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Downloaded from
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He was at the dawn
of American organized sports.

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He set a record
that lasted for 40 years.

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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[cheers and applause]

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I haven't seen anything
since then

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that approaches
that level of greatness

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in so many different sports.

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One of the greatest athletes
ever, ever, ever

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in all American history.

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Everybody will remember
the names of Babe Ruth,

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Muhammad Ali,
and certainly Michael Jordan,

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but their achievements
don't match that

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of the greatest athlete
that ever lived.

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And yet not many people
remember his name.

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[narrator] Destined to become
the world's greatest athlete.

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Jim Thorpe was good enough
to dominate at multiple things,

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and that's why he stands alone

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when we talk about some
of the greatest athletes

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that we've ever had.

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[man] It wasn't
just track and field,

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but it was
football, basketball, baseball.

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I heard he was
a good ballroom dancer.

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[man] There was nothing
that Jim Thorpe couldn't do

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as an athlete.

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But beyond that, what he
represents is the perseverance

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of Native peoples
in this country.

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Jim Thorpe was living
in a time

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when most people
around the globe

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didn't see Indigenous peoples
as human beings.

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They would shout things
at him like "dog soup,"

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or they would do war whoops
to taunt him.

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There was a lot of
anti-Indigenous racism

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at that time.

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[Thorpe] Some of the memories
are bitter.

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[man] The gold medals
and trophies

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were taken away from him.

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It was an act
of enormous injustice.

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And though my records
have been wiped

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from the official books...

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I mean, it was something
that he never got over

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and really loomed over him
the rest of his life.

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...I find some consolation
in believing

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they are still remembered
by the American people.

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People grabbed onto him
almost like a folk hero

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as the man wronged
by the big guys.

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They wanted some vindication
for Jim.

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♪

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As a child,

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I had tried to emulate
the spirited abandon

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of a running horse,

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head up and feet coming down
with a thundering certainty.

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♪♪

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I ran and jumped
and fought and wrestled

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and climbed trees
as a youngster

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because it was as natural

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for an Indian child
to do those things

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as it was to eat and sleep.

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Jim was born
into poverty in Oklahoma

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in a small cabin in 1887.

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It's said that the night
he was born,

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there was lightning striking
on the river nearby.

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He was given the name
Wa-tho-Huk,

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which means "bright path"
or "path lit by lightning."

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And I mean,
it's pretty fitting, right?

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He went on to shock the world.

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[woman] He was born
on the Sac and Fox reservation.

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Growing up
on the reservation,

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he liked challenging
his own body,

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even as a little boy,

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whether it was swimming
in the North Canadian River

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or it was chasing rabbits
and catching them.

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It was catching wild horses.
It was running over fences.

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And later
people would comment

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that that was like
a natural cross-training.

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The open plains
and the river bottoms

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were my first track field.

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It was on them that I learned
to run as a child.

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But the reservation existed
really only for

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two or three more years.

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Before Europeans arrived
in this country,

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there were millions
of Native peoples already here.

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By the time
of Jim Thorpe's birth,

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there were
fewer than 300,000 left.

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[narrator] In the years
leading up to Thorpe's birth,

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the United States'
relentless westward expansion

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fueled the Lakota Sioux Wars,

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as the nation encroached
on Indigenous lands

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and forced tribes
onto reservations.

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Indian reservations were
really prison camps,

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and they were only supposed to
be around for 25 years,

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And at the end of 25 years,

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we would have
all been assimilated or dead.

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[man] In 1887,

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Senator Henry Dawes
introduced a bill

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known as the Dawes Act,

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also known
as the Allotment Act.

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It sought to take away
what the government considered

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excess Indian land.

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There are old accounts
and images

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of "Indian land for sale"
or "free Indian land."

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And so in order
to get that land,

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they organized
the famous Oklahoma land runs.

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♪

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[Buford]
At the crack of a pistol,

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all these wagons and people
and horses

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flooded into what had been
their reservation.

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People just, like, ran and put
their stake in the ground

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and claimed land --
stolen land, Native land.

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[Buford] Imagine what
that was like,

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particularly for
a three, four-year-old child

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like Jim Thorpe.

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You had this place
that you were born into,

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and overnight it's overrun
by these strange white people.

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[Proudfit] They were looking
at Native people as savages

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to be killed and forcibly
removed through any means.

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[Doyle] It's amazing
that these communities survived.

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Even more stunning is that
an athlete could emerge from

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those kind of circumstances.

