Jim Thorpe Biography

(born May 28, 1888, near Prague, Indian Territory—died March 28, 1953, Lomita, Calif., U.S.) U.S. athlete. Of predominantly American Indian (Sauk and Fox) descent, he trained as a football halfback under Pop Warner while attending the Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pa. (1908–12), where he also excelled at baseball, basketball, boxing, lacrosse, swimming, and hockey. In 1912 he won the Olympic decathlon and pentathlon by wide margins, but he was deprived of his medals in 1913 after it was discovered he had played semiprofessional baseball. He later played professional baseball and football, and in 1920–21 he served as first president of what would become the National Football League. His Olympic medals were restored posthumously in 1983.

Copyright © 1994-2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.