Jim Thorpe on the football field, the Olympic track, and the baseball diamond. Photo illustration by Mark Riechers, original public domain images by unknown author, Gallica, and Sporting News. (CC0)
Who was the legendary athlete Jim Thorpe? And why are so many Native Americans celebrating him today, 70 years after his death? Former President Dwight Eisenhower — who played against him on the football field — famously said, "He can do everything that everybody else can...and he can do it better." Drawn from conversations with hip-hop artist Tall Paul, journalist Patty Loew and biographer David Maraniss, we hear stories from the NFL, from baseball, and, of course, from what made Thorpe a legend —the 1912 Olympic Games.
- Rapper Tall Paul’s album is called, “The Story of Jim Thorpe." Tall Paul is an Anishinaabe and Oneida Hip-Hop artist enrolled on the Leech Lake reservation in Minnesota.
- Biographer David Maraniss is the author of "Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe."
- Activist Suzan Shown Harjo is the recipient of a 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom. She is Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee.
- Patty Loew is the director of the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research at Northwestern University. She is a member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe.