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A2-Sunday Patriot-News, Harrisburg, Pa., May 11, 1969
Jaycees Offer Petitions at 3 Sites
Hundreds in Carlisle Sign Up To Clear Jim Thorpe Record
By Gary Willhide
Of The Sunday Patriot-News
CARLISLE - Hundreds of Carlislers scratched their names on petitions here yesterday, asking the United States Olympic Committee to restore "rightful recognition" to the late Jim Thorpe, the "super athlete" of Carlisle Indian School.
Early signers at booths set up on the square received copies of a souvenir booklet autographed by Thorpe's daughter, Miss Grace Thorpe, who was guest of honor for the celebration.
Members of the Carlisle Jaycees, sponsor of Project Jim Thorpe Day, manned petition tables in downtown Carlisle and at the MJ Mall and Carlisle Plaza, soliciting signatures.
The petition asks the U.S. Olympic Committee to request the International Olympic Committee to hold an "extraordinary hearing to review the findings of the International Olympic Committee of 1912" which stripped Thorpe of the medals and trophies he won at the games in Stockhlom.
The 1912 decision was based on a finding that Thorp had earlier received "fees" for playing minor league baseball, which was called an abdication of his amateur standing.
Historians have since claimed that Thorpe received only his expenses.
In addition, it is believed that no type of hearing was held to give Thorpe an opportunity to defend the charges against him.
Thorpe, who started his athletic career at the Carlisle Indian School here, was described by his daughter yesterday as a "modest, unassuming man."
Miss Thorpe, now a resident of Phoenix, Ariz., said her father never pressed the issue.
"I guess the sense of achievements was enough award for him," she said.
Miss Thorpe related a conversation she had had with her father not long before his death. She asked him how he had felt back in 1912 when his trophies were taken away from him. She said he smiled, shrugged his shoulders and told her:
"Everyone else was a lot more concerned than I was. What do I care for honors or awards? I would have liked to keep the trophies, though."
Miss Thorpe added:
"Competing athletes knew Dad won the events. The whole world knew who was the only man to win both the decathlon and the pentathlon in the same year. Most important of all, Dad knew that he did it!"
But those with a sense of justice and history now want to "set things straight."
The Jaycees conducted exhaustive research and can reach only one conclusion: Jim Thorpe's conduct was not "improper" and that, in fact, "his conduct did not vary from contemporary standards."
But 57 years have gone by and getting the trophies back would be "impossible," according to Avery Brundage, chairman of the Olympic Committee.
In a telegram, Brundage told the Jaycees that medals were given to second place winners and that it would be "impossible to return them."
That will be, he said, to seek, first, the restoration of Thorpe as an amateur during the 1912 Olympics.
It may not be possible to get the actual trophies back, it was pointed out, but it is possible to have Thorpe's records entered into the record books. And it will be possible for the Olympic to honor Thorpe in some "rightful" way.
Gus Welsh,  a teammate of Thorpe at the Indian School who was also in Carlisle for the weekend festivities, described his companion as having the "biggest heart anyone I ever knew. He was always willing to help the newcomers, always cooperative."
Both Welsh and Miss Thorpe spoke to audiences which attended showings last night of a full length movie on Thorpe at Carlisle Senior High School Auditorium.
Jaycees officials said they would make public the total number of petitions signed early this week, after they are tabulated.
The petition summed the feeling of the day in Carlisle:
"That there may be restored to him (Thorpe) and to his heirs and his people and his country the rightful recognition which hi singularly and valiantly achieved, that the honor and glory of his achievements may reside in the land of which he was a true native."

[picture]
~Sunday Patriot-News Photo
Soliciting Signatures for Petitions
Miss Grace Thorpe, seated, daughter of the late Jim Thorpe, autographs souvenirs for Carlisle residents yesterday at a booth on the square as part of the Project Jim Thorpe Day. Observing the activities behind Miss Thorpe are Michael Sheaffer, left, project chairman for sponsoring Jaycees, and Gus Welsh, of Bedford, onetime teammate of Thorpe's and best man at the athlete's wedding.