Jim Thorpe: World's Greatest Athlete

all my life, since the age of about 10 yrs., I am now 54, I have admired this superlatively great athlete!  And Jim Thorpe is still one of my great inspirations, now more than ever, to continue to strive, to continue to try, no matter what odds I face, no matter what adversity or racism, I know that God put me on this planet to help others, to be an asset, to be the best i can be, to make this planet a better place.  Thank you JIm Thorpe. You are the greatest.

Seriously? Jim Thorpe is MY Grandfather. Robert Wheeler is NOT a member of my family. Why did the Smithsonian have him speak. This is BS! If you want to read the TRUTH about my Grandfather check out Native American Son by Kate Buford

This guy is one of the most boring individuals that I ever had the displeasure of listening to. He is out of his mind boring.

The problem with Mr. Wheeler speaking about my Grandfather is this. He only tells one half of the story. Mr. Wheeler has been speaking publicly about a family matter of which he is no part of. He sides with my uncles and the Sac and Fox tribe to have my Grandfather remains disinterred and moved back to Oklahoma. The Tribe and my Uncles want to bury my Grandfather somewhere near the Sac and Fox casino in Oklahoma. Mr. Wheeler fails to mention my Mom and Aunts wanted my Grandfather to stay where he is, in Jim Thorpe, PA. At one time my Uncle Jack agreed my Grandfather should stay in Jim Thorpe, PA. My Uncles and the Tribe waited until my Mom and Aunts were dead before  they pursued a law suit filed against the town of Jim Thorpe. The act in itself is illegal. Mr. Wheeler is NOT Native American and needs to stay out of my family affairs.

Thank you for sharing this!

Bo Jackson would mop the floor with Jim Thorpe

Jim Thorpe was the best....

Dam that crazy that jim is indigenous...an his father2 an an they married ir white women .. an jim aslo marrie a white women.. an .know look at there kids they look white but are not..

Was very good until the son spoke.

JAMES FRANCIS THORPE

There is so much subjectivity in trying to determine who the greatest athlete of the century was/is that it must be remembered that the film and video footage and concept of recency gives a tactical advantage to today's athlete as opposed to the greats of yesteryear in the selection process. However, if one is looking for the best all around athlete, there is one name above and beyond all the other athletes which surfaces time and time again in poll after poll and that athlete is James Francis Thorpe. He was not a one dimensional athlete and excelled in every sport in which he was called upon to participate.

This man was an athlete beyond comparison! His strength and stamina were beyond imagination and were born as a consequence of growing up before the turn of the century causing him to be subjected to hard work and development of his legs. He could not ride and he walked or ran where ever he had to go. An example of his tremendous leg strength is revealed by Thorpe walking and running 275 miles to see his father who had been hurt while Thorpe was in the equivalent of a high school. He broke horses, farmed, rustled fire wood, and increasingly grew stronger, all honing events for the revealing of the athlete he was to become.

Today's fan cannot conceptualize what Thorpe could and DID do as an athlete because no one is doing what he did as a composite athlete. Understandably, we have athletes who run faster and who are, indeed, stronger, who punt, pass, and kick the football "better." The same was true in Thorpe's time. There were other athletes who excelled Thorpe in individual athletic achievement and events. But none of them, throughout the breadth of the entire twentieth century, could do so much as well as Thorpe did consistently, day in, day out, throughout his career.

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Thorpe consistently ran the hundred yard dash in 10 seconds. NEVER was he afforded the luxury of having run on an asphalt track, he never used starting blocks, he never was provided streamlined wind deflecting track suits, and he never trained to become just a track and field athlete. In 1912, when he won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon, Thorpe dominated on pure natural ability and underwent none of the specialized training afforded to today's athlete. Yet, his achievements are comparable to any of the decathlon winners from 1912 to the present time. Where Thorpe stands out alone, however, is when you ask how many of those other great decathlon winners went on to play and excel in professional football or professional baseball as did Jim Thorpe? The answer is that none did.

Thorpe had blazing speed and incredible strength. His son, Jack Thorpe, relates a story during the 1930's when Thorpe, his son, and another man were traveling by car on the back roads when a tire went flat. They were miles from nowhere and realized that they had a replacement tire but no jack. Thorpe went to rear of the car and lifted the car while the other man changed the tire! Jack Thorpe didn't place a lot of emphasis on this feat because he thought all father's were blessed with such strength.

Thorpe could drop-kick a football consistently over 50 yards and ranks probably only second to Pat O'Dea as the greatest dropkicker football has ever seen. I believe that his collegiate record of a 63 yard field goal is still a record. Tom Dempsey set the professional field goal record with a 63 yard kick that was recently tied. After Thorpe retired from the pro ranks he would put on demonstrations at half time and drop kick the ball through the goal posts from 50 yards out, turn the other direction and repeat the performance much to the delight of the awestruck fans.

It was routine during his collegiate days for Thorpe to punt the ball 60, 70 or 80 yards. Perhaps the size differential of the ball benefited Thorpe in his kicking game. However, he was capable of passing the football consistently 70 and 80 yards and there are some references to Thorpe passing that same football 100 yards and it must be remembered that he was not using the streamlined version present on today's football.

