0:04

There are so many ways we can memorialize

0:08

the greats.

0:09

Welcome to the Jim Twlly Tour.

0:11

Certainly a special tour today.

0:14

All right, we're gonna roll over the Lehigh now

0:17

beautiful.

0:17

There are murals, TV specials,

0:20

parades, even podcasts.

0:23

Of that incline is where they would drag

0:25

the empty coal cars and then leaves.

0:27

But naming a town after someone,

0:30

that's next level.

0:32

Well, there's a Jim Thorpe neighborhood bank, there's

0:34

Jim Thorpe trolley.

0:35

There's a Jim Thorpe inn And we're standing

0:38

in front of the field for which high school?

0:40

Jim Thorpe Perry High School.

0:42

And the name of the team is the Jim Thorpe Olympians.

0:44

That's Michael J. Sofranco. He's

0:47

the mayor of jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.

0:51

Yes, the town is named for the

0:53

legendary Native American athlete

0:55

and hero of the nineteen twelve Stockholm,

0:58

Sweden Olympics, Jim

1:00

Thorpe. And yes, I know that Pennsylvanians

1:03

call their towns burrows, and that their

1:05

state is not a state, it's a commonwealth.

1:08

In nineteen seventy we go somewhere and they'd

1:10

say where you're from, and I'd say Jim Thorpe. They'd

1:12

say, I don't want your name, I want to know where you live.

1:15

It's a beautiful town, nestled

1:18

in a valley of the Pocono Mountains

1:20

and nicknamed the Switzerland of

1:22

America, and it's graced

1:24

with more than just Jim Thorpe's

1:26

name.

1:27

I think that there's one thing you can say having

1:30

Jim Thorpe's body here, it has

1:32

brought a community together.

1:35

That's right on the east side of town.

1:38

Thorpe is buried in a red granite

1:40

mausoleum emblazoned with images

1:43

of his spectacular triumph at

1:45

the Olympics. It was a high point

1:47

for Thorpe, as he'd later.

1:49

Recall Mann, the greatest

1:51

athlete of the world, but a kiss Layton, I think

1:53

is one of my great moments in

1:56

my life.

1:56

The Hillside memorial draws

1:58

fans still in awe of Thorpe's

2:01

achievements, not just in track

2:03

and field, but also in baseball

2:05

and football.

2:06

I'm an old football fan, and my dad loved Jim

2:08

Thorpe.

2:09

He was the world's best athlete

2:12

as far as I'm concerned.

2:13

He still is nothing. He couldn't do anything

2:15

he could do. Don't you wish you had?

2:18

Those powers?

2:18

Are just some of them?

2:20

Now, if you're wondering what relationship

2:22

Jim Thorpe, the man has to the town

2:25

named for him, you're not alone.

2:27

How many of you guys know how long Jim lived

2:30

in this town?

2:31

Never?

2:32

That's correct, Jim?

2:33

Yeah?

2:34

Really, he had never set foot

2:36

in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.

2:39

Did you know that he never actually set

2:42

foot in here before he was buried

2:44

here?

2:44

Really?

2:45

You know, I thought that this was where he

2:47

was from, to be honest

2:49

with you, went that's the history of it. Huh.

2:52

That Jim Thorpe ended up in a town

2:54

he never lived in is only the

2:56

final twist in a roller coaster

2:58

life.

2:59

To me, he as a young person, he

3:02

was like a Hercules or

3:04

even like a superman.

3:06

From becoming the world's first

3:08

sports superstar.

3:10

No one has had that triad

3:12

of being an All American

3:14

football player, a winner of the gold

3:16

medal in the decathlon and the pentathlon,

3:18

and a Major League baseball player. And he

3:21

was great at ballroom dancing, lacrosse

3:24

ross. People said he was good at marbles.

3:26

Is it true?

3:26

Yes?

3:28

Just surviving modern sports. First

3:31

scandal Jim thort an American

3:33

Indian, the only winner of both Pentathlon

3:36

and the Katla.

3:37

Later for playing semi pro baseball

3:39

before the games. His name is erased

3:42

from the role of the victories.

3:44

To his surprise third act in

3:46

Hollywood.

3:47

Jim Poor, All American, the

3:49

main of Bronze who became the greatest athlete

3:52

of all time. It's Burt Lancaster

3:54

as Jim Port.

3:55

From CBS Sunday Morning and iHeart

3:58

I'm Morocca. This is

4:01

mobituaries this

4:06

moment Jim Thorpe,

4:10

March twenty eighth, nineteen fifty

4:12

three, death of an

4:14

All American.

4:25

While the rocks are from visitors, probably

4:27

most of them from Native people's

4:30

totems and sort of symbols of respect

4:33

for Thorpe, the great one.

4:35

I'm standing in front of Jim Thorpe's

4:37

mausoleum with historian David

4:39

Marinus. David wrote a biography

4:42

of Jim Thorpe called Path lit

4:44

by Lightning, which is one English

4:46

translation of Jim's birth name

4:49

Wathaux Hawk. That name

4:51

was given to him because when he was born

4:53

it was said that lightning struck the

4:55

ground outside. What

4:57

do you think of this? Site.

4:59

I have mixed feelings about it. I mean,

5:01

I think it's a beautiful little place.

5:03

It's a nice granite tombstone, really

5:05

beautiful sculptures.

5:07

Does his being here make

5:09

some sort of sad sense?

5:11

Sure, I mean, dislocation is part

5:13

of the story of Native Americans, so

5:16

it has a certain sick

5:18

logic to it, I guess. But the

5:21

most spiritual sense

5:23

would be that he's buried where he started,

5:26

along the North Canadian River in Oklahoma.

5:29

That's where Jim was born in May of

5:31

eighteen eighty seven on the Sack

5:33

and Fox Reservation in what

5:35

was then Oklahoma Indian Territory.

