54 Fun Facts About Jim Thorpe

Jim Thorpe was a citizen of which Native American nation?

Sac and Fox is the nation Thorpe belonged to through his father Hiram, whose people had been moved from the Great Lakes region to Indian Territory in the 19th century.

Which future Second World War general competed for the United States at the same 1912 Olympics as Thorpe?

George S. Patton, then a young Army officer, placed fifth in a new five-sport military contest; he blamed his poor pistol score on bullets passing through holes his earlier shots had made.

Which position did Thorpe mainly play in his six seasons of major-league baseball?

Outfielder was his usual spot, though he spent much of his time on the bench; his best season at the plate was his last, in 1919.

Why was Thorpe stripped of his Olympic titles in 1913?

He was paid to play baseball in a minor league before the Games; other college men did the same under false names, as he pointed out in his plea, but he had used his own.

Why did the IOC rule in 1982 that Thorpe's 1913 disqualification was invalid?

The protest came months too late: the 1912 rules allowed 30 days to challenge a result, and the charge surfaced in January 1913, half a year after the Games; his children received replica medals in 1983.

In 2022 the IOC changed Thorpe's status in its records from what to what?

From co-champion to sole champion: the IOC made the change in July 2022 once the national Olympic committees of both runners-up agreed, a gesture of fair play in its president's words.

Thorpe was born in Indian Territory, in what is now which US state?

Oklahoma was still Indian Territory when Thorpe was born, two decades before statehood; no birth certificate survives, so accounts give both 1887 and 1888 as the year.

Thorpe's Sauk name, Wa-Tho-Huk, is usually translated as what?

Bright Path is the usual short form; the fuller sense, the path that lightning makes across the sky, gave David Maraniss the title of his 2022 biography, Path Lit by Lightning.

What happened to Thorpe's twin brother Charlie?

He died of pneumonia in childhood, at eight or nine by different accounts; Jim then ran away from school so often that his father sent him to a boarding school in Kansas.

What did Thorpe do almost single-handedly in Carlisle's 1909 track meet against Lafayette?

Won six of the events, from the hurdles to the shot put and discus; his coach routinely entered him in six or seven events a meet, which made him close to a one-man track team.

Who coached Thorpe at Carlisle?

Pop Warner coached him in both football and track, and in 1911 talked him into returning to Carlisle after two years away, which set up his All-America seasons and the Olympics.

How did Thorpe first catch attention at Carlisle?

He beat the high jumpers in street clothes: passing the track in 1907, he cleared 5 ft 9 in on a whim, a school record, and was put on the team.

Besides football and track, Thorpe won a 1912 intercollegiate championship in which unlikely activity?

Ballroom dancing was his 1912 intercollegiate title; at Carlisle he also played lacrosse, tennis, handball and baseball and boxed.

In 1911 Thorpe kicked all four field goals in Carlisle's 18-15 upset of which powerhouse?

Harvard fell 18-15 in its own stadium to Thorpe's four field goals, one of college football's great upsets; a week later Carlisle lost its only game of 1911, by a single point, to Syracuse.

Which future US president played football against Thorpe's Carlisle team in 1912?

Dwight D. Eisenhower, an Army halfback, tried to tackle Thorpe that day; in 1961 he recalled him as a man who could do anything better than any other football player he ever saw.

What almost kept Thorpe from seeing the 1932 Olympics?

The price of a ticket was beyond him in the Depression, two decades after his own victories; once word got out, he was invited to watch as an official guest.

Which poet taught Thorpe at Carlisle and recalled his "ease in his gait"?

Marianne Moore, then a young Bryn Mawr graduate, taught typing and bookkeeping at Carlisle; she remembered Thorpe in the football lineup as "the epitome of concentration".

The 1912 Olympic pentathlon consisted of long jump, javelin, discus, a 200 m sprint and which fifth event?

1500 m run closed the competition, and Thorpe won it; he took four of the five events and was third in the javelin, which he had first thrown only that year.

Which of Thorpe's 1912 Olympic teammates later became president of the IOC?

