Jim Thorpe
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Who Was Jim Thorpe?
An All-American in football at the Carlisle Indian School, Jim Thorpe won the pentathlon and decathlon at the Olympics before his gold medals were revoked on a technicality. Thorpe played professional baseball and football, and sought an acting career after retiring from sports.
Early Years and Schools
Jim Thorpe was born circa May 28, , near current-day Prague, Oklahoma. A child of Sac and Fox and Potawatomi Indian bloodlines, as well as French and Irish roots, he was given the name Wa-Tho-Huk, meaning "Bright Path," but christened Jacobus Franciscus Thorpe.
Thorpe learned to hunt and trap prey at an early age, developing his legendary endurance via extensive excursions through Indian Territory. His aversion to the classroom was exacerbated by the early deaths of his twin brother and both parents, and his stints at the Haskell Institute in Kansas, the local Garden Grove school and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania were marked by long bouts of truancy.
As a student at Carlisle in the spring of , Thorpe joined a track-and-field practice session on campus. Clad in his work clothes, he launched himself over
Date of Birth
- Jim Thorpe was born on May 28th in Pattawatomie County, Oklahoma. His father's name was Hiram who was a very good athlete in his time and his mother's name was Charlotte. He also had a twin brother named Charlie, but he died at a young age.
- Jim Thorpe grew up living in an American tribe called Sauk and Fox with his family. He learned to farm and ride ponies with his brother.
- While Thorpe was a student at Carlisle he joined the track and field practice sessions where he soon broke the school record for high jump which was 5'9''. He was later successful in baseball, hockey, lacrosse, and ball room dancing as well.
- Wins a gold medal in the pentathlon and another gold medal in the decathlon at the Olympic games which took place in Stockholm, Sweeden.
- He was a football player, track and field athlete, and baseball player. He played professional sports until age He could of kept playing, but the Great Depression was the reason it came to an end.
- Thorpe is one of two men to play for the New York Giants on two different sports, baseball and football. He was an outfielder for baseball and a running back for
Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe
Jane Leavy, author of The Big Fella and KoufaxThe art of the biographer requires a jeweler’s eye, and a birder’s ear; the tenacity of a cold-case detective, and the curiosity of the great explorers. Also, compassion for the subjects upon whom he sets his indefatigable sights. Athletes, coaches, presidents, fathers, David Maraniss does them all justice. None of his subjects deserves that more than Jim Thorpe, the great Olympic champion, who was anointed America’s greatest athlete by a country that denied him, and his indigenous people, citizenship. In “Path Lit by Lightning” Maraniss rescues him from myth and prejudice, restoring something far more consequential than the Olympic medals stolen from him by small men — his humanity. This is another masterpiece from the master.
Jonathan Eig, author Luckiest Man, Opening DayPath Lit By Lightning is a flat-out masterpiece. The story of Jim Thorpe, one of America&#;s greatest and most misunderstood heroes, is told in riveting detail by David Maraniss, one of our greatest biographers. The result is a portrait as powerful, dazzling, and nuanced as Thorpe himself.
Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe
A biography of America’s greatest all-around athlete that “goes beyond the myth and into the guts of Thorpe’s life, using extensive research, historical nuance, and bittersweet honesty” (Los Angeles Times), by the bestselling author of the classic biography When Pride Still Mattered.
Jim Thorpe rose to world fame as a mythic talent who excelled at every sport. Most famously, he won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the Stockholm Olympics. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, he was an All-American football player at the Carlisle Indian School, the star of the first class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and played major league baseball for John McGraw’s New York Giants. Even in a golden age of sports celebrities, he was one of a kind.
But despite his awesome talent, Thorpe’s life was a struggle against the odds. At Carlisle, he faced the racist assimilationist philosophy “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” His gold medals were unfairly rescinded because he had played minor league baseball, and his supposed allies turned away from him when their own reputations were at risk. His later life was troubled by alcoh
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