5:38

Jim was Sack and Fox Indian on

5:40

his father's side, Potawatammee

5:42

and French and Irish on his mother's side.

5:45

As a boy, his mother told him he was

5:48

the reincarnation of the great Sack

5:50

and Fox warrior Blackhawk. His

5:53

father was known as an Indian cowboy.

5:56

He had five wives and eighteen

5:58

kids. What is his outdoor

6:01

life like growing up?

6:03

Well, that really is Jim Thorpe

6:06

enjoying life the most. He

6:09

wasn't playing football or baseball yet.

6:11

He was just hunting and fishing, mostly

6:13

with his father and his father

6:15

was kind of a oh never

6:18

do ill might be too strong, but you know, he sold bootleg

6:20

liquor from the back of a wagon. But

6:22

he was also, Jim would say,

6:24

the strongest person he ever knew.

6:27

And Jim would tell a story about going hunting

6:29

with his dad when Jim was maybe

6:32

nine or ten years old, walking

6:34

twenty miles, his father shot

6:36

a couple of deer, put one on each shoulder,

6:38

and walked them back all the way back home. That

6:41

was his dad.

6:42

I'm exhausted hearing that.

6:47

I can imagine my grandfather wanting

6:50

to be something like his father, maybe

6:53

having a farm or even

6:56

handling horses, fishing and

6:58

running and jumping, and mostly

7:01

spending time outdoors and not

7:04

inside.

7:05

That's Jim Thorpe's granddaughter, Anita

7:08

Thorpe. Anita grew up in the same

7:10

part of Oklahoma. She believes

7:12

that her grandfather's connection to the land

7:14

he was raised in was key to

7:16

his success.

7:17

He was able to visualize something,

7:21

and he got that at an early age from

7:23

watching horses and watching animals

7:26

and hunting. Visualization is

7:28

key to his story.

7:32

But while Jim's boyhood may have been

7:34

happy, loss was a part of

7:36

his story from the beginning, starting

7:39

with his twin brother, Charlie.

7:41

Most people don't know Jim had a twin

7:44

who died when they were nine years old when a

7:46

disease swept through the Second Fox School.

7:49

When Jim was fourteen, his mother

7:51

died after burying her eleventh child.

7:54

When he was sixteen, his father died,

7:57

most likely from poison from a snake

7:59

bite. By that time, Jim

8:01

had been sent east to the Carlisle

8:03

Indian Industrial School in

8:06

Carlisle, Pennsylvania. And if you're

8:08

thinking that this is why he was buried in Pennsylvania,

8:11

Nope, Carlisle is over one hundred

8:13

miles from Jim's final resting place.

8:16

Now, Carlisle was the flagship of

8:19

what were a series of US government

8:21

run Indian boarding schools. This

8:23

Indian boarding school system,

8:26

what was that?

8:27

I mean, it was partly a scam, partly

8:30

matter of forced assimilation. Once

8:32

the students got there, many of them were not kept

8:35

there, but sent to farms in the area

8:38

to work as basically indentured servants.

8:41

The students came from eighty eight different

8:43

tribes, but you wouldn't know it

8:45

once they were enrolled at Carlisle.

8:48

If they had long hair, their locks were

8:50

shorn. They were not allowed to speak

8:52

their native languages or

8:54

practice their native religions.

8:57

The school's motto killed the Indian,

9:00

save the man. In

9:02

fact, at least one hundred and eighty

9:04

six of the students sent to Carlisle

9:07

died there, buried in a cemetery

9:10

behind the athletic grandstands.

9:12

And how were these kids dying?

9:14

They were dying from all kinds

9:16

of diseases, some that were alien

9:19

to their homelands. Of all

9:21

the places I went for this book,

9:23

the most visually

9:25

haunting was to go to that cemetery

9:28

and see row after row of

9:30

gravestones of young

9:32

Native Americans who went there and never

9:35

got home.

9:39

But while these schools were abhorrent

9:41

in many ways, the effects on students'

9:44

lives were more complex. Some

9:47

graduates went on to become prominent

9:49

doctors, lawyers, writers,

9:51

and activists. Now,

9:54

when Jim showed up at Carlisle, he wasn't

9:56

exactly imposing at age

9:58

sixteen, just five feet

10:01

five inches tall and weighed one hundred

10:03

and fifteen pounds. Three

10:05

years later he'd grown to five nine

10:08

one sixty. It was then, while

10:10

walking across campus one day, that

10:13

he was discovered.

10:16

It sounds like a myth, but everything

10:18

I can determine is that has really happened.

10:21

He's working at the school in

10:24

his overalls, a woolen shirt,

10:26

and he walks through the athletic field. See

10:29

some guys at the high

10:31

joke pit trying to clear the bar. They're

10:33

failing. In his work

10:35

clothes. He easily clears the bar, you

10:37

know, and the word gets to the coach

10:40

and he's on the track team, and pretty soon he's on the

10:42

football team, and his rise

10:44

to athletic brilliance starts there.

10:47

Here's Jim Thorpe himself describing

10:49

that.

10:49

Day I entered, cry why Poplomer

10:52

having the horse me jumping over the high boy

10:54

at five to seven or eight inches where the

10:57

members couldn't do it now?

10:59

In that sound by Jim mentions

11:01

a name that looms large in

11:03

his story, Pop Warner.

11:06

Glenn pop Warner coached track

11:08

and field at Carlyle. He was

11:10

also the head football coach, and this

11:13

is no exaggeration. In innovator

11:15

of the sport itself.

11:17

He was involved in everything about modern

11:19

football.

