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Justice for Thorpe All Daughter Asks

By Bob Addie
Washington Post Staff Writer

There is a woman on Capitol Hill, Grace Thorpe, seeking justice for a part Indian once known as Bright Path but more familiar as Jim Thorpe.

Grace Thorpe is Jim's daughter. She is an intern with the Senate Subcommittee on Indian Affairs in the office of Sen. James G. Abourezk (D-S.D.).

Several senators recently drafted a resolution urging the Amateur Athletic Union restore to the late Thorpe the status of amateur athlete and that the International Olympic Committee "officially recognize the achievements of said Jim Thorpe during the 1912 Olympic Games."

"What we're trying to do," said his daughter, "is get back Dad's amateur status from 1909 to 1912. He did become a professional athlete in 1913."

Thorpe was one of twin sons (his brother died at nine) born to an Indian-Irish father and a mother who was the granddaughter of the famed Chippewa, Black Hawk, in the Oklahoma Territory in 1888. It was his mother who gave him his Indian name of "Bright Path" because of his early athletic achievements.

Thorpe was sent to the Carlisle Institute in Carlisle, Pa., then an Indian school that took in children from the first grade right through college.

Thorpe high-jumped six feet the first time he ever tried the event. He could long-jump 23 feet and was equally proficient at football, archery, swimming, baseball, hockey, rifle shooting, canoeing, basketball, lacrosse, squash, handball and horsemanship.

He was a football star at Carlisle when coach Glenn (Pop) Warner urged him to try out for the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden. Thorpe won the pentathlon, capturing four of the five events and finishing third in the other. He also won the decathlon, scoring 8,412 points out of a possible 10,000.

King Gustav of Sweden called Thorpe "the greatest athlete in the world," and both the king and Czar Nicholas of Russia gave Thorpe jeweled trophies.

A month later, Thorpe was charged with being a professional because he had played pro baseball with the Rocky Mount Club in the Eastern Carolina League for $60 a month during the summer.

"The stripped Dad of all his medals," said his daughter. "He immediately returned all his Olympic trophies and they were awarded to H. K. Wieslander of Sweden, Dad's nearest competitor. But Wieslander was a real sportsman. He never opened the box and sent the trophies back to the U.S., with the comment: "I didn't win the Olympic championship. James Thorpe won it. I don't know about your American rules but I do know that Thorpe is the greatest athlete in the world.'

[[2 images]]
By James K. W. Atherton-The Washington Post
[[Caption]] At left, Grace Thorpe works at her desk in office of Sen. James G. Abourezk (D-S.D.). At right, she is shown as a child with her famed father, who in 1950 was named "greatest athlete of the half-century." He died in 1953.[[/Caption]]

"Now Dad received many honors when he was alive. He was among the first inductees in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and he was named the greatest athlete of the half-century in 1950. But he once told me: 'That gesture by Wieslander was the greatest thrill of my life. I knew then in my heart that I deserved the medals.'

"By the way, everybody talked in the 1972 Olympics about the extraordinary feat of Mark Spitz in winning seven gold medals. For the record, Dad won eight but they were expunged from the book. We're not seeking the return of the medals-at least not now. We want to restore Dad's amateur standing and clear his name. That's the purpose of the resolution and I wish people would write in to members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (to which the resolution has been referred) in support of it."

Grace Thorpe said she never realized how famous her father was until he died in 1953, at the age of 64, after a heart attack: "The family received a telegram from President Eisenhower," she remembers, "and Dad's enormous popularity and fame must have hit me for the first time."

"I'm determined to fight for Dad's reputation until his records are restored. I'm getting great training here. I recently received my para-legal degree from Antioch (Ohio) College and I'm having a great time in Washington.

This is where all the action is. I'm doing things that will affect American Indians 50 years from now. "I hope it won't take that long for Jim Thorpe's name to be cleared."

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