Tom Benjey's Weblog

University of Oklahoma Press has announced the upcoming release of the updated edition of Robert W. Wheeler’s definitive biography Jim Thorpe: World’s Greatest Athlete. Written a half century ago, Wheeler has much to add to the story of Jim Thorpe’s legacy since he and his wife, Florence Ridlon, have worked tirelessly for decades to get the Olympic medals and records restored. More information can be found at: https://www.oupress.com/9780806194240/jim-thorpe/

While we’re thinking about Jim Thorpe I want to focus on an article published by James Best of NBC Sports that get about everything about him wrong. https://www.nbcsportschicago.com/nfl/chicago-bears/a-look-at-the-history-of-jim-thorpe-and-native-americans-in-football/186374/

Under the headline Who was the first Native American football player? Best states, “Thorpe was the first Native American to play in the NFL.” If he had glanced at the team roster or a game program he would have noticed that two of Thorpe’s backfield partners were former Carlisle Indian School teammates, Pete Calac and Joe Guyon. Thorpe was late to the professional game relative to other Carlisle players when he joined the Canton Bulldogs in 1915. In fact, it was old Carlisle end William Gardner who Jack Cusack sent to Bloomington Indiana to recruit Thorpe to play for the Bulldogs. An accurate statement would have been that Jim Thorpe was the first Pete Rozelle for the fledgling NFL.

Best’s next sentence began, “Thorpe was born in 1888….” Like many of his contemporaries, Jim Thorpe’s date of birth isn’t known definitively. Yes, he gave 1988 for the year of his birth on his WWII draft papers. Carlisle’s records suggest that he was born in 1887. It is possible he shaved a year off his age to make him appear to be more attractive to the military. His actual birth date won’t likely ever be known. After I first published this, I learned that a Sac and Fox researcher had discovered the tribe’s original 1891 allotment records. It shows that Jim and his twin brother Charley were born in 1887. This is the earliest document discovered so far that lists Jim’s year of birth. The 1892 tribal roll available on Ancestry.com lists their ages as five. That would make their years of birth 1887.

The next sentence states that he attended Carlisle Indian Industrial School in 1907. It would have been clearer if Mr. Best had done a little research and noted that Thorpe arrived at Carlisle in 1904 but his athletic talents hadn’t developed to the point of beating Carlisle track stars until 1907.

Best’s next paragraph begins, “Thorpe decided to try football in 1911….” He neglected to mention that Thorpe cajoled Pop Warned into putting him on the football team in 1907. He mostly rode the bench that year as he learned the game by watching experienced players. The next year he was a starter and performed so well Walter Camp named him to his All-American Third Team for 1908.

Best was correct as far as he went in stating Thorpe “helped Carlisle beat some of the best teams in the nation like Army, Harvard, Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Nebraska.” Carlisle players considered everything about Harvard to be the best and held great post-game celebrations in the evenings after the 1907 and 1911 victories over Harvard. They always enjoyed beating Army but the loved beating the Johnny Harvard. Pop Warner savored the wins over Amos Alonzo Stagg’s 1907 Chicago team and Dartmouth’s 1913 squad, games in which Thorpe wasn’t a factor, more than the others. He considered the 1907 and 1911 squads to be his best at Carlisle.

A later paragraph began, “After completing his final collegiate season, Thorpe participated in the 1912 Olympic Games…” If the author of this article had possessed a calendar, he would have known that the Olympic Games, which were competed in the summer, were over before the start of football season in the fall.

That’s enough for today. I suggest that readers find other sources for information about Jim Thorpe rather than NBC Sports. Wheeler’s book would be my first choice.