11:20

He introduced the three point stance,

11:23

you know, that crouch thing they do at the start

11:25

of a play with one hand touching the ground,

11:27

and Pop Warner was one of the first coaches

11:30

to experiment with the spiral pass,

11:33

something I am determined to achieve

11:36

before I leave this earth. Of

11:38

course, it helped that his team, the Carlyle

11:40

Indians, were fast, fearless,

11:43

and every bit as creative as their

11:45

coach, as Pulitzer Prize

11:47

winning sportswriter Sally Jenkins wrote

11:49

in her own history of the team, before

11:52

Carlyle, football was a dull

11:54

and brutal game, wedges

11:56

of men pushing one another around

11:58

in the dirt. Under Warner, the

12:01

Indians found new ways to win,

12:03

and they transformed the game into the

12:05

thrilling, high speed chase it is

12:08

now. But what

12:10

about Pop Warner as a person, Well,

12:13

that was a bit more complicated. He

12:16

was kind of shady, betting

12:18

on games, selling complimentary

12:21

tickets in the lobby of hotels, and

12:23

keeping the proceeds for himself. And

12:25

he would ultimately abandon Jim

12:27

Thorpe at his time of greatest

12:29

need, but that was years

12:32

away. In his first season

12:34

with the team, Jim seized national

12:36

attention, running, catching,

12:39

throwing, and kicking. He did

12:41

it all and with a kind of ease.

12:44

Sportswriter Grant blund Rice would

12:46

later write that Jim moved

12:48

like the breeze off

12:50

the field. Jim was equally charismatic,

12:54

with a wide open face that pulled

12:56

you in. When he smiled, he

12:58

grinned so hard his his eyes would

13:00

close. You'd feel that

13:02

warmth and magnetism. One of his relatives

13:05

said, he didn't have to talk, you'd

13:08

feel it. Alas

13:12

Jim starred him at Carlisle didn't

13:14

translate into money, and so

13:16

Jim left the school to play semi

13:18

pro baseball in North Carolina, making

13:21

about thirty dollars a month.

13:23

Scores, if not hundreds of college

13:26

athletes were going to play baseball

13:28

in the summer. Most of them were playing

13:30

under aliases. There were so many aliases

13:32

in the league Jim played in the Eastern Carolina

13:35

League that they called it the Pocahonnest

13:37

League because everybody was named John Smith.

13:40

Most collegiate athletes played under fake

13:42

names since their schools prohibited

13:44

them from playing pro sports, but

13:47

Jim didn't play under an alias.

13:50

He played under the name Jim Before. He

13:52

didn't know that he was doing anything wrong,

13:55

so he wasn't trying to hide what he

13:57

was doing.

13:58

Meanwhile, Pop warn and his Carlisle

14:01

football team were hurting without

14:03

Thorpe.

14:04

Warner wrote him a letter saying, if you come back,

14:06

you can train for the nineteen twelve Olympics

14:09

while you're here, and so

14:11

all of that prompted Thorpe to come

14:13

back. If he hadn't, we wouldn't

14:15

even know who he was. He would not be a name

14:17

today.

14:18

On the other side of the break, Jim

14:20

Thorpe makes history.

14:22

I call nineteen twelve the

14:25

greatest single year any

14:27

athlete has ever had.

14:39

You folks want to Egypt bit of order.

14:43

That's the voice of Abel Kiveat.

14:46

In nineteen eighty two, he took a CBS

14:48

news crew to his favorite diner

14:50

in his New Jersey community.

14:52

It's a fish sandwich. I've what kind,

14:54

how, when and why? I don't know What's

14:57

a little schmeer on it.

14:59

It's a.

15:01

Could they know you pretty well?

15:02

Here?

15:02

Huh? Don't ask the questions while I

15:04

got the fisherman mouth might take a bite of me.

15:07

But CBS wasn't there just to

15:09

get tips from Abel on where to eat.

15:12

Seventy years before this interview,

15:14

Abel was a celebrated middle distance

15:16

runner, a medalist at the nineteen

15:19

twelve Olympic Games in Stockholm,

15:21

Sweden, where he was the roommate

15:24

of Jim Thorpe.

15:25

I roomed with him, the best

15:28

natured guy in or where he was so nice,

15:30

so pleasant, big overgrown country

15:32

kid in a way. But Hutton's seventy

15:35

five a hot and eighty script five

15:37

foot eleven in a fraction, and

15:40

they said he had a neck of nineteen quarter

15:42

inches like a wrestler, and

15:46

he walked that way just out. I

15:49

think the Thorpe was the greatest athlete

15:51

that ever lived. There isn't anything he couldn't do.

15:53

When he had to see someone do something, he'd

15:57

hesitate, look and

16:00

it almost duplicates almost

16:02

instantly.

16:03

It's true. Jim could observe others

16:06

doing something, then visualize

16:08

himself doing it, and then do

16:10

it, a psychological approach that

16:12

athletes today practice, except

16:15

Jim Thorpe was doing it over one hundred

16:17

years ago. In

16:20

June of nineteen twelve, Jim

16:22

and the rest of the US Olympic team, including

16:25

Pop Warner, who was coaching Jim, boarded

16:28

the USS Finland in New York

16:30

City for Sweden. The

16:32

ship, which also served as their Olympic

16:34

village, was reconfigured with a cork

16:37

track so that the athletes could train

16:39

on the way. Over Weight throwers

16:41

would throw the discus off the ship.

16:44

It was tied to a rope and pulled back

16:46

each time. It was Jim's

16:48

first time on an ocean liner. We

16:50

don't know if he was nervous, but it's worth

16:52

noting this was only two months after

16:55

the Titanic went down. We

16:57

know what the Olympics mean today, they're the Olympic.

17:00

What did they mean in nineteen twelve.

17:02

I would say that the nineteen twelve Olympics

17:04

in Stockholm were the first

17:06

sort of world Olympics.

17:09

That's biographer David Marinis.

17:11

Again.

17:12

It was called the Sunshine Games. Everything

17:14

just sort of clicked in those Olympics.

17:17

Footage of the opening ceremonies exists,

17:20

and it just looks so grand.