Avery Brundage trailed far behind Thorpe in the pentathlon and failed to finish the decathlon; as IOC president from 1952 he blocked efforts to restore his old teammate's titles.

How did runner-up Hugo Wieslander regard the decathlon gold he was handed after Thorpe's disqualification?

As rightfully Thorpe's: Wieslander, beaten by 688 points, always said the American was the only true champion, and his family later confirmed he had never accepted the medal as his own.

Before his record-setting 1912 Olympic win, what was Thorpe's history in the decathlon?

He had never contested one: the 1912 Olympic decathlon was the first and only one of his life, and he made the team without a trial, picked on the strength of his pentathlon form.

What was on Thorpe's feet when he won the 1912 decathlon?

A mismatched pair, one from a trash can, is the usual telling of what he found when his own shoes vanished before the second day; either way he won two of that day's events in them.

Which monarch reportedly told Thorpe, "You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world"?

King Gustav V of Sweden said it while handing Thorpe his prizes; the famous reply, "Thanks, King", is only reputed and may be embroidery.

The challenge prize for Thorpe's decathlon win had been donated by which ruler?

Czar Nicholas II of Russia gave the decathlon challenge prize, as the Games' official report lists; Thorpe had to send it back with his medals in 1913.

On his return from the 1912 Olympics, Thorpe was the star of what kind of New York celebration?

A ticker-tape parade up Broadway greeted the returning Olympic team; Thorpe recalled hearing people yell his name and said, "I couldn't realize how one fellow could have so many friends."

Weeks after the Olympics, Thorpe broke Martin Sheridan's record to win which title at Celtic Park in New York?

AAU All-Around Championship, the American forerunner of the decathlon, fell to Thorpe with a record 7,476 points; it proved to be his last track meet, as he was ruled a professional months later.

Why did Thorpe's widow look beyond his home state for a place to bury him?

The governor vetoed memorial funds that local officials had sought for a monument, so his widow made a deal with two Pennsylvania towns willing to build one and take his name.

Which famous director cast Thorpe in one of his last film parts, in 1950?

John Ford gave him a small part in Wagon Master near the end of his screen career; a year later Hollywood put Thorpe's own life story on the screen.

Thorpe told the AAU he was "simply an Indian schoolboy" who did what?

Did not know that he was doing wrong, he wrote, adding that he had done what several other college men had done, except that they had not used their own names.

With which Major League Baseball team did Thorpe sign in 1913?

New York Giants, the reigning National League champions, beat out rival clubs to sign him in February 1913, then used him in only 19 games that season.

What took Thorpe before the Pope in Rome and King George V in London in early 1914?

A baseball world tour: two big-league clubs played their way around the globe that winter with Thorpe as the star attraction, and he brought his new bride along.

Thorpe drove in the only run of a famous 1917 game in which both pitchers had done what for nine innings?

Allowed no hits: Hippo Vaughn then lost in the tenth, when Thorpe's hit brought the run home, while Fred Toney held on to complete a ten-inning no-hitter.

Which pitch gave Thorpe so much trouble that he hit only .252 in six major-league seasons?

The curveball beat him: "I can't seem to hit curves," he admitted, sure he could bat .300 otherwise, though in his final season, 1919, he did hit .327 for Boston.

Which Ohio football team signed Thorpe in 1915 at a then-enormous wage per game?

Canton Bulldogs manager Jack Cusack signed him just before the 1915 series with arch-rival Massillon, betting his fame would fill the stands; it did, and the team claimed titles in 1916, 1917 and 1919.

What did Thorpe often do at halftime to show off for pro football crowds?

Kicked field goals from midfield: he would place-kick one through the posts from the 50-yard line, then turn and drop-kick another through the opposite goal.

Thorpe was nominally the first president of which organisation, formed in 1920?

American Professional Football Association owners made Thorpe president in 1920 for his famous name, though he kept playing rather than running it; Joseph Carr replaced him in 1921, and the league became the NFL in 1922.

Which all-Native American NFL team, named for a dog kennel, did Thorpe lead in 1922 and 1923?

Oorang Indians were bankrolled by Walter Lingo to advertise his Oorang Airedale kennels in La Rue, Ohio, so Thorpe and his players put on shows with the dogs at halftime; the team won only four NFL games.

