Unforgettable is the late Jim Thorpe

Every now and then Jim Thorpe’s name comes around, and when it does, he usually is forgiven of something that occurred ages ago.

Already established as one of the all-time finest athletes, this time the Native American who passed away in 1953, has been reinstated as the sole winner of the 1912 Olympic pentathlon and decathlon held in Stockholm Sweden, nearly 110 years after being stripped of those gold medals for violations of strict amateurism rules of the time.

This was announced on Friday by the International Olympic Committee on the 110th anniversary of Thorpe winning the decathlon and later being proclaimed by King Gustav V of Sweden as the “the greatest athlete in the world.”

After this, Thorpe returned to a ticket-tape parade in New York City, but months later it was disclosed he had been paid to play minor league baseball over two summers, an infringement of the Olympic amateurism rules. He was stripped of his gold medals in what was described as the first major international sports scandal.

To some, Thorpe remains the greatest ever all-around athlete. He was voted as the Associated Press’ Athlete of the Half Century in a poll taken in 1950.

In 1982, 29 years after Thorpe’s passing, the IOC gave duplicate gold medals to his family but his Olympic records were not reinstated, nor was his status as the sole gold medalist of the two events.

“We welcome the fact that, thanks to the great engagement of Bright Path Strong, a solution could be found,” said IOCpresident Thomas Baca. “This is a most exceptional and unique solution that has been addressed by an extraordinary gesture of fair play from the National Olympic Committees concerned.”

Thorpe’s Native American name, Wa-Tho-Huk, means “Bright Path”. The organization with the help of IOC member Anita DeFrantz had contacted the Swedish Olympic Committee and the family of Hugo Wieslander, who had been elevated to decathlon gold medalist in 1913.

But it was confirmed by the IOC that Wieslander himself had never accepted the Olympic gold medal that was allotted to him, and had always been of the opinion that Jim Thorpe was the sole legitimate Oklahoma gold medalist when he was stripped of the pentathlon title.

And the same declaration was received from the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports, whose athlete, Ferdinand Bie, was named as the gold medalist when Thorpe was stripped of the pentathlon title.

Bie will now be listed as the silver medalist in the pentathlon and Wieslander with silver in the decathlon. World Athletics, the governing body of track and field, has also agreed to amend its record, the IOC said.

How exceptional as Thorpe was in the world of sports is remarkable despite what he and his family went through back then. Rules are rules, but they had no idea of how they would affect Jim Thorpe.

In Arnie Leshin’s book “The Best Damn Sports Stories”, the amazing Thorpe he is listed in the same chapter as Jim Brown, Bo Jackson and Jackie Robinson as the all-time quartet of best athletes.

What didn’t he do? He was an All-America football player, he played Major League baseball, he played professional football, he won both the pentathlon and the decathlon at the Olympics. In the foothills of the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, the town of Carlisle was named for him. His education in athletics and the classrooms were spent at the Carlisle Indian School, one of the first nonreservation schools for American Indians. It was Thorpe who brought national attention to the school.

Twice he was named to the All-American football team as a two-way back who rested only when the contest had entered. He was an excellent baseball player, played many different positions, and starred as a multi-talented track and field athlete.

In 1912 at the Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Thorpe won every event of the grueling pentathlon but the javelin throw. He won the rugged decathlon, but when it was discovered that he had played semi-pro baseball prior to the Olympic Games, he was stripped of his medals a month later. To his dying day in 1953, Thorpe always insisted that he had no idea that he was doing anything against the rules, anything that he knew about.

But none of what he called pure nonsense could stop him from playing major league baseball from 1913-19, and professional football from 1920-26, and again in 1928. In the year 1950, the Associated Press chose him as the “Athlete of the Half Century.”

Those that were around to see Jim Thorpe the athlete would spend hours talking about his many accomplishments. If it wasn’t baseball, it was football, if it wasn’t those two, it was track and field. If it wasn’t the pentathlon, it was the decathlon. In 1982, he was reinstated in the Olympic records medals book. His medals were also restored to his family, who fought for years to finally get him the recognition and honors that he deserved.

He was an indian, an American indian, an elite athlete, one for the ages.