17:23

It was really glorious. I mean, you

17:25

had all these men in top hats and

17:27

waistcoats, and women with

17:30

fancy dresses and hats, and these

17:32

boy scouts with their big old

17:34

hats, and you just feel the excitement

17:37

of that moment coming into the stadium.

17:40

I'm trying to see this through his

17:43

eyes. I mean, was that like going

17:45

to another planet?

17:46

Definitely going to another planet. The

17:49

people in Europe

17:51

sort of romanticized Native Americans.

17:53

They'd never seen one. So

17:56

there's this scene where Jim is out in

17:58

the practice field and three Swedish

18:00

girls come by, and

18:03

you know, he doesn't quite look like their stereotype

18:05

of an Indian, so

18:08

he pretends he is one. You know,

18:10

he does some war whoops and it

18:12

scares the heck out of you know, just

18:14

to play into that sort of stereotype.

18:17

A couple of fun facts. The Swedish

18:19

smorgasborge was introduced to America

18:22

by the nineteen twelve Games, and

18:24

these same games were the last when

18:26

the gold medals were solid gold.

18:29

Jim won the first of his two golds

18:31

in the Pentathlon. Then

18:34

came the ten events of the Decathlon,

18:36

which was held over three days. It

18:40

was on day two, when it came time

18:42

for the high jump that any doubts

18:44

about Jim Thorpe's greatness were silenced.

18:47

He was going out to participate, started

18:50

looking for a hue and couldn't find him.

18:52

That's Jim Thorpe's son, Bill Thorpe,

18:55

in an interview from twenty fifteen.

18:57

So he started looking around and

19:00

asking questions. People just said,

19:02

oh, we don't know. We don't know.

19:04

Earlier that day his shoes went

19:07

missing, kind of a crisis. So

19:10

he and Pop Warner

19:12

I think they found one shoe in a trash can

19:14

and another shoe somewhere else. There

19:16

were different sizes. He had to

19:18

wear, you know, two pairs of socks on

19:21

one foot, you know, to make them work.

19:23

And he still won the high jump.

19:25

To be clear, Jim Thorpe won the high

19:27

jump wearing two random mismatched

19:30

shoes. There's a picture of

19:33

him just standing there like, Yeah,

19:35

what's the big deal, I'm wearing shoes I pulled

19:37

out of a trash can five minutes before the competition.

19:40

Big whoop. Now,

19:43

while Jim and his teammates were playing

19:45

to win, they were also young guys

19:47

in a foreign country. They were going

19:50

to have some fun. Apparently, Jim

19:52

liked to wrestle when he drank. According

19:54

to one account, Jim was ordinarily

19:57

a quiet guy. Once he had a

19:59

few, couldn't get him to shut up.

20:01

By the end of day three of the decathlon,

20:04

Jim Thorpe hadn't just won gold. He

20:07

done so by almost seven hundred

20:09

points, an astonishing margin.

20:13

Sweden's King Gustav the fifth

20:15

awarded Jim his two gold medals,

20:17

along with two magnificent trophies,

20:20

a three foot tall bronze bust that

20:23

took two attendants to carry, and

20:25

a thirty pound silver replica

20:27

of a Viking ship. And can I

20:29

just say, even if you don't like the idea

20:32

of royalty, they definitely make a

20:34

medal ceremony even more exciting. Here's

20:39

a reporter John Erling speaking

20:41

with Jim's son, Bill Thorpe.

20:43

Again.

20:44

He received his from the

20:47

Swedish King Gustav. Several

20:49

sources recount that when awarding the

20:52

prize, King Gustav

20:54

said, you, sir, are the greatest

20:56

athletes in the world.

20:57

That's what I understand that he said.

20:59

To which your father said.

21:01

Thanks King.

21:05

What are you say?

21:05

Yeah, I mean an

21:08

Indian that came from an Indian school,

21:10

and that would just be his way of it

21:13

and their way.

21:14

But that story, says David Marinus,

21:16

was invented by the press.

21:18

Thanks King, which is a great

21:20

lie. But he didn't say it. He said thank you.

21:24

But you know that was supposed to be you know, the good

21:26

old country boy who didn't care about anybody's

21:29

royalty, and that was part

21:31

of the press mythology about

21:33

the sort of the ignorant Indian

21:35

in a sense.

21:37

Throughout his life, the press depicted

21:39

Jim Thorpe in a way that was simultaneously

21:42

sympathetic and belittling.

21:45

It's the stereotype that starts with a noble

21:47

savage and then continues into

21:50

the notion of this person

21:52

that we're going to romanticize, but he's

21:55

not really one of us, so we're going to diminish

21:57

him at the same time.

21:59

After the Olympics, Jim returned

22:01

to the US a hero.

22:04

He becomes a globally famous

22:06

figure, the most well

22:09

known athlete from America

22:11

around the world. I mean, the whole team

22:14

was created in New York City. Everybody

22:16

else there were tudo a car. Thorpe was the only one in

22:18

his car and it was the first car, you know, going

22:20

through the confetti of Fifth Avenue.

22:23

So he's indisputably the star, is

22:26

the star of the Games. In Philadelphia,

22:29

his trophies were on display at the famed

22:31

Wannamaker's department store. And

22:34

then Jim made a triumphant return

22:36

to Carlisle. The kids must

22:38

have gone nuts when he came back.

22:39

They did. There was a huge celebration and

22:42

that's where President Taff sent a telegram

22:45

congratulating him for being an honorable

22:47

American citizen, not knowing that he wasn't

22:49

even one.

22:50

That's right, Jim Thorpe, the American

22:53

hero of the nineteen twelve Olympics, wasn't

22:55

an American citizen. It wasn't

22:58

until nineteen twenty four all Native

23:00

Americans were granted citizenship. This

23:03

was a divisive issue. Many Native

23:05

Americans were understandably concerned

23:07

that they'd lose even more autonomy pledging

23:10

allegiance to the United States. But

23:12

Jim did want citizenship rights,

23:15

and he'd finally be granted them after

23:17

the Games in nineteen sixteen. Now,

23:20

for mere mortals, winning gold at

23:22

the Olympics would be enough for one year, but

23:25

Jim Thorpe was no mere mortal.

