Source: Native American Sports Council

James Francis "Jim" Thorpe
Native American (Sac and Fox/Potawatomi)
Born: 5-28-1888
Olympic Year: 1912 Stockholm, Sweden
Decathlon-Gold Medal
Pentathlon-Gold Medal
Long Jump-7th
High Jump-4th

 

At Carlisle Indian School he competed in football, track and field, baseball, wrestling, boxing, lacrosse, gymnastics, swimming, hockey, handball, and basketball. In the 1912 Stockholm Olympics he won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon. Thorpe also finished 4th in the High Jump and 7th in the Long Jump. Thorpe had never competed in the pentathlon before, and he never did again. Thorpe was a 3 time All-American in Football while at Carlisle. Jim won a collegiate National Championship in football and in 1912 he was the intercollegiate ballroom dance champion. He played baseball either in the minors or the majors for 20 years. He was a professional football World Champion as a member of the Canton Bulldogs, and in 1920 was the first president of what is now called the NFL, formerly the American Professional Football Association. Jim was named the greatest athlete of the first half-century, in 1950 he was also named the greatest football player of the first half-century. In 1999 both houses of Congress honored Jim Thorpe by designating him as the Athlete of the Century, and in 2000 ABC's Wide World of Sports honored him as their Athlete of the Century. He is enshrined in the College Athletic Hall of Fame, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the Indian Athletic Hall of Fame, and the Track and Field Hall of Fame, the Helms Professional Football Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, and the Pennsylvania Hall of Fame.