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[Maraniss] Indian Territory
of Oklahoma

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was the Wild West
in every possible way.

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Jim Thorpe's father, Hiram,
represented that.

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[Thorpe] My father
was Hiram Phillip Thorpe,

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one half Sac and Fox Indian
and one half Irish.

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He was a giant of a man.

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[Buford] Hiram would take
his sons out into the rural land

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for days at a time
and hunt and fish.

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But Hiram was also
incredibly rough on them.

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When Jim was four,
Hiram saw him dog-paddling

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along the edge
of the North Canadian River,

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and threw the little guy
out into the current

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to see
how his son made it back.

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It was 40 yards
to the bank,

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and it looked like
a mile to me.

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But I made it under
the watchful eye of my father.

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He said, "Don't be afraid
of the water, son,

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and it won't be afraid
of you."

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It encapsulates
what Hiram was like.

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So Jim grew up
with that kind of father.

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His father taught him
and instilled in him

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at a very young age,
to be a man,

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you had to step up,
you had to compete.

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Native people,
we love competition.

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[Buford] So there would be
running contests,

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there would be
swimming contests,

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there would be
jumping contests.

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[Proudfit] You know,
we invented so many sports

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that people know in European
culture or American culture,

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whether it's soccer, lacrosse,
or even the game of basketball.

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Jim Thorpe's love
of athletic endeavors

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started in
the Sac and Fox territory.

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For Jim Thorpe,
sports are in his blood.

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My mother
always looked upon me

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as a reincarnation
of Black Hawk,

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the Indian chief for whom
the Black Hawk War was named.

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[Buford] Black Hawk was
this larger-than-life,

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heroic figure that
every Indian boy in that tribe

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wanted to model himself on.

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[Proudfit] He fought against
Andrew Jackson.

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Everyone in America
knew Black Hawk's name.

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That's how impressive
Black Hawk was.

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So much so that
his name was appropriated

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for a World War I
Army division,

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the Black Hawk helicopter,
and for the Chicago NHL team.

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[narrator] The Dawes Act didn't
just divide up Native land

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to be given
to white settlers.

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The other portion
of the Dawes Act

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was meant to take
Indian children

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and put them in boarding
schools far from their homes.

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[Buford] Bureau of Indian
Affairs mandated

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that the children should go
at a certain age

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off to Indian boarding schools.

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[Creek]
Sometimes it was voluntary.

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Parents would send
their kids there thinking

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it was the only way
to ensure their survival.

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Other times it was by force.

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The United States,
they would kidnap these kids

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and they would force them
into these establishments.

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And the notion was to take
the children of those warriors

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from the Lakota Sioux
and "tame them," quote, unquote.

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The boarding school era
was meant

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to take children away
from their Native communities

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and teach them
the Western way of life.

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[woman] They were really
all about assimilation.

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Kids were stripped of their
humanity and of their culture.

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[Buford] They were
put into uniforms.

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If they didn't already have
an Anglo name like Jim --

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he was born with one --
they were assigned them.

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[Proudfit] You can actually see
pictures of students

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who went in Native
with long hair,

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with their earrings,
with Native dress.

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And then you see
another picture of them

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with their short hair
looking very somber.

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[Buford] It was all a way
to make them look white

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and act white
and eventually be white.

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It was a full-on attempt
to reshape an entire generation

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of Native people.

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[Maraniss] Jim Thorpe endured

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three different
boarding schools.

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First, he went to

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the Sac and Fox
boarding school nearby,

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which he hated
and ran away from twice.

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[Thorpe] I tired of
the classroom routine

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and ran away,
walking back home 23 miles.

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My father met me at the door
and marched me back to school.

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He kept doing that
and doing that, running home.

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And finally Hiram said, "I'm
gonna send you so far away,

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you will never be
able to come back.

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[train whistle blows]

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Then he was sent to
the Haskell Institute in Kansas.

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It was at Haskell
I saw my first football game

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and developed a love for it,

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a love I've had
through the years.

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[Maraniss] And finally ended up
at the flagship

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U.S. government
boarding school.

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On February 4th, 1904,

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I entered
the Carlisle Indian School

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at Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

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Well, the Carlisle Indian
Industrial School is founded

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right after the wars

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of the Lakota Sioux
out in the Plains.

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Had the motto,
"Kill the Indian, save the man."

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And this is where
he came of age in a lot of ways,

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and where he began
his career in sports.

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[Maraniss] The football team
in particular

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was the reason
that anybody knew Carlisle.

