While discussing an article I had written about the 1908 Carlisle Indian School football team, the editor of the journal that is going to publish it in the spring asked about Jim Thorpe’s contributions. 1908 was Thorpe’s second year on the football team, the first as a starter. He played well and Walter Camp selected him for his All-America Third Team. The 1908 team wasn’t nearly as good as the 1907 squad, the best Carlisle had fielded to that point, having defeated both Harvard and Penn.
Jim Thorpe left Carlisle after the spring 1909 track season to play summer baseball in the Carolinas. He didn’t return to Carlisle as a student or athlete the next two school years. When Albert Exendine ran into Thorpe in Anadarko, Oklahoma during the summer of 1911, he saw a different person than the skinny kid he had tutored for track events. Jim had left as a boy but would return with the muscular physique of an adult man.
What Thorpe accomplished in 1911 and 1912 on the football field, in track and field, and in the Olympics is well known. When thinking about this, it dawned on me that had Thorpe returned to Carlisle at the end of summer 1909 and continued competing for Carlisle, he would not likely have accomplished what he did when he returned two years later. The additional size and strength he had gained helped him immensely in both football and track.
The 1908 Olympics were held after the end of a successful 1908 track season but Jim wasn’t encouraged to try out for the team. Two other Carlislians were on America’s 1908 squad, Lewis Tewanima and Frank Mt. Pleasant. So, Warner was well aware a team representing the country was being assembled but, as much as he valued Thorpe on his team, he apparently didn’t consider Jim ready to compete internationally.
Thorpe would have likely had another good year playing football in 1909, maybe even making Walter Camp’s Second Team. He would have used up his four years of eligibility in track in spring 1910 and for football in that fall. He might have even made Camp’s First Team but he wouldn’t likely have been as dominating as he was in 1911 and 1912, years he wouldn’t have competed in had he not taken the two-year hiatus. His only likely professional athletic opportunity would have been minor league baseball. Had he taken that route, he could have received the tutelage he needed to develop into a complete major league player.
Filled out, Warner encouraged Jim to try out for the 1912 Olympics and trained him for the games. The adult Jim Thorpe had the size and strength to run roughshod over the best football players in the country and to top the best cindermen in a grueling variety of events. Had he returned to Carlisle after playing summer baseball in 1909, he would not likely have been a two-time Walter Camp First Team All-American or gold medal winner in either the pentathlon or decathlon at the 1912 Summer Games. He may not have even tried out for the team.
Rather than harming Jim, playing summer baseball ultimately led to him achieving things few others have been able to do. He is still considered the finest all-around athlete the world has ever produced. The skinny kid could not have won the gold medals but he might have ultimately had a long, successful baseball career.
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