Thank you for your kindness, support and appreciation of the goodness in the world. I will celebrate the birth of a child; Jesus, grandchildren, and the children of everyone I know… I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and ask people to take kindness in to 2023 Repeat the sounding joy... Native American Jim Thorpe became a national hero when he triumphed at the 1912 Olympics, winning gold in the decathlon with a score that remained unbeaten for decades. He won two Olympic gold medals in the 1912 Summer Olympics (one in classic pentathlon and the other in decathlon). Even more remarkably, because someone had stolen his shoes just before he was due to compete, he found a mismatched pair of replacements, including one from a trash can, and won the gold medal wearing them. One shoe was 3 sizes too big, so he wore three socks on that foot. To place his accomplishment in the proper context, no athlete has ever won both the decathlon and the pentathlon since. But when it was discovered that he'd played a few seasons of professional baseball, Olympic hardliners took away his medals. Thorpe later said, "I went to play baseball in North Carolina for a couple of summers and paid for it for the rest of my life. Thorpe wrote a letter requesting to avoid being sanctioned, in which he admitted playing professional baseball: I hope I will be partly excused by the fact that I was simply an Indian schoolboy and did not know all about such things. In fact, I did not know that I was doing wrong, because I was doing what I knew several other college men had done, except that they did not use their own names ... In college Thorpe began his athletic career at Carlisle in 1907 when he walked past the track and, still in street clothes, beat all the school's high jumpers with an impromptu 5-ft 9-in jump. His earliest recorded track and field results were recorded 1907. Jim also competed in football, baseball, lacrosse, and ballroom dancing, winning the 1912 intercollegiate ballroom dancing championship. This is the same year he won the national football championship for Carlisle. Jim Thorpe also played American football (collegiate and professional), professional baseball, and basketball. He had considered playing professional hockey, but ultimately did not. Professional football contests were tough and dangerous then, making the controversy over today's "helmet hits" look quaint by comparison. In 1904, more than 200 players were injured, and 21 were killed in the game. Officials changed the rules after the 1909 season, in which 36 fatalities were recorded. Thorpe was paid $2 a game, in a sport where people were killed every week. This is the equivalent of about $65 today. From 1913 through 1919, Thorpe was an outfielder for the New York, Cincinnati (Ohio), and Boston baseball teams in the National League. He was more successful as one of the early stars of American professional football from 1919 through 1926. Jim was a running back, defensive back, kicker and punter. He sealed one championship with a 95-yard punt. Thorpe played pro sports until the age of 41, when the Great Depression hit. Jim’s father, Hiram Thorpe was Irish, and his mother Charlotte Vieux was Potawatomi. Jim was raised as Sac and Fox native on a reservation in Oklahoma in the Roman Catholic religion. Jim was married 3 times, and had 8 children, (4 in each of his first 2 marriages). His life had its share of tragedies. His oldest son died of polio in Jim’s arms at age 3. Jim struggled with alcoholism at the end of his life and died at the age of 64, on March 28, 1953. This doesn’t diminish that Jim Thorpe was the best athlete in the world at one point in his life and one of the very best professional athletes ever. Grace Thorpe remained close to her father until Jim’s death. Grace Thorpe, born December 10, 1921, and died on April 1, 2008, was a World War II veteran, environmentalist, and Native rights activist. The story hasn’t ended. Jim Thorpe’s Olympic medals were restored 30 years after his death, (obviously a little late). Jim had one of the most bizarre funerals in history. Jim Thorpe had requested to be buried in Indian territory. However, Jim’s third wife, Patsy Thorpe pulled up to her husband’s in-progress Native American funeral service at a farm on the night of April 12, 1953, with a hearse and a highway patrolman. Patsy ordered the coffin loaded into the hearse, then drove away, tail lights disappearing into the darkness. Over the next several months, she shopped the body around, looking for a memorial for him and cash for her. Jim’s body wound up 1,340 miles away in the Poconos of Pennsylvania. Two tiny boroughs straddling a bend in the Lehigh River — Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk — agreed to unite under the name “Jim Thorpe '' in exchange for his corpse. One hundred years ago, the Sac and Fox athlete Wa-tha-sko-huk, whose name meant “Light After the Lightning,” a.k.a. Jacobus Franciscus Thorpe, became an American Colossus. Richard Thorpe, one of Jim’s two surviving children stated, “We want Dad back here in Indian Country. We want to finish that funeral.” Thanks for listening, Frank Every once in a while, you hear a song that just nails it.
4 Comments
|
AuthorFrank F. Weber is a forensic psychologist specializing in homicide and sexual and physical assault cases. He uses his unique understanding of how predator’s think, knowledge of victim trauma, actual court cases, and passion for writing true crime thrillers. His Award Winning books include "Murder Book" (2017) "The I-94 Murders" (2018) "Last Call" (2019) and "Lying Close" (September 2020). Archives
April 2024
Categories |