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When the Carlisle Indians,

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this exotic team
of Native people, would go play,

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they would draw a huge crowd.

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The founder of Carlisle
was Richard Pratt.

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He had been an officer
in the Far West

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during the so-called
Indian Wars.

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[man] He's interested
in assimilation

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for the Indigenous people,

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but he also believes
they have to prove themselves.

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And one of the ways
they can prove to whites

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that they're worthy
is through sports.

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[Maraniss]
Jim loved football,

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and by the time he got
to Carlisle, he wanted to play.

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As much
as Jim wanted to play football,

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he was too short and slight.

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About three months
after my arrival,

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I weighed 116 pounds,

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and I was five foot,
three inches in height.

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He was a scrawny young guy.

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[cheers and applause]

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[Buford] Football was played
at the highest level

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of collegiate hierarchy,
which is Yale and Harvard.

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00:11:24.375 --> 00:11:26.333
Football was important
to them.

250
00:11:26.417 --> 00:11:30.167
It was the game that was going
to teach the leaders of tomorrow

251
00:11:30.208 --> 00:11:32.750
how to lead, how to be
strategic, how to be smart.

252
00:11:32.833 --> 00:11:34.500
[man] In lieu of a real war,

253
00:11:34.583 --> 00:11:36.250
we're going to put them
out on this field

254
00:11:36.375 --> 00:11:38.708
to turn boys into men.

255
00:11:41.750 --> 00:11:43.458
[narrator]
I've always felt

256
00:11:43.542 --> 00:11:46.417
that football was pretty
closely related to warfare.

257
00:11:46.500 --> 00:11:49.917
I mean, violence is
certainly a part of man,

258
00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:51.667
so why not admit it?

259
00:11:51.750 --> 00:11:54.583
Use it.
Let it out.

260
00:11:54.667 --> 00:11:56.417
Football was a game
of brute force.

261
00:11:56.500 --> 00:12:01.167
Think of two semis just crashing
straight into one another.

262
00:12:01.292 --> 00:12:03.958
It's a collision sport.
It's a violent sport.

263
00:12:04.042 --> 00:12:08.250
Every play
is an act of violence.

264
00:12:08.333 --> 00:12:11.000
American football
was dominated by the famous

265
00:12:11.083 --> 00:12:13.333
so-called flying wedge.

266
00:12:13.417 --> 00:12:16.542
The offense would mass
behind a lead player,

267
00:12:16.625 --> 00:12:18.875
and, based on
models of warfare,

268
00:12:18.958 --> 00:12:21.458
would charge through
the opposing line.

269
00:12:21.542 --> 00:12:24.667
It took steamroller tactics
to move the pigskin

270
00:12:24.667 --> 00:12:27.667
towards the opposing team's
goalposts.

271
00:12:27.667 --> 00:12:30.333
[Creek] In the 1904
college season alone,

272
00:12:30.417 --> 00:12:32.750
there were 20 deaths in football
and hundreds of injuries.

273
00:12:32.833 --> 00:12:36.167
Guys had broken femurs.
Guys were missing ears.

274
00:12:36.208 --> 00:12:37.917
One guy even had
his eye gouged out.

275
00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:40.167
You could punch, you could bite,
you could scratch.

276
00:12:40.167 --> 00:12:41.500
And so a lot of times,
these guys

277
00:12:41.583 --> 00:12:43.000
were just
running into each other,

278
00:12:43.042 --> 00:12:44.625
trying to do
whatever they could

279
00:12:44.708 --> 00:12:46.000
to take the opposing player
out of the game.

280
00:12:46.042 --> 00:12:48.167
Helmets were
definitely not required.

281
00:12:48.208 --> 00:12:50.042
The helmets
maybe they were wearing

282
00:12:50.125 --> 00:12:52.833
were little leather helmets
with very little padding.

283
00:12:52.917 --> 00:12:54.500
[Maraniss]
It was a free-for-all.

284
00:12:54.625 --> 00:12:57.583
Football was a free-for-all.
It was almost outlawed.

285
00:12:57.667 --> 00:13:00.708
♪

286
00:13:00.792 --> 00:13:02.542
The president of Harvard
was calling for

287
00:13:02.625 --> 00:13:04.208
football to be abolished.

288
00:13:04.333 --> 00:13:05.667
[Eisenberg] There was definitely
public pressure.

289
00:13:05.750 --> 00:13:07.667
There were op-eds written.

