In 1999 Congress recognized an athlete of the century
it wasn't Babe Ruth or Michael Jordan. In 2001 the Wide World of Sports named
their athletes of the century and it wasn't Muhammad Ali. They both named Jim
Thorpe as the athlete of the century. Thorpe is probably the best athlete you've
never heard of. He was born in 1888 to a half Irish Dad and a Mum that was
French and Native Americans. Thorpes' Indian name was the Bright Path. He had a
complex childhood with his twin brother died at the age of eight and his mother
died six years later. He found school difficult and often ran away from school.
His Father struggled with him and in 1904 sent him to a federally funded
Indian School in Pennsylvania. It was here that athlete ability was
noticed for the first time. One day he was walking past a track-and-field practice.
He saw athletes struggling to clear a high jump. Thorpe walked up wearing his casual
clothes and easily cleared the 5 foot 8 inch high jump bar. The legendary coach Pop
Warner took thought under his wing and quickly trained him for track and field
events. Thorpe would regularly go to meets, compete in seven or eight events and
consistently win six goals. He was soon added to the football squad and earned
all-american honors in 1908. He became particularly famous in 1911 when as
running back, defensive back, place kicker, and punter he scored all of his team's
points while beating Harvard a top ranked team. He was a natural athlete
been in football, baseball, lacrosse, and even ballroom dancing winning in the 1912
national forum dancing championship. In 1912 his football team won the
championship with him scoring 25 touchdowns and a 198 points
It was the same year when playing against future President
Dwight Eisenhower being rushed for 97 yard touchdown. The game had such an
impact on Eisenhower that during his speech of 1961 he said "Here and there
there are some people who are supremely endowed, my memory goes back to Jim Thorpe
thought he never practiced in his life but he could do anything better than any
other football player I ever saw." Thorpe was awarded all-american honors
in both 1911 and 1912 and besides starring in football and track and field
excelled in other sports such as baseball, lacrosse, basketball, golf,
swimming, billiards, rowing, hockey, and boxing. He went on to play professional
football and professional baseball. He ended his 1919 baseball season with a
.327 battling average. Thorpe represented America in the 1912 Olympic
Games dominating both the decathlon and pentathlon. In the pentathlon he won four
of the five of events. Long jump, 200 meters, discus and 1500 meters. In the decathlon
he set a record in the 1500 meters and with 8412 points
he brought the decathlon world record by 998 points the king of Sweden was so
impressed he said to thought you sir are the greatest athletes in the world when
he returned to the US he received a lot of public praise and a massive parade he
was heard saying I heard people yelling my name
I couldn't realize how one fella could have so many friends. The president even
recognized him as a great American citizen which is a little bit ironic
because of his race and birth place he wasn't actually entitled to be an American
citizen. Unfortunately because prior to the
Olympics in 1909 he had spent one season playing semi-professional baseball a
scandal occurred and he had to return his gold medals because professional
players were not allowed of the Olympics. After the Olympics he continued to play
professional baseball and football and in 1920 Thorpe was named the first
president of the American Professional Football Association now known as a
National Football League he's considered instrumental in starting professional
football in the US. While he lost his gold medals he
received a lot of other recognition he was voted America's best all-around male
athlete chosen as the best football player of
the half-century in 1950, named greatest American football player in history in a
1977 poll, inducted into the Pennsylvania and Oklahoma Hall of Fame, the National
Indian Hall of Fame, the National Track and Field Hall of Fame, the National
Football Hall of Fame and the Helm's Professional Football Hall of Fame. For
the last 20 years of his life Thorpe took various often low-paying jobs to
support his family. When he died in 1953 he was so poor that
his family sent his body to two towns in Pennsylvania neither of which he had
ever visited in exchange for them creating a Memorial merging and renaming
the new town Jim Thorpe. A movie about his life was
created in 1951 called "Jim Thorpe - All American" and in 1982 the
International Olympic Committee restored his amateur status and his record given
his relatives replicas of his 1912 gold medals. The story of Jim thought doesn't
just tell us about the past but also about the future perhaps the most
staggering part of this story is not his incredible achievement in such a broad
range of sports but rather that the name of the man who was once considered the
most famous athlete in world is all but forgotten from general knowledge within
a hundred years. Do you think that Usain Bolt, Tom Bradley, Tiger Woods, or Michael
Phelps will be well known in 100 years? If you enjoyed this video give me a
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