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Jacob "Jim" Francis Thorpe was born on May 28, 1887 in Prague, Oklahoma. He was born into the Thunder Clan, Sac and Fox Tribe on a Sac and Fox reservation. He was born into a strong Roman Catholic family and his parents name's were Hiram P. Thorpe (his father) and Mary James (his mother). As a child he was given the name of "Wa-Tho-Huk", a tribal indian name meaning "Bright Path". This was extremely fitting for the life that was soon to happen. He had black hair and brown eyes. His twin brother Charlie was his best childhood memory, considering he died at the age of nine from pneumonia. Jim was extremely impacted from this event and continuely ran away from school. After awhile, his father sent him to a boarding school. This way he would be under supervison at all times and couldn't run away. About two years later, at age eleven, his mother passed away. This was a very bad time for Jim, and he became deeply depressed. This depression led to many arguments with his father, and eventually he ran awy from home and went to work on a horse ranch asa young teenager. At the age of sixteen he returned home and was enrolled in the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Shortly after enrolling, his athletic talent was noticed and recognized greatly by the famous coach, Gleen Scobey "Pop" Warner.
As an athlete, Jim was one of the greatest to ever live in my opinion. He played basketball, baseball, and football all professionally. He was 6'1" and weighed 190 pounds. He was also was the first person to win gold medals in both the pentathalon and decathalon in the same olympics. He did so in the 1912 Stockholm, Sweden olympics. "(Jim Thorpe) was the greatest athlete who ever lived.... What he had was natural ability. There wasn't anything he couln't do. All he had to see is someone doin' something and he tried it... and he'd do it better." - 1912 Olympic Silver Medalist, Abel Kiviat. That is the best complement any athlete could get from anyone, especially there competitor. Unfortunately These wins were revoked from him due to the Non-Professional rule. Basically you could not have been paid as an athlete previous to the olympic in which you were competing. And Jim had played a few years of minor league baseball prior to 1912. The funny thing about him participating in this olmpics, representing not only his "country" but also his tribe, is that was not even granted citizenship until 1917. But in 1983 they were re-instated into the books due to the abolishment of the Non-professional rule that applied to the olympics.
Throghout his life, and even after his life ended, Jim won many awards. In 1951, he was initiated into the College Football Hall of Fame. In 1963, a Charter Enshrinee was made of him and placed in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. In 1911 and 1912 he was voted All-Amercican in college football. In 1950, he was voted AP Most Outstanding Athlete of the First Half of the 20th Century. He was voted ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Century in 2001. And last but not least he is in the Track and Field Hall of Fame. And as if winning awards isn't enough, in 1986 in honor of James Francis Thorpe, the Jim Thorpe award was developed. This award is annually given to the best collegiate defensive back and is voted on by a comitee made entirely of members of the Jim Thorpe Association.
If you guessed sports was the most important thing in Jim's life, hen you are wrong. his family his tribe influenced his life more than anything else, his athletics were third in line behind, God, and his family/tribe. The Sac and Fox Nation lives to have much respect for life within themselves, their comunities, their families, and all of creations. This tribe is spiritually based. Many old religious practices include; namings (like Wa-Tho-Huk), clan feasts, adoptions, and burials. Many new religious practices associated with this tribe include Drum Dances, native american churches, and having a one-on-one realationship with God. As far as his family goes, his parents both dies before he reached the age of twenty and he didn't have much luck with his spouses. He married Iva Miller in 1913 and had four children. In 1926, he married Freeda Kirkpatrick and they had four children as well. His eight children's names were; Gale, Charlotte, Frances, James Francis Jr., Phillip, William, Richard, and John. And in 1945 he married Patricia Cladys Askew, obviously he was only married to one at a time. He had no children with Patricia and was with her until he died on March 28, 1953 in Lomita, California.
Sources
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Biography
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CMGWW
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Claifornia Indian Education
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Denton Genealogy
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Native American Encyclopedia
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Sac and Fox Nation