23:27

I call nineteen twelve the

23:29

greatest single year any

23:32

athlete has ever had. Not

23:34

only does he win two

23:36

gold medals in Stockholm, but

23:38

then comes back and has a

23:40

brilliant final year of football

23:43

at Carlisle with one

23:46

game that I call the greatest act

23:48

of athletic retribution in American

23:50

history, which is the game against

23:52

Army at West Point.

23:55

Now, why this is so fraud

23:58

this game.

23:58

Well, it's the me against the Indians

24:01

on a level playing field at last.

24:04

You know, most football games, it's just

24:06

football. This one had a larger

24:08

resonance to it.

24:10

The Carlisle players were well

24:12

aware that only twenty two years

24:14

had passed since the massacre at

24:16

Wounded Knee, when three hundred

24:19

Lakota men, women, and children

24:21

were slaughtered by the US Army, effectively

24:24

marking the end of Indian resistance.

24:27

This season, both football teams were

24:29

formidable. Carlisle had its

24:32

most talented team in the school's

24:34

history with Jim at running back.

24:37

Army had a good team. They had a

24:40

sophomore running back,

24:42

linebacker Dwight Eisenhower.

24:45

Yes, that Dwight Eisenhower,

24:47

the future Supreme Allied Commander

24:50

and thirty fourth President of the United

24:52

States. Omar Bradley, another

24:55

future World War Two hero, sat

24:57

on the bench. Eisenhower

24:59

would later back in awe at

25:01

Jim and we.

25:02

Buying just without the side of his bawn.

25:04

It the football on, you

25:06

take it out sixty yards to punt.

25:09

That's from an interview Eisenhower did years

25:11

later. And it's true Jim

25:13

could punt more than sixty yards

25:15

in normal weather conditions. Ninety

25:18

five yards if the winds were right, we

25:20

where's.

25:21

By this man?

25:23

Feed and they which you got.

25:25

Last Ike understood that

25:27

if Army didn't take down Thorpe, they

25:30

might as well wave the white flag.

25:33

They said, we're gonna knock Thorpe out of the game, hit

25:36

him high and low at the same time, and knock him

25:38

out. In the third quarter, they eventually

25:40

were able to make that kind of tackle, and he was

25:42

on the ground groggy for a minute or

25:44

so, but he got up and soon thereafter

25:47

knocked Eisenhower out of the game. The

25:49

Carlisle Indians clabbered

25:51

Army twenty seven to six. It

25:54

was an unforgettable movement.

25:56

They could defeat the Axis Powers, but

25:58

they couldn't defeat Jim Thorpe, fan

26:00

Carlyle.

26:01

It's a good way to put it. Book.

26:02

As if that weren't enough, Jim won

26:05

the Intercollegiate Ballroom Dancing

26:07

Championship that year. He would have

26:09

crushed Dancing with the Stars.

26:11

Nineteen twelve had been a year of victories

26:14

for Jim Thorpe. Nineteen thirteen

26:17

began very differently. In

26:21

late January, the Worcester Telegram

26:23

newspaper reported that Jim

26:25

Thorpe had played minor league baseball

26:27

in North Carolina back in nineteen

26:29

oh nine and nineteen ten. Now,

26:32

remember how we said hundreds of other college

26:34

athletes had done the same. Incidentally,

26:37

they included Dwight D. Eisenhower.

26:39

But the disclosure that Olympic hero

26:42

Jim Thorpe had played semi pro

26:44

Bowl quickly blew up into

26:46

a major story. Back

26:48

then, Olympic athletes were required

26:50

to be amateurs.

26:52

Amateurism was basically an

26:54

idea foisted upon athletes

26:58

by wealthy

27:00

aristocrats in Europe who

27:03

developed this noble sense of the purity

27:05

of sports, and then it became

27:07

part of the Olympic spirit and

27:09

system that this would prevail.

27:12

But says David Maronis, it was an

27:14

unrealistic ideal.

27:16

Most athletes come out of the working class

27:18

and money, you know, That's how they've survives

27:21

through their athletic talents. So

27:24

it was a conflict between those two.

27:26

Things and it was unevenly

27:29

enforced.

27:30

The entire Swedish team was

27:32

given a leave of absence from their jobs

27:35

for six months before the Olympics at

27:37

fau pay. Were they professionals

27:40

or amateur Jim

27:44

Thorpe played baseball

27:46

for about a dollar a day in

27:49

a sport that had nothing to do with any of his events,

27:52

and yet he was the one who suffered because of

27:54

this. There were so many hpocrisies involved

27:56

in this.

27:57

Now, the press and the public were

27:59

largely on Jim's side, after

28:01

all, he brought home gold for Team

28:03

USA, the second place finishers

28:06

in the pentathlon and to Catalon. Both

28:08

Scandinavians were on his side too,

28:11

But the US and International Olympic

28:13

committees were less forgiving, and

28:16

so Jim turned to his coach Pop

28:19

Warner, who knew full well

28:21

that Jim had played semi pro ball.

28:23

The most damning thing about

28:26

Pop Warner was that at the moment of

28:28

Jim Thorpe's crisis, after

28:30

he'd won his gold medals, when because

28:33

it was revealed that he'd played minor

28:35

league baseball in North Carolina for

28:37

two years, Pop Warner lied and said

28:39

he knew nothing about it to save his own reputation.

28:43

Instead, Pop Warner ghost wrote

28:45

the letter that Jim Thorpe sent to the

28:47

Amateur Athletic Union, portraying

28:50

Thorpe as an ignorant Indian who didn't

28:52

know better and accepting blame.

