Biographical Note
James Francis "Jim" Thorpe, or Wa-tho-huk (Sac and Fox, Thunder Clan), was born May 22, 1887, near Prague, Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). Beginning in 1904, he attended Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he competed in track and field as well as football under the tutelage of Glenn S. "Pop" Warner. In 1911 and 1912, while competing for Carlisle School, he was selected to the Collegiate Football All-America first team. In 1912, Thorpe won gold medals for the United States in the decathlon and classic pentathlon at the Stockholm Olympics. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) stripped him of his medals a year later, in 1913, due to violations of their amateur competition rules; Thorpe had played minor league baseball as a means to support himself during summers when he was a Carlisle student. The IOC reinstated his wins posthumously in 1982. Following the Olympics, in 1912, Thorpe won the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) All-Around Championship.
Thorpe primarily played baseball and football during his professional athletic career. Beginning in 1913, he played both major league and minor league baseball as an outfielder for teams including the New York Giants, Milwaukee Brewers, Cincinnati Reds, and Boston Braves. From 1915 to 1920, Thorpe played football for the Canton Bulldogs (Ohio) and from 1921 to 1923 for the Oorang Indians (Ohio). He served as the first president of the American Professional Football Association (later the National Football League) from 1920 to 1921, and was elected as a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963.
Following his retirement from professional sports around 1928, Thorpe worked multiple jobs and made frequent appearances as a motivational speaker or guest celebrity. Several starts at owning or managing small businesses were short-lived. He served briefly in the Merchant Marine at the end of World War II. He was a strong advocate for the rights of Native American actors in the Hollywood film industry, and appeared in over fifty films (many uncredited) in the 1930s and 1940s, including Always Kickin' (1932), Trailin' West (1936), Meet John Doe (1941), and Wagon Master (1950). In 1950, Thorpe served as a technical advisor on Jim Thorpe – All American, a biopic based on his life, released by Warner Bros. Pictures in 1951.
Thorpe was married three times: from 1913 to 1925 to to Iva Margaret Miller (1893-1980); from 1926 to 1942 to Freeda Verona "Libby" Kirkpatrick (1905-2007); and from 1945 to his death to Patricia Gladys Askew (1898-1975), who served as his business manager and agent. He died in Lomita, California on March 28, 1953.