290
00:13:07.708 --> 00:13:10.500
[Maraniss] The Chicago Tribune
did a series about the number

291
00:13:10.542 --> 00:13:12.458
of deaths and injuries,

292
00:13:12.542 --> 00:13:15.583
and it read like an after action
report from Vietnam,

293
00:13:15.667 --> 00:13:19.833
you know, listing all of these
dead halfbacks and linemen.

294
00:13:19.917 --> 00:13:21.583
[Eisenberg] And so this was not
a tenable situation.

295
00:13:21.667 --> 00:13:25.833
As popular as it was becoming,
you couldn't have people dying.

296
00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:31.208
[Buford]
Teddy Roosevelt was president,

297
00:13:31.333 --> 00:13:34.375
and he was a Harvard man,
and he loved football.

298
00:13:34.458 --> 00:13:37.125
So he called a conference
in the White House

299
00:13:37.208 --> 00:13:38.833
of the leaders
of these top schools

300
00:13:38.958 --> 00:13:42.292
and said, "You've got to make
football safer."

301
00:13:42.375 --> 00:13:45.125
You couldn't have our Ivy League
leaders of tomorrow

302
00:13:45.208 --> 00:13:47.833
getting killed
on the football field.

303
00:13:47.875 --> 00:13:50.292
It was this close
to kind of being out of here,

304
00:13:50.375 --> 00:13:52.333
which is wild to think of
when you think about

305
00:13:52.417 --> 00:13:55.333
how important it's become
in our American sports culture.

306
00:13:55.375 --> 00:13:57.208
♪

307
00:13:57.292 --> 00:14:01.167
At the end of the 1904 term,
Jim decided to leave Carlisle

308
00:14:01.250 --> 00:14:03.125
and to work
in their outing program,

309
00:14:03.208 --> 00:14:05.292
which was a kind of
placement program

310
00:14:05.375 --> 00:14:09.375
where Indian kids would work
as farmers or cooks or maids.

311
00:14:09.500 --> 00:14:12.500
It was also seen as a form of
introduction into white society.

312
00:14:12.542 --> 00:14:15.542
[Thorpe] I was anxious
to go for the experience.

313
00:14:15.625 --> 00:14:18.958
I did all the housework
and learned to sew and cook.

314
00:14:19.042 --> 00:14:21.833
I longed to be
out in the open again.

315
00:14:21.875 --> 00:14:24.375
I felt smothered
with the indoor work.

316
00:14:24.500 --> 00:14:26.875
So he goes on to work
as a farmhand for two years,

317
00:14:26.958 --> 00:14:29.792
laboring in the field
and breaking wild horses

318
00:14:29.875 --> 00:14:31.542
just like
his father taught him.

319
00:14:31.625 --> 00:14:33.833
[Doyle] Breaking horses
is incredibly physical work.

320
00:14:33.875 --> 00:14:35.292
You know,
you're using your arms.

321
00:14:35.375 --> 00:14:36.667
You're using your hands.

322
00:14:36.750 --> 00:14:37.958
You're using your legs
to jump up

323
00:14:38.042 --> 00:14:39.500
to corral the horses.

324
00:14:39.583 --> 00:14:41.042
You're hanging on
for dear life.

325
00:14:41.125 --> 00:14:42.833
By the end of the summer,

326
00:14:42.917 --> 00:14:45.375
Jim's body had changed
dramatically.

327
00:14:45.458 --> 00:14:48.875
When Jim returned to Carlisle,
he was primed. He was ready.

328
00:14:48.958 --> 00:14:51.833
And it was then
that the origin story

329
00:14:51.875 --> 00:14:54.917
of Jim Thorpe the athlete
began.

330
00:15:00.708 --> 00:15:04.167
[Hill] What is wonderful
about reflecting

331
00:15:04.250 --> 00:15:06.750
on Jim Thorpe's legacy
is that you start to hear

332
00:15:06.833 --> 00:15:08.833
all these stories
that sound like,

333
00:15:08.917 --> 00:15:10.167
"Did somebody make that up?

334
00:15:10.292 --> 00:15:12.167
Did that really
actually happen?"

335
00:15:12.250 --> 00:15:14.583
And one of the more famous ones
is the high jump story.

336
00:15:14.667 --> 00:15:17.875
[Maraniss] At Carlisle,
one day he was in overalls,

337
00:15:17.958 --> 00:15:20.042
walking toward
the athletic fields,

338
00:15:20.125 --> 00:15:22.917
saw members of the track team
at the high jump pit.