Today's fan won't believe these accomplishments because they feel it impossible and mind boggling for any athlete to have achieved what Thorpe achieved during his lifetime. Pass a football 80, 90, 100 yards? The modern day fan is shocked and won't believe it. They are literally being asked to imagine a composite of the speed and breakaway excitement of a Gale Sayers, the power, speed, and endurance of Jim Brown, the passing touch of Joe Montana, speed comparable to Bullet Bob Hayes, and the kicking exploit of a Jon Stenerud and the tackling ferocity of Dick Butkus all being thrown into a mix with the end result producing a single athlete with the featured talents of EACH these gridiron greats. No way, they maintain. But history tells us differently over and over again and all from prime sources.

In that same sense of disbelief, today's fan, thinks that no one could possible hit the titanic shots that Mark McGuire is hitting before our very eyes. Those fans can't imagine that Ruth hit a home run that traveled 605 feet and that Mantle lodged one which was measured out at 565 feet and another in an exhibition game against Southern California measured out at 600 feet. There is a "Doubting Thomas" built into all of us and with the increased passage of time, and "no doubt," the feats being accomplished by today's athlete will in some measure be forgotten and disbelieved until someone pulls out a video or film footage to make the doubters of a future generation sit up and take notice.

The observation that today's best supersede the best of the generations of the past is pure bunk and serves only to give the person who makes such a representation a feeling of self-worth as he or she lives vicariously within the athletes they follow who make them feel good about themselves as, inwardly, they benefit from their own adrenaline rush. It is as if one were saying that Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Rodin, as artists and sculptors could not compete with nor can their works compare favorably with today's artists and their works because the technological advancements made available to the crop of today's artists gives them the advantage. One should be able to clearly see through the fallacy of that argument. In reality, the same is true when the creme de la creme of athletes from different generations are examined.

Was Jim Thorpe the greatest all around athlete? An excellent argument can be made that he was indeed. In that same breath, an even stronger argument can be made that he was the greatest football player who ever graced the gridiron with the understanding, that by comparison, Red Grange, Marion Motley, Ollie Matson, Hugh McElheney, Jim Brown, Gale Sayers, O.J. Simpson, Walter Payton, Sammy Baugh, Otto Graham, Johnny Unitas, Joe Montana, Dan Marino, John Elway and all the rest, were great football players in their own right but came nowhere near to being the composite all-around player capsulated in the man they called Bright Path. On the gridiron, Thorpe could do it all! He ran, passed, punted, drop-kicked field goals, returned kickoffs and punts which such success that he ranks amongst the record holders in each of these categories some 90 years after setting these records.

Not only did Thorpe excel in track and field and college football, but he excelled in professional football, basketball, played major league baseball, lacrosse and was an accomplished boxer and wrestler. While playing for the New York Giants under the managerial ship of John McGraw, McGraw forbade any of his players to wrestle with Thorpe for fear of their getting hurt such was Thorpe's prowess and strength. Yet, beneath this strength was a grace, poise, and confidence that allowed him to win collegiate dance contests.

Yes, Michael Jordan ventured into the professional world of baseball but could not be classified as a baseball player in any stretch of the imagination on a par with what Thorpe was capable of doing at the major league level. Jordan is to be commended for trying. We must remember, also, that Jordan had a secret ambition to be an elite golfer. History revealed to us that the only time that Jim Thorpe golfed he scored a 75! Make no mistake about it. Jordan, at the professional basketball level, was a greater basketball player that was Jim Thorpe. In every other category of athleticism, the records ring loud and clear and enunciate to the world of sport that James Francis Thorpe was the greatest athlete of the twentieth century.

To your memory, Jim.

John A. Bardelli
December 31, 1999

They must not teach history anymore. I live in Jim Thorpe. Sometimes I am on the phone ordering something and go to give them an address. I get answers like: "No, not your name, your address". or "Wait a minute, I thought you said your name was ....". Almost nobody knows who he was, but it is mostly the younger people. As for the people in Jim Thorpe, it is not them in the legal battle, it is an inter family fight.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this video. There is one item where Mr. Wheeler is incorrect. He states Knute Rockne was playing for Notre Dame on Saturday's and the Massillon Tigers on Sundays. This is wrong. Rockne played at Notre Dame from 1910 to 1913 and for Massillon from 1915 to 1917. Thorpe himself stated he was playing for Canton when he played against Rockne. Thorpe played for Canton from 1915 to 1917 and 1919 and 1920.

Jim really suffered abuse like the blacks. What Aver Bundige did to him was straight out racism. Jim should have been a wealthy man but booze stole it motivated by racism. Burt Lancaster plays the role great but had no respect for the ageing champ. Apparently Jim had sold the movie rights so receive very little. I saw no help coming from anywhere the movie people used him and gave him nothing. The greatest athlete ever lived before them and all they saw was a drunk. Surely someone could have reached out so he could hit the jackpot before he died. Even on death his wife took the final ounce of his prestige to bail out a town. There was no money to bury Jim where he should have been buried. I love Jim Thorpe! What a man and athlete. Truely the greatest ever! His pain must have been the greatest ever too! I met Jesse Owens he was there with Thorpe but Jim had him in versatility in baseball, football, track and strength sports. That’s the only reason I pick Jim as the very best! Maybe Bo knows 🤗.

Thank you.

Evidentemente hay racismo en contra de Jim Thorpe😢

My understanding that there a person on the olympic board at that time his son acctually moved into third place by Jims record being striped. Is this true.