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JIM THORPE - "World's Greatest Athlete"

   James Francis Thorpe was born near Prague, Oklahoma, on May 28, 1888. He was 7/8 Sac and Fox Indian and 1/8 Irish, on his father's side. His mother called him "Bright Path", or Wa-Tho-Huck; his great ambition was so someday become "Chief Bright Path", but he became the world's greatest athlete instead.
   When Thorpe was 16 he became to the Carlisle Indian School. He wanted to study to be an electrician. Since the school did not have such a course, Jim switched to tailoring. Before long he was playing  football on the Tailor Eleven.
   Jim returned to Carlisle in 1907, after his father's illness, when he met Coach Glenn "Pop" Warner, who became the best friend Jim ever had. Coach Warner said that of all his teams, the team of 1907 was the greatest and that Jim Thorpe was the greatest athlete of all.
   Jim excelled not only in football. The next year he won first place in high jump, broad jump, hammer throw, and high and low hurdles-in intercollegiate meets at Harrisburg and Philadelphia.
   In 1911, Coach Warner started straining Jim for the Olympics which would be held in Stockholm, Sweden in 1912. During the three days of Olympic competition Jim won the decathlon and pentathlon--a performance no other athlete has ever equalled.
   Tall and strong, as quick as a flash and as powerful as a turbine engine, he seemed immune to injury. He was known to kick a football 70 yards and to dash with superhuman speed to catch it!
   Sportswriters and broadcasters voted Jim Thorpe the greatest United States athlete of the century. This wasn't hard to understand, for when he wasn't playing football, pitching baseball, or competing in track, he was playing lacrosse, tennis, or handball. Outdoors he rowed, swam, or skated, while indoors he exercised in the gymnasium.

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Image of Jim Thorpe

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