Jim thorpe biography olympics t shirt

Jim Thorpe : world's greatest athlete / Robert W. Wheeler

Wheeler, Robert W.

Edited by University of Oklahoma Press - 2023

Born in 1888 in what would soon be Oklahoma territory, Jim Thorpe was a member of the Sac and Fox Nation.

After attending the Sac and Fox agency school and Haskell Indian Junior College in Lawrence, Kansas, he transferred to Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.

Jim thorpe biography olympics t shirt

At Carlisle he led the football team to victories over some of the nation’s best college teams: Army, Navy, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Pennsylvania, and Nebraska. In 1912 he participated in the Olympic Games in Stockholm, winning both the decathlon and pentathlon.

It was then that King Gustav V of Sweden dubbed him “the world’s greatest athlete.” Between 1913 and 1919, Thorpe played professional baseball for the New York Giants, the Cincinnati Reds, and the Boston Braves. In 1915 he began playing professional football with the Canton (Ohio) Bulldogs.

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