Jim Thorpe
From Hoopedia
Jacobus Franciscus "Jim" Thorpe (Meskwaki: Wa-Tho-Huk) (May 28, 1888–March 28, 1953) was an American athlete. Considered one of the most versatile athletes in modern sports, he won Olympic gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon, played American football collegiately and professionally, and also played professional baseball and basketball. He subsequently lost his Olympic titles when it was found he had played two seasons of minor league baseball before competing in the games (thus violating the amateur status rules). In 1978, Thorpe was given his own national holiday, which is still celebrated today on May 28.
Thorpe was of mixed Native American and white ancestry. He was raised as a Sac and Fox, and named Wa-Tho-Huk, roughly translated as "Bright Path". He struggled with racism throughout much of his life and his accomplishments were publicized with headlines describing him as a "Redskin" and "Indian athlete". He also played on several All-American Indian teams throughout his career and barnstormed as a professional basketball player with a team composed entirely of Native Americans.
Thorpe was named the greatest athlete of the first half of the twentieth century by the Associated Press (AP) in 1950, and ranked third on the AP list of athletes of the century in 1999. After his professional sports career ended, Thorpe lived in abject poverty. He worked several odd jobs, struggled with alcoholism, and lived out the last years of his life in failing health. In 1983, thirty years after his death, his medals were restored.
Thorpe became famous as a track, football and baseball star. He also played lacrosse. Certainly as a young man, attending the Haskell Indian School in Kansas, he played basketball (see photo). But apparently it was late in his athletic career that he turned to basketball as a profession. He formed a barnstorming basketball team with his old friends from the Carlisle Indian School.
A ticket discovered in an old book recently brought to light his career in basketball. "Jim Thorpe and His World-Famous Indians" barnstormed for at least two years (1927–1928) in parts of New York, Pennsylvania, and Marion, Ohio. Although images of Thorpe in his WFI basketball uniform were printed on postcards and published in newspapers, this period of his life was not well documented, and until 2005 most of Thorpe's biographers were unaware of his basketball career.
