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Jim Thorpe
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Jim Thorpe is a borough in Carbon County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 4,804 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Carbon County.[1] The boroughs of Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk merged and took on the name of Jim Thorpe following the 1953 death of Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe in hopes to attract tourism and other attention to help its economy. The town has ... been referred to as the "Switzerland of America", as can be seen in an old drawing of the town showcased in a restaurant therein. This may also be the cause of the building next to the Sunrise Diner having "Hotel Switzerland" painted onto its front. The town was so nicknamed due to the picturesque scenery, mountainous location, and architecture.
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Jacobus Franciscus "Jim" Thorpe (Meskwaki: Wa-Tho-Huk) (May 28 1888 รข€“ March 28 1953[1]) was an American athlete. Considered one of the most versatile athletes in modern sports, he won Olympic gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon, played American football collegiately and professionally, and ... played professional baseball and basketball. He subsequently lost his Olympic titles when it was found he had played two seasons of minor league baseball before competing in the games (thus violating the amateur status rules). In 1978, Thorpe was given his own national holiday, which is still celebrated on May 28.
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Until his death, Jim Thorpe the athlete had no direct connection with this area. He was born in Oklahoma in 1888; a descendant of the famous Chief Black Hawk. As a youth he attended the Carlisle Indian Academy near Harrisburg but there are no records of his ever venturing into Carbon County community that would eventually become his final resting place.
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Jim Thorpe has a long tradition as a cultural center. The galleries, which line the narrow and twisting streets of this picturesque town, are open for visitors and hold special gallery exhibits during extended hours.
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Jim Thorpe (James Thorpe), 1888-1953, American athlete, b. near Prague, Okla. Thorpe was probably the greatest all-round male athlete the United States has ever produced. His mother, a Sac, named him Bright Path, and in 1907 he entered the Carlisle Indian School at Carlisle, Pa. He joined (1908) the Carlisle football team, coached by Glenn ( "Pop" ) Warner, and in 1911-12 Thorpe, playing left halfback, led Carlisle in startling upsets over such highly rated teams as Harvard, Army, and the Univ. of Pennsylvania. In 1912, Thorpe took part in the Olympic games held at Stockholm, Sweden, and performed magnificently. He won the broad jump and the 200-meter and 1,500-meter runs of the pentathlon; won the shot put, the 1,500-meter run, and the hurdle race of the decathlon; and was the runner-up in the other events of the pentathlon and decathlon. In 1913... Thorpe surrendered his awards, at the request of the Amateur Athletic Union and the insistence of Glenn Warner, to the Olympic headquarters in Switzerland; it had been discovered that Thorpe had played (1909-10) semiprofessional baseball with the Rocky Mount, N.C., team of the North Carolina Eastern League. The medals were restored posthumously in 1982.
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Jim Thorpe, the greatest athlete of the century, has been described as being one of the most naturally gifted althletes to have ever lived. In his article "The Natural", Nicholas Lemann tells the story of how Thorpe first got into track and field while attending the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. At the school the students were trained in manual trades and then sent out in the summers to live with and work for farmers in the surrounding area. Thorpe had been in the program for apprentice tailors.
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Jim Thorpe