#OTD: In 1983, exceptional Native American athlete Jim Thorpe had his Olympic medals restored by the International Olympic Committee, nearly 30 years after his death. Born in a one-room log cabin on the North Canadian River near Belmont in Oklahoma territory, Thorpe was an All-American football player for the Carlisle Indian School located at Carlisle Barracks, #Pennsylvania.
During the four years he played for the Carlisle Indians, this small school won 43 games, lost 5 and... tied 2. Included in the list of defeated powerhouses were Penn State, Syracuse University, West Point - The U.S. Military Academy, United States Naval Academy, University of Minnesota, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Chicago (under Amos Alonzo Stagg), Princeton University, Harvard University, and Villanova University.
In the 1912 summer Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden, Thorpe won both the pentathlon and decathlon and finished 4th in the broad jump. Following college, he played six seasons of professional baseball (1913-1919) and 15 seasons of professional football (1915-1929).
In 1950, Thorpe was voted the "Greatest Male Athlete of the Half Century" by the Associated Press. In 1977, he was selected as the "Greatest Football Player in History" in a poll conducted by Sport Magazine.
(Image: Library of Congress photo of Jim Thorpe in football gear.)
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