicago Cardinals. In 1920 he became the first president of the American Professional Football Association, which was renamed the National Football League in 1922.

After leaving professional sports, Thorpe worked in motion pictures as an actor, extra, and technical adviser, appearing in more than sixty films between the early 1930s and 1950. During the Depression he also performed manual labor in California. He served in the Merchant Marine during the Second World War and in 1948 joined the recreation staff of the Chicago Park District. The Associated Press named him the greatest male athlete of the first half of the twentieth century in 1950, and he was elected a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963.

Achievements

• Thorpe won the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, becoming the first Native American athlete to win Olympic gold medals for the United States. His victories demonstrated exceptional versatility across running, jumping, throwing, and endurance events.

• Thorpe became one of the leading figures in the formation of professional American football. His play and celebrity helped attract audiences to the early professional game, while his presidency of the American Professional Football Association connected his name with the organization that became the National Football League.

• Thorpe was elected a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963. In 1982 and again in 2022, international Olympic authorities restored recognition of his 1912 pentathlon and decathlon victories.

Works

• book

  • Jim Thorpe's History of the Olympics

    (A history of the Olympic Games published under Thorpe's n...)

    1932

Religion

Thorpe was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church, and both of his parents were Roman Catholics. He continued to observe the faith during his adult life.

Roman Catholicism formed part of the Christian religious tradition that shaped many immigrant and Indigenous communities in the United States during Thorpe's lifetime. Its sacramental practices, parish institutions, and emphasis on family and moral responsibility provided the religious setting associated with his upbringing.

Views

Thorpe expressed a philosophy of sport centered on competition, individual effort, enjoyment, and endurance. He described track and field as an activity in which he could compete directly against others and said that he played or ran races for the pleasure of sport rather than solely for recognition.

His career also reflected a broad conception of athletic ability. He repeatedly tested himself across football, baseball, track and field, basketball, hockey, boxing, tennis, and other sports, becoming known for versatility rather than specialization.

Quotations: "Track and field, because it was something I could do by myself, one-on-one, me against everybody else."

"I have always liked sport and only played or run races for the fun of the thing."

"I never was content unless I was trying my skill... or testing my endurance."

Membership

Thorpe served as the first president of the American Professional Football Association from 1920 to 1921. The association was formed by professional football clubs seeking a stable national structure and became the National Football League in 1922.

• First president.

  American Professional Football Association (now National Football League) , United States

  1920 - 1921

Personality

Contemporaries and later observers described Thorpe as naturally gifted, competitive, and capable of performing at a high level in many sports. His own statements emphasized enjoyment of competition, individual effort, and testing his skill and endurance.

Physical Characteristics: Thorpe was approximately 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighed about 202 pounds.

Quotes from others about the person

• At the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, King Gustaf V of Sweden told Thorpe, "You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world." Dwight D. Eisenhower later recalled Thorpe as exceptionally endowed athletically and said that he could do more on a football field than any player Eisenhower had seen.

Interests

• Motion pictures and acting.

• Sport & Clubs

  Football, baseball, track and field, basketball, hockey, boxing, tennis, and other competitive sports.

Connections

Thorpe married Iva M. Miller in 1913; they had four children, Gail Margaret, James F., Charlotte Marie, and Grace Frances, before divorcing in 1925. He married Freeda Verona Kirkpatrick in 1926, and they had four sons, Carl Phillip, William K., Richard A., and John R. "Jack"; Kirkpatrick divorced him in 1941. Thorpe married Patricia Gladys Evelyn Askew, formerly Patricia Woodbury, on June 2, 1945, and remained married to her until his death.

Thorpe's family later participated in efforts to restore his Olympic status and preserve his legacy. He died of a heart attack in Lomita, California, on March 28, 1953, and was buried in the Pennsylvania community that bears his name.

Father:

Hiram Thorpe

Thorpe's father, of Irish and Sac and Fox ancestry; he died in 1904.

Mother:

Charlotte Vieux

Thorpe's mother, of Potawatomi and Kickapoo ancestry.

Spouse:

Patricia Gladys Evelyn Askew Woodbury

Thorpe's third wife, whom he married in 1945.

Son:

John R. Thorpe

Born in 1937 and died in 2011.

Son:

Carl Phillip Thorpe

Born in 1927 and died in 1986.

Son:

Richard A. Thorpe

Daughter:

Gail Margaret Thorpe

Born in 1917 and died in 2005.

Son:

James F. Thorpe

Born in 1915 and died in 1918.

Son:

William K. Thorpe

Daughter:

Grace Frances Thorpe

Born in 1921 and died in 2008.

Daughter:

Charlotte Marie Thorpe

Born in 1919 and died in 1998.

ex-spouse:

Iva M. Miller

Thorpe's first wife; they married in 1913 and divorced in 1925.

ex-spouse:

Freeda Verona Kirkpatrick

Thorpe's second wife; they married in 1926 and divorced in 1941.

References

• Jim Thorpe: Original All-American A biography of Jim Thorpe by Joseph Bruchac, presenting his athletic career and Native American background for young readers.
  2006
• Jim Thorpe: Greatest Athlete in the World A biographical account of Thorpe's Olympic achievements, professional sports career, and place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
  2007
• Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team Steve Sheinkin's history of Thorpe, Pop Warner, and the Carlisle Indian School football team.
  2017
• Jim Thorpe: Olympic Champion A biography describing Thorpe's Olympic medals and his achievements in professional football and baseball.
  1983
• Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe Kate Buford's extensively researched biography of Thorpe's life, Native American background, Olympic success, professional football, and professional baseball.
  2010
• Jim Thorpe's Bright Path Joseph Bruchac's biography focuses on Thorpe's childhood, education, Native American heritage, and rise to Olympic prominence.
  2004
• Jim Thorpe: World's Greatest Athlete Robert W. Wheeler's biography of Thorpe and his athletic career.
  1979
• Jim Thorpe | Pro Football Hall of Fame Institutional biography documenting Thorpe's professional football career, his role in the Canton Bulldogs, his presidency of the American Professional Football Association, and his 1963 Hall of Fame induction.
• Jim Thorpe | Team USA Hall of Fame Olympic and biographical reference documenting Thorpe's 1912 pentathlon and decathlon victories, education, family, professional baseball and football, and later honors.
• Jim Thorpe | USA Track & Field Athlete biography documenting Thorpe's track-and-field achievements, 1912 Olympic events, collegiate All-American status, and professional sports career.