28:56

Jim Thorpe was stripped of his medals.

28:59

His name raced from the record books

29:01

the medals and trophies sent

29:04

back. But if Jim was bitter about

29:06

it, it didn't show. As

29:08

he would throughout his life, he would

29:10

just keep moving forward, pushing

29:13

against gale force headwinds. It

29:15

helped that he had just married his Carlyle

29:18

sweetheart, Iva Margaret Miller,

29:20

and they would soon welcome their first child,

29:23

Jim Junior. Jim

29:25

would later write about this period quote,

29:28

while my castle fell around me, the

29:30

American people, the student body

29:32

of Carlyle, and my girl Iva

29:35

remained loyal. I adopted

29:37

a fantastic viewpoint and

29:39

considered the episode just another

29:41

event in the Red Man's life of

29:44

ups and downs.

29:57

In the NNY All

29:59

the President the United States.

30:02

In July nineteen thirty two,

30:04

over one hundred thousand people packed

30:07

LA's Memorial Colisseum

30:10

to watch one of the nation's most highly

30:12

regarded Native Americans preside

30:15

over the opening of that city's first

30:18

Olympic Games.

30:19

I have to play open.

30:22

The Olympic Games of Los Angeles,

30:25

celebrating that tenth

30:28

Olympian on the monern

30:31

area.

30:34

No, that's not the voice of Jim Thorpe.

30:38

That was Herbert Hoover's vice president,

30:41

Charles Curtis, a member

30:43

of the kaw Nation and the first

30:45

person of color to serve as vice

30:47

president. Jim Thorpe, the

30:49

hero of the nineteen twelve Games,

30:52

wasn't even invited to attend

30:54

these Games. In fact, Jim

30:56

was living in Los Angeles. When

30:59

Vice President Curtis, who had worshiped

31:01

Thorpe, read in the Los Angeles

31:03

Times that Jim had been shut out, he

31:06

arranged for passes to be sent

31:08

to him. When Jim got those

31:10

passes, he remarked, it

31:13

had to be another Indian who finally

31:15

got me the invitation. The

31:20

last twenty years had been turbulent

31:23

for Jim Thorpe.

31:26

In nineteen eighteen, at the age of

31:28

three, Jim Thorpe Junior had

31:30

died during the influenza pandemic.

31:33

The most precious trophy I had ever

31:35

been awarded in my life had been taken

31:38

from me, Jim later said. In

31:40

nineteen twenty five, Jim's wife,

31:42

Iva, filed for divorce, claiming

31:45

desertion. It was hard to blame

31:47

her. Jim was almost constantly

31:49

on the road, and he was drinking heavily.

31:52

He would marry two more times and

31:54

have eight children total, but

31:57

he was mostly an absentee father.

32:00

Over the course of the final thirty years

32:02

of his life, he just

32:04

kept moving. He lived in twenty different

32:06

states, most of the

32:09

time out in California.

32:12

When asked why he kept moving, he explained,

32:15

a man has to keep hustling when he has

32:17

a family and hustle

32:20

he did. Within two years

32:22

of his medals being stripped from him,

32:24

Jim Thorpe was playing both pro baseball

32:27

and pro football. He was named

32:29

president of the organization that would become

32:31

the NFL. For a time, he

32:33

even played pro basketball. And

32:36

here's something that surprised me even more.

32:40

For two seasons, Jim coached and

32:42

played for an all Native American

32:44

football team called the Ourang

32:47

Indians. Urang was the name

32:49

of the Ohio dog kennel that sponsored

32:51

the team. To draw in the crowds,

32:54

the team would perform between halves,

32:57

showing off the kennel's airedales, performing

32:59

ward dances, Jim would wow

33:01

spectators with his still spectacular

33:04

dropkick. Now get this,

33:07

That show is generally considered

33:09

the origin of today's NFL

33:12

halftime show. By

33:17

the late nineteen twenties, age was

33:19

taking its toll on Jim he

33:21

played his last football game at forty

33:23

one. When he was forty six, he

33:26

played his last baseball game. To

33:28

make ends meet, Jim had taken jobs

33:31

as a security guard and bouncer, and

33:33

by nineteen thirty one he was digging

33:36

ditches for the Los Angeles Public Works

33:38

Department, working for four dollars

33:40

a day. But Los Angeles

33:43

was also a new beginning for Jim

33:45

Thorpe. He'd gone there

33:47

to pursue a career in Hollywood, but

33:50

he visualized a better future

33:52

in the industry for all Native

33:54

Americans.

33:55

And there's another period

33:57

out there where I sort of see him finding

34:00

himself and his meaning.

34:03

That's biographer David Marinis.

34:05

Again.

34:06

He became the leader of the two

34:08

hundred or so Native Americans who

34:11

were on the fringes of the studio industry

34:13

in Hollywood.

34:14

Jim co founded the Native American

34:17

Actors Guild. Native Americans

34:19

were barred from joining the Screen Actors

34:21

Guild.

34:22

You know, all of these Native Americans

34:24

out there. Basically, he was saying, you've

34:27

got all these Westerns going on, and

34:29

you're hiring white guys

34:32

and putting the war paint on them higher

34:34

us. You know, we're the real thing.

34:36

Those Indian actors began calling

34:38

Jim Akapamata caregiver

34:41

in his sack and fox language. The

34:44

big surprise is how many movies Jim

34:46

himself ended up in.

34:49

He was in more than seventy movies. He

34:52

acted with every famous

34:54

actor you can imagine of that era.

34:57

He's an extra I think in King Kong he's

35:00

extra Kink. He

35:02

mostly played bit roles if

35:04

he talked at all, and usually

35:06

as an Indian warrior. But in

35:08

some movies, like the nineteen thirty two comedic

35:11

short Always Kicking, he played himself

35:13

and he was a highlight.