A ticket found in an old book in 2005 revealed that Thorpe had also played which sport professionally?

Basketball: the ticket was for his barnstorming World Famous Indians of La Rue, Ohio, a touring team of the late 1920s that most of his biographers had never heard of.

Who played Thorpe in the 1951 biopic Jim Thorpe – All-American?

Burt Lancaster starred for director Michael Curtiz, while Thorpe himself, hired as technical adviser, slipped into one scene as an uncredited coaching assistant.

In his Depression-era film work, Thorpe mostly played what kind of role?

American Indians in Westerns were his usual parts in about 70 films between 1931 and 1950; the man once called the world's greatest athlete worked mostly as an extra and bit player.

When Thorpe was hospitalised for lip cancer in 1951, how was he admitted?

As a charity case: his wife Patricia told reporters, "We're broke ... Jim has nothing but his name and his memories", adding that he had spent his money on his own people and given it away.

In 1950 an Associated Press poll of sportswriters named Thorpe the greatest athlete of what?

The first half of the 20th century: sportswriters and broadcasters gave Thorpe the title in 1950, while his Olympic wins were still struck from the books, and also voted him the half-century's best football player.

Thorpe was a charter member, in 1963, of which sports hall of fame?

Pro Football Hall of Fame put Thorpe in its first class when it opened in 1963; by its own account, his mere presence had moved the pro game a giant step forward in public esteem.

Which two Pennsylvania boroughs merged in 1954 and renamed themselves after Thorpe?

Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk merged in 1954 under a deal with Thorpe's widow, who brought his body to a place he had never set foot in; the towns hoped his name would draw tourists.

What did Thorpe's son Jack demand when he sued the Pennsylvania borough of Jim Thorpe in 2010?

His father's body for reburial on tribal land was the aim of the suit, brought under a law on returning Native remains; an appeals court ruled in 2014 that a town is not a museum, so Thorpe stays put.

The Jim Thorpe Award, given since 1986, honours the best college player at which position?

Defensive back fits because Thorpe, best known for running and kicking, also starred on defence in an era when players stayed on the field both ways; Baylor's Thomas Everett won the first award in 1986.

Which honour was Thorpe awarded posthumously in 2024?

Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest US civilian honour, went to Thorpe in May 2024; the White House called him the country's original multi-sport superstar, who broke down barriers on and off the field.

How much per game did his new Ohio football team pay Thorpe in 1915?

$250 a game, a princely sum in 1915, bought the sport's biggest gate attraction; the crowds he drew helped his club claim titles in 1916, 1917 and 1919.

Who in the NFL received the Jim Thorpe Trophy each year from 1955?

The most valuable player received the Jim Thorpe Trophy from 1955, two years after Thorpe's death, and uniquely among the league's MVP awards the winner was chosen by a poll of the players themselves.

Which swimmer won Olympic gold in 1912 as Thorpe's teammate on the US team?

Duke Kahanamoku, the Hawaiian later famed for spreading surfing, sailed to the Games on the same liner as Thorpe and won the 100 m freestyle.

Used mostly off the bench in his first big-league season, Thorpe said he felt like what?

A sitting hen, "not a ballplayer", was his phrase: his club had signed the Olympic hero partly as a gate attraction and gave him only 35 at-bats in 1913.

Which president proclaimed a national "Jim Thorpe Day" twenty years after the athlete's death?

Richard Nixon proclaimed 16 April 1973 Jim Thorpe Day, calling him a noble American; that same year the AAU restored the amateur status it had stripped from him six decades earlier.

Which branch of service did Thorpe briefly join in 1945 during World War II?

The Merchant Marine took him in 1945 although he was well past enlistment age, and he served aboard an ammunition ship; it was one of many jobs he held after sport, from bar bouncer to ditch digger.

Whose votes made Thorpe ABC's Athlete of the Century in a poll that closed in January 2000?

Sports fans picked him from 15 finalists including Ali, Pelé, Ruth and Jordan, though ESPN's panel of experts had just ranked him only seventh among the century's North American athletes.