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Jim Thorpe, 1888-1953
Of mixed Native American and white ancestry, Jim Thorpe was raised as a Sac and Fox and attended the Carlisle (Pennsylvania) Indian School, where in 1907 his all-around athletic skills began to be noticed. Thorpe excelled at football, baseball, and track and field, and in 1912 he won the intercollegiate ballroom dancing championship. At the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden, he easily won gold medals in the pentathlon and the decathlon. Months later, it was discovered that Thorpe had previously played professional baseball and should have been ineligible to compete. Consequently, his medals were revoked. But in 1983, the International Olympic Committee reversed its decision, partly due to an earlier technicality, and Thorpe's medals were reinstated. In 1999, Thorpe was ranked third on the Associated Press's list of greatest athletes of the twentieth century, behind Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan.
Underwood & Underwood, c 1913 |