339
00:15:23.042 --> 00:15:26.167
Jim had no idea
what the high jump was.

340
00:15:26.208 --> 00:15:27.625
He had never seen it before.

341
00:15:27.708 --> 00:15:29.333
[Thorpe]
For several minutes

342
00:15:29.417 --> 00:15:31.333
they successfully went higher
and higher.

343
00:15:31.375 --> 00:15:36.125
Eventually, they placed the bar
at a point they couldn't scale.

344
00:15:36.125 --> 00:15:40.167
He watched boy after boy
fail to make it over the bar.

345
00:15:40.208 --> 00:15:42.167
Intrigued, Jim walks over,

346
00:15:42.250 --> 00:15:45.292
and in his overalls
Jim decided to give it a try.

347
00:15:45.375 --> 00:15:47.042
If you know anything
about Olympic sports

348
00:15:47.167 --> 00:15:48.667
or if you've seen this,

349
00:15:48.708 --> 00:15:50.458
it's an
extraordinarily difficult

350
00:15:50.542 --> 00:15:52.167
thing to do.

351
00:15:52.208 --> 00:15:55.000
[man] Jim Thorpe had
no experience, no training.

352
00:15:55.042 --> 00:15:57.250
He certainly didn't have
the proper attire or footwear.

353
00:15:57.375 --> 00:16:01.042
In just one graceful move,
he runs up,

354
00:16:01.125 --> 00:16:04.875
leaps into the air,
easily clears the bar.

355
00:16:04.958 --> 00:16:06.542
The boys were stunned.

356
00:16:06.625 --> 00:16:08.375
[Hill] Jim Thorpe made
everything look effortless.

357
00:16:08.458 --> 00:16:10.958
Things that take people
years and years and years

358
00:16:11.042 --> 00:16:12.833
of training, of coaching to do,

359
00:16:12.917 --> 00:16:15.083
he could do just like that.

360
00:16:15.167 --> 00:16:18.167
For the fun of it,
I ran and jumped the bar,

361
00:16:18.250 --> 00:16:20.500
turned around and laughed.

362
00:16:20.583 --> 00:16:23.292
Jim just walked away
as if it was no big deal.

363
00:16:23.417 --> 00:16:26.833
When this story reaches
Pop Warner, he said,

364
00:16:26.875 --> 00:16:29.417
"Jim Thorpe just set
the school record."

365
00:16:29.500 --> 00:16:32.417
♪

366
00:16:32.500 --> 00:16:34.583
[Maraniss] Pop Warner,
who was the track coach,

367
00:16:34.583 --> 00:16:37.458
brought Thorpe into his office
the next day and said,

368
00:16:37.542 --> 00:16:40.125
"Here's your uniform.
You're on the track team."

369
00:16:40.208 --> 00:16:43.042
[Buford] But Jim really wasn't
interested in track and field.

370
00:16:43.167 --> 00:16:45.000
He wanted to play football
really badly.

371
00:16:45.042 --> 00:16:46.667
And so when he introduced
the idea

372
00:16:46.750 --> 00:16:50.000
of wanting to play football
to Pop Warner, he thought,

373
00:16:50.083 --> 00:16:51.750
"Why would I ever let
you do this?" [laughs]

374
00:16:51.833 --> 00:16:54.458
"Because have you seen what
happens on a football field?"

375
00:16:54.542 --> 00:16:56.125
But Jim was persistent.

376
00:16:56.125 --> 00:16:58.708
He would constantly,
every day ask Pop,

377
00:16:58.792 --> 00:17:00.292
"When is it gonna be
my turn?

378
00:17:00.375 --> 00:17:02.333
When am I gonna have
a chance to play football?"

379
00:17:02.375 --> 00:17:05.292
I kept after him until
he finally threw a suit to me,

380
00:17:05.375 --> 00:17:08.458
hoping to get rid of me,
I guess.

381
00:17:08.542 --> 00:17:10.125
There was this exercise

382
00:17:10.208 --> 00:17:13.208
where Warner would
set up players every 10 yards,

383
00:17:13.292 --> 00:17:14.750
all the way down the field,

384
00:17:14.833 --> 00:17:16.542
and have somebody
try to run through

385
00:17:16.667 --> 00:17:18.833
without getting tackled,
and nobody could ever do it.

386
00:17:18.875 --> 00:17:21.333
[Anderson] Jim is looking
at 40 players,

387
00:17:21.375 --> 00:17:24.750
and their sole objective
is to tackle Thorpe.