35:15

I remember boys the art of draft kicking, to

35:17

always keep your eye on the ball and never look up

35:19

until the ball is in flag. All right, ken.

35:22

But the film Jim Thorpe is best remembered

35:25

for was the one about him.

35:29

Jim Thorpe, All American, The

35:32

Man of Bronze, who became the greatest athlete

35:34

of all time, an Oklahoma

35:36

Indian lad who was on tame spirit

35:39

gave wings to his feet and

35:41

carried him to immortality.

35:44

Jim Thorpe, All American, the movie

35:46

with Bert Lancaster for

35:49

its time, just to place

35:51

it in its time. What

35:53

do you think of the movie.

35:54

The movie is sympathetic

35:58

to Jim Thorpe. It

36:00

stars Burt Lancaster, who is

36:02

a great actor and a

36:05

big star.

36:06

There's one thing that really gets at

36:08

sports. Do you think a man can make

36:10

a future out of them?

36:11

You know, he was thirty seven when he played Thorpe,

36:13

but he had a training as an athlete

36:16

and even as an acrobat. In

36:18

most respects the fact that he wasn't a Native

36:20

American. Other than that, he

36:22

was not a bad choice.

36:24

And the director was Michael Curtiz, who

36:26

years before had directed Casablanca.

36:29

It was a big deal in the

36:31

star actor and the director and

36:34

the sympathy. But it's wrong in almost

36:36

every respect. You know, it's wrong

36:38

in little ways where the first

36:40

scene you see Jim Thorpe running

36:42

away from school going back home

36:45

in the home has a tpe and

36:48

the second fox didn't live in tpees. And

36:51

then in the background you see

36:53

the San Gabriel Monsa, California.

36:55

You know, so that's are sort of little ways

36:57

and it's off. But what if

37:00

I'm The most disturbing was

37:02

that the narrator of the film,

37:04

and in some respects, the hero is

37:07

not Jim Thorpe. It's Pop Warner.

37:09

Here's the Pop Warner character defending

37:12

Jim for playing semi pro baseball,

37:14

something that certainly didn't happen

37:17

in real life.

37:18

I just want to say, gentlemen, an

37:20

ignorance sometimes is an excuse. All

37:23

boys at colin I'll come to us from the reservation.

37:27

The government pays their expenses at school.

37:30

That doesn't make the professionals in

37:33

the summer. When the government stops paying their expenses,

37:35

they have to win. They keep somehow.

37:37

Yes, the man who had sold Jim

37:39

out in his time of greatest need

37:42

was presented on film as standing

37:45

up for Jim. The

37:47

movie was yet another disappointment to

37:49

Jim. He'd turned over

37:51

the rights to his life story and made

37:54

less than fifteen hundred dollars the

37:57

same year the film was released. In nineteen

37:59

fifty one, Jim was diagnosed

38:01

with cancer. He seemed to beat

38:03

it, but that wasn't the end of his problems.

38:06

Jim and his third wife, Patsy, were

38:08

broke living in a trailer in Lomita,

38:11

California. On March twenty

38:13

eighth, nineteen fifty three, Jim

38:15

Thorpe suffered a heart attack while

38:17

fishing at the Redondo Pier in California.

38:21

He died later that day, destitute.

38:24

He was sixty four. Only

38:27

three years earlier, a poll of

38:29

four hundred sports writers had voted

38:31

Jim Thorpe the number one athlete

38:34

of the first half of the twentieth

38:36

century. Which

38:38

brings us back to the beginning of our

38:41

episode and how Jim Thorpe

38:43

ended up where he is today.

38:45

He had told his sons

38:48

that he wanted to be buried in his homeland

38:50

in a woman in Second Fox.

38:52

Territory, and it looked like that

38:54

would happen. But Jim's widow,

38:56

Patsy, who was not Native American,

38:59

had other ideas.

39:01

It was in the middle of a Second Fox

39:03

ceremony on land not far

39:05

from where he grew up that she came

39:08

in with a couple of tufts and

39:11

took him away because she was unhappy

39:13

with how the Oklahoma government was treating

39:16

him and whether there would be enough

39:18

of a celebration, a mausoleum

39:20

and a museum honoring him.

39:23

Looking for a resting place for Jim's

39:25

body, Patsy went to Philadelphia

39:27

to meet with a then NFL commissioner,

39:30

and here's where things get really weird.

39:34

She's there in a hotel room watching

39:37

television one night and sees

39:39

this story about

39:42

these two down on their luck coal

39:44

towns up near the Poconos,

39:47

mock Chunk and East mock Chunk, were

39:50

trying to figure out a way to survive after the

39:52

coal industry had died and

39:55

tourism had vanished. And it's called

39:57

the Switzerland of America, and it looks beautiful,

40:01

and she comes up with this plan.

40:03

Patsy contacted the editor of

40:05

the local mock Chunk Times and

40:08

pitched him an idea to save the town.

40:10

You'll get Jim Thorpe's body if

40:12

you merge these two little

40:15

burrows into one town, renamed

40:17

them Jim Thorpe. And maybe

40:21

we'll get a Jim Thorpe hospital,

40:23

and I'll even build a tepee hotel

40:25

up here, and

40:28

maybe the NFL they'll set

40:30

up the Hall of Fame in Jim Thorpe.

40:32

And to be clear, when his body

40:34

is brought here, that is the very first

40:36

time that Jim Thorpe comes

40:38

to this town.

40:39

He had never set foot in Jim

40:41

Thorpe, Pennsylvania before

40:44

it became Jim Thorpe Pennsylvania.

40:46

The plan was put to a vote and it

40:48

passed. Jim Thorpe Pennsylvania

40:51

was born, and Jim Thorpe the man

40:53

was buried there. That's

40:58

for the Hall of Fame, hospital and TP

41:00

hotel. None of that happened.

