My family and I lived in Carlisle, PA while my Dad attended the Army War College on Carlisle Barracks. It was the best year of high school and I’m still close to two friends from that year. I walked by and on Jim Thorpe field near the quarters we lived in. I was more concerned with getting my driver’s license, friends, etc. and I NEVER knew about what Jim Thorpe actually did. I was totally clueless until I watched this!!! What an incredible athlete and man! Thank you for the lesson ❤ My kids are grown now but I’m still not telling my parents that I basically didn’t listen to anything they said - including what they told me about the history there. 😮🙃 I don’t want to get grounded - AGAIN😁😇
They took his Olympic metals away something about not being an amateur he was a full blooded fox Indian and died destitute living in a run down camper he wanted to be buried with his people but his ex current wife stole his body mid funeral and sold it to a town in Pennsylvania they renamed it after him but I can't remember the name he was a highly talented man who led an amazing and ofttimes unbelievable life
He was a member of the Sac and Fox Nation. He was not “full blooded” Fox. His father’s father was Irish. His mother was part of the Potawatomi Nation. It’s unclear if his mother was mixed like his father was. But Jim Thorpe was raised as a member of the Sac and Fox Nation. Both of his parents were Roman Catholic and Jim remained a practicing Catholic for his whole adult life. It’s terrible he had such a difficult time from the time of the Great Depression until his death. He was payed $2,500 for his life story. Burt Lancaster played him in the movie about his life. Of course he should have been played by a Native American actor I will say that at least Burt Lancaster was tall enough and extremely athletic. Lancaster was a circus acrobat before he became a movie star. It’s also a horrible thing that his widow sold his remains to the 2 towns in Pennsylvania that became Jim Thorpe, PA..
He was treated less then human by the majority of them. Even in death the colonizers are still disrespecting him, his family and his culture all for tourist dollars
We're just great athletes! All the women in my family, including myself, played fast pitch. My cousin played for University of Oklahoma back in the day. Its a shame its not popular as a professional game. Those ladies have so much heart!
Jim Thorpe, Jackie Robinson, Wilt Chamberlain, Bo Jackson. The 4 greatest athletes of all time. Babe Didrikson is, without question, the greatest female athlete.
Jim Thorpe was so successful at a time when the native Americans were really looked down upon. His Indian name was Bright Path. He was a member of the Sac and Fox and Potawatomi tribe. There's an old movie that was made about his life and I believe it starred Burt Lancaster.
The Hall of Fame’s location in Canton has nothing to do with Jim being a member of the Canton Bulldogs. It’s located there because Canton is the birthplace of the NFL. It was born in Ralph Hay’s Hupmobile showroom in the summer of 1920. Hays owned the Bulldogs for many years but they had played in the Ohio League. Thorpe, interestingly, was elected the league’s first president at that meeting, where 14 men paid the $100 franchise fee to play in the league. Only two teams from that day are in operation today. The Chicago Bears and the Arizona Cardinals (who began as the Chicago Cardinals, before moving to St Louis and then Arizona). The Cardinals have changed ownership a few times but the Bears are still owned by the family of George Halas, who early on served as player, coach and owner. It was Halas who made one of the most important moves in league history with the signing of Red Grange, football’s first superstar.
Footnote the movie was called Jim Thorpe All-American and it was a 1951 movie that starred Burt Lancaster as Jim Thorpe. It's actually a really good movie I watched it when I was a kid so it wasn't that old of a movie then😅
Correction needed. The Pro Football Hall of Fame is in Canton because the APFA (later known as the NFL) was founded in Canton. It was formed on September 17, 1920, in a meeting at the Jordan and Hupmobile Dealership.
Sorry, but Jim Thorpe is NOT the reason the HOF is in Canton, OH. The NFL was formed in 1920 in Canton, the Bulldogs were a successful team then, and in the 1960s the city of Canton and residents raised funds and pushed to have the HOF there for tourism.
I heard it was a quid pro quo from Timken. HOF was going to be in Massilion, but Timken wanted Canton to be more prosperous, so he pretty much said 'if you put it in Canton, I'll build factories there.' Just lore I heard prolly once, could be completely wrong
Canton Bulldogs owner Joe Carr's Hupmobile dealership was the meeting place for team's that wanted to schedule games with the Bulldogs since Thorpe was the biggest draw at that time. That became the NFL of today.
@@nickmeara5323 Congrats... you can google. That blurb is a top return of basic but misleading info. Thorpe was a popular draw in large part because he was Olympic decathlon champ, which meant much more then. He was made nominal president of the football league it's first season for publicity, but the league was formed to bring order and stability, not because teams wanted to play Thorpe and Canton for revenue (they already were playing them). And the Hall of Fame is in Canton because 40 years later local business men and politicians made it happen to bring tourism because the local economy was faltering. Sorry to rain on your neat little package of partially accurate factoids for your video, but it ain't really so. No disrespect to Jim Thorpe (and I actually played against Jim Thorpe High School back in the day).
