Hall of Fame

Jim Thorpe is considered one of the greatest American athletes of all time. Thorpe, a Native American of Sauk and Fox descent, played football under coach Pop Warner and went on to play professional football and baseball. He won the decathlon and pentathlon at the Olympic Games Stockholm 1912, but was deprived of his gold medals after an investigation by the Amateur Athletic Union found that he had played semi-professional baseball in the minor leagues for two years, which disqualified him from Olympic competition. Thorpe was an outfielder for a number of National League teams between 1913-19. He also was one of the early football stars, playing from 1919-26 and served as the first president of the American Professional Football Association (later the National Football League). The Associated Press named Thorpe the Greatest Athlete of the First Half of the Century and the Pro Football Hall of Fame inducted Thorpe as a charter member. The International Olympic Committee restored his decathlon and pentathlon medals posthumously to Thorpe’s family in 1982.