41:03

Most of Jim's family was outraged

41:06

that he was buried in a town he never lived

41:08

in, and a suit to return his body

41:10

to Oklahoma was filed. It went

41:12

all the way to the Supreme Court, which

41:14

ultimately refused to hear the case.

41:17

This really caused a

41:20

rift in the family. I mean so much

41:22

pain and estrangement.

41:25

Yeah, yes, I mean it's what divided

41:27

us, and we've been two separate

41:29

families ever since.

41:31

In nineteen ninety six, Jim's granddaughter,

41:33

Anita Thorpe, took a road trip

41:35

with her father, Jim's son Richard.

41:38

Their first stop the Football Hall

41:40

of Fame in Canton, Ohio, where

41:43

Jim Thorpe had been inducted its very

41:45

first year.

41:47

I remember going into the Football

41:49

Hall of Fame and my dad was

41:52

he was really enjoying hisself.

41:54

And then they drove on to Jim Thorpe

41:56

Pennsylvania. It was the first time

41:59

either of them would see where Jim was

42:01

buried.

42:02

And then we were at

42:04

the mausoleum and

42:07

my father's. His whole demeanor

42:10

changed from I'm

42:12

having a really good time, you know, I'm living

42:15

this, having a time in my life visiting

42:17

these places, to a depression.

42:21

A dark cloud came over

42:23

him, almost in an instant.

42:26

Today, Richard Thorpe and all

42:28

the rest of Jim Thorpe's children are gone,

42:31

and Anita Thorpe thinks it's time

42:33

for the newer generations to move

42:35

on. Are you now

42:37

getting to know cousins that you were estranged

42:40

from?

42:41

Yes, you know, I hate to say, but it really

42:43

took all the children, you know, those that

42:45

were fighting to pass

42:48

for the grandchildren to come and

42:50

say, well, let's do things together.

42:53

Jim Thorpe's remains may never be

42:55

restored to sac and fox Land,

42:58

but Jim Thorpe's Olympic leg has

43:00

been restored. In twenty

43:03

twenty two, one hundred and ten

43:05

years after his humiliation, Jim

43:08

Thorpe's name was officially reinstated

43:11

as the sole winner of the gold medals

43:13

in the nineteen twelve pentathlon and

43:16

decathlon. That

43:22

same year, Anita Thorpe delivered

43:25

remarks at the National Archives in

43:27

Washington, DC. She spoke

43:29

about how her grandfather's story wasn't

43:32

a tragedy. Instead, she

43:34

told this story illustrating

43:36

how his extraordinary journey

43:39

was an everyday source of inspiration.

43:42

Welcome everybody. I'm Anita

43:44

Thorpe. I'm Jim Thorpe's granddaughter.

43:48

I'm going to tell a little story about my trip

43:51

to Washington, d C. This

43:53

is my second time here. My

43:55

first trip was here in September. Everybody

43:59

kept saying, take the metro, That's

44:02

how you get around this place. But I

44:04

was scared to death to get on the

44:06

metro. And so I

44:09

leave the Hilton and I go downstairs,

44:11

and I

44:13

was afraid to death, you know. I was afraid that I was going

44:15

to get on the wrong train and never make it back.

44:20

So I stepped aboard the

44:22

train. I sit down, And as

44:24

soon as I sat down, I

44:26

thought about my granddad, and I

44:28

thought about the courage

44:30

it took for each and every

44:32

endeavor that he took, going to the Olympics,

44:36

being a star athlete at Carlisle,

44:39

being the first president of what

44:41

is today the NFL. And

44:44

you heard the term doors open and

44:46

close. One door open, one door closes.

44:49

And so while I was riding that train today,

44:52

I thought of my grandfather's

44:54

courage And if I

44:56

could leave one

44:59

bit of thing or inspiration

45:01

for Jim Thorb for young and old,

45:04

is you know, for everybody to have that

45:06

courage in your life when you're

45:08

stepping on the platform to

45:10

someplace unknown.

45:12

That's what my grandfather had throughout

45:15

his life, was

45:17

the courage to step

45:19

up on the platform for whatever event

45:21

it was in the strength.

45:24

Thank you.

45:38

I certainly hope you enjoyed this mobituary.

45:41

May I ask you to please rate and review our

45:44

podcast. You can also follow

45:46

Mobituaries on Facebook and Instagram,

45:48

and you can follow me on the social media platform

45:51

formerly known as Twitter at morocca.

45:56

Here are all new episodes of Mobituaries

45:58

every Wednesday. Where you get your podcasts

46:01

and check out Mobituaries. Great Lives

46:04

Worth Reliving the New York Times

46:06

best selling book now available

46:08

in paperback and audiobook. It

46:10

includes plenty of stories not in

46:13

the podcast. This

46:16

episode of Mobituaries was produced

46:18

by Liz Sanchez. Our

46:21

team of producers also includes Chloe

46:23

Choball, Young Kim and Me

46:25

Moroka, with engineering by

46:28

Josh Han. Our theme music

46:30

is written by Daniel Hart. Our

46:32

archivel producer is Jamie Benson.

46:35

Fact checking from Amy Cronenberg.

46:37

Mobituary's production company is Neon

46:39

Hum Media. Indispensable

46:42

support from Alan Pang and everyone

46:44

at CBS News Radio. Special

46:47

thanks to Steve Razis, Rand

46:49

Morrison, Michah Carlson, Alberto

46:52

Robina and Francisco Robina.

46:54

Also to the voices of Oklahoma

46:57

and I'm a Sportsfile dot Com

46:59

for archival tape. David

47:01

Marinus's book Path Lit by

47:04

Lightning the Life of Jim Thorpe is

47:06

published by Simon and Schuster, which,

47:08

like CBS, is part of Paramount Global.

47:11

Executive producers for Mobituaries

47:13

include Megan Marcus, Jonathan

47:16

Hirsch, and Morocca. The series

47:18

is created by Yours Truly