Jim Thorpe: Definition of an Athlete

          Harvard coach Bill Reid would later credit Teddy Roosevelt with saving football. But words in a rule book are one thing. Someone had to show the nation a new way to play the game. The Carlisle Indians did that. 
    from: Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team
                                                                                  by Steve Sheinkin
                                                                       Roaring Brook Press, 2017
 
       When one of my favorite authors, Steve Sheinkin, published a new book, I had to read it. I put it on reserve at my library and waited patiently until it was my turn.
       I had heard of Jim Thorpe. I knew he was a sports star. I thought he was Native American. That’s all.
       As I got further along in the biography, I realized that it is as much a biography of the school he went to and a commentary of late 1800s and early 1900s America as it is about the person. Also, football itself, is a prominent character.
       When Jim Thorpe was sent to school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, his parents had the best intentions. They wanted Jim to experience American culture so he could be successful in his conquered land. But the Carlisle Indian Industrial School’s stated purpose was to “kill the Indian and save the man.”
       Children were severed from their culture. They were not allowed to speak their native language or wear their traditional clothes. They ate (bad) American food and had to cut their hair. They were given new names, usually Biblical, and taught a trade.
       Jim learned that he was an exceptional athlete. He was strong, stoic, and creative. He invented new plays and was a talented leader. His coach recognized Jim’s abilities and encouraged him. But Coach Pop Warner was also a man of his time, as Sheinkin reminds us.
        When Jim Thorpe was born, in 1888, the Civil War was over, but prejudice remained. Although Native Americans were not the main target in that awful expression of hatred and fear, they had been lied to, stolen from, and demeaned for centuries.
       Fear and anger are great motivators and they do their work very well.
 
       Just in case you may not remember, I’m not much of a sports fan. Actually I watch football just to see if the players’ hats match their pants. Then I go back to the book I’m reading while my husband finishes (usually) watching the game.
    The roots of professional football sprouted in Canton, Ohio. When Jim Thorpe played on one of the first teams, the Canton Bulldogs, the attendance at games jumped from 1,200 to 8,000! And the players weren’t even required to wear hats, I know, I know, helmets. But a leather cap is not much protection. And the game was physically brutal.
       Jim Thorpe was a great football player. He was a baseball player and basketball player, too. He won two gold medals in track (the pentathlon and the decathlon) in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden.
       He was stripped of his medals because of a “misunderstanding.” Seems he played “professional” baseball during one of his summer breaks from school. The official Olympic Committee members said this disqualified him as an amateur athlete.
       The medals were finally restored to his family in 1982, almost 30 years after he died.
    So what is the take-away from all this? Maybe it is my new definition of athlete: Someone who discovers an obstacle, trains to overcome it, and becomes a role model for others.
       Now that’s a definition even I, a non-athlete, can aspire to.
                                                                                      --stay curious!