Wa-Tho-Huk, also known as James Francis Thorpe or Bright Path, was born in most accounts in [1887 or] 1888. He was a member of the Sac and Fox and Potawatomi Nations. Jim Thorpe was a warrior; a warrior on the gridiron, a warrior on the track, and any other athletic arena he ever entered for that matter. Thorpe was and still is the greatest athlete in the history of sports.
In 1950 Thorpe was voted as the greatest athlete of the half-century by the Associated Press. [He won] 252 of 393 first-place votes. Babe Ruth had 86 votes and Jack Dempsey was third with 19 votes. As the years passed and with the integration and growth of radio and television Thorpe’s legacy was passed on how Native history and culture has been passed down through the centuries: through oral tradition.
Little to no film exists of Jim Thorpe. There are mostly just black and white still shots of him in his track and football uniforms or competing. One of the most famous of which is attributed to his Olympic endeavors where upon close inspection he is notably wearing two different socks and two different mismatched shoes. The story is, someone stole his socks and shoes right before he was to start competing. So, he dug out two different shoes from a trash bin and won gold while wearing those. A life full of adversity allowed him to overcome any obstacle placed in front of him.
Jim was big, strong, and durable. He was enshrined in the College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1951, the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963 (the initial inductee class), the Indian Athletic Hall of Fame in 1972, and in 1983 the Track and Field Hall of Fame. He is also in the Helms Professional Football Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, and the Pennsylvania Hall of Fame. He played baseball, football, lacrosse, basketball, and he competed in track and field. If those feats don’t convince you of his greatness, Thorpe was also the 1912 inter-collegiate ballroom dancing champion.
He began his athletic career for Carlisle in 1907 in street clothes jumping higher than any of the current track team high jumpers. He later won two gold medals in the 1912 Summer Olympics, one in the decathlon and the other in the pentathlon. Thorpe had never competed in the pentathlon before, and he never did again. The pentathlon includes: the long jump, javelin, 200m run, discus and 1500m run. Thorpe won FOUR of the five listed events. The only one he didn’t win was the javelin, which he placed third.
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