388
00:17:24.875 --> 00:17:27.167
The only experience
I've ever had with a football

389
00:17:27.250 --> 00:17:28.875
was at Haskell.

390
00:17:29.000 --> 00:17:31.958
If that could
be called experience.

391
00:17:32.042 --> 00:17:35.375
My hand had never gripped
a real football.

392
00:17:35.500 --> 00:17:38.000
Warner figured these players
were gonna show Jim

393
00:17:38.083 --> 00:17:40.083
what football was all about.

394
00:17:40.167 --> 00:17:41.917
Thorpe takes off.

395
00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:45.250
He cuts, he weaves, he dodges,
he stiff-arms.

396
00:17:45.375 --> 00:17:48.542
Warner is watching it
slack-jaw.

397
00:17:50.042 --> 00:17:52.333
I heard him say
to one of the trainers,

398
00:17:52.417 --> 00:17:54.958
"He's certainly
a wild Indian."

399
00:17:55.042 --> 00:17:58.125
What he just saw,
that moment,

400
00:17:58.208 --> 00:18:03.083
was the birth of Jim Thorpe,
of the football player.

401
00:18:03.167 --> 00:18:04.792
[narrator]
Jim Thorpe is now a member

402
00:18:04.875 --> 00:18:06.625
of the Carlisle football team.

403
00:18:06.708 --> 00:18:09.167
His dreams
of playing collegiate football

404
00:18:09.208 --> 00:18:10.958
are closer than ever,

405
00:18:11.042 --> 00:18:14.792
but he's relegated
to the backup squad.

406
00:18:14.875 --> 00:18:17.667
[Petrzela] In October of 1907,
Jim got his big break

407
00:18:17.750 --> 00:18:20.583
when Carlisle played
the University of Pennsylvania

408
00:18:20.667 --> 00:18:22.792
at Franklin Field
in Philadelphia.

409
00:18:22.875 --> 00:18:27.042
Pop Warner put him in
to replace an injured player,

410
00:18:27.042 --> 00:18:28.875
but it didn't go
exactly according to plan.

411
00:18:28.958 --> 00:18:33.167
When I was given the ball
to carry in my first big game,

412
00:18:33.208 --> 00:18:36.292
I got excited and didn't follow
my interference.

413
00:18:36.375 --> 00:18:41.000
The result was I crashed
into a stone wall of opposition

414
00:18:41.083 --> 00:18:42.833
and was thrown for a loss.

415
00:18:42.875 --> 00:18:45.000
Jim was not off
to a great start.

416
00:18:45.083 --> 00:18:47.417
But if Jim Thorpe was
confident in anything,

417
00:18:47.500 --> 00:18:50.417
it was that he wasn't gonna
let one bad play stop him.

418
00:18:50.417 --> 00:18:53.208
The next time
the ball was passed to me,

419
00:18:53.333 --> 00:18:54.917
I got away around end

420
00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:57.750
and tore 75 yards
to a touchdown.

421
00:18:57.875 --> 00:19:01.833
And Pop Warner soon decided
I was there to stay.

422
00:19:01.875 --> 00:19:04.125
Along came Mr. Pop Warner,

423
00:19:04.208 --> 00:19:06.625
one of football's
most brilliant minds.

424
00:19:08.208 --> 00:19:11.792
A lot of people have
heard of Pop Warner football.

425
00:19:11.792 --> 00:19:16.083
It is associated with youth
football all across America.

426
00:19:16.208 --> 00:19:18.708
But not many people know
the man behind it.

427
00:19:18.833 --> 00:19:20.167
All these Pop Warner leagues

428
00:19:20.250 --> 00:19:23.042
that comes from Pop Warner
the coach.

429
00:19:23.125 --> 00:19:25.792
Pop Warner was not a pop.

430
00:19:25.875 --> 00:19:28.750
He didn't have any kids.
He played football at Cornell.

431
00:19:28.875 --> 00:19:30.375
And he was older than
some of the other players,

432
00:19:30.375 --> 00:19:32.167
so they started
calling him Pop.

433
00:19:32.250 --> 00:19:37.333
But Pop Warner was
a brilliant football coach.

434
00:19:37.417 --> 00:19:39.250
Pop Warner's coaching style
was that of an innovator.

435
00:19:39.333 --> 00:19:42.542
[Schefter] He was known
for trick plays.

436
00:19:42.625 --> 00:19:45.333
He came up with trick plays
before there were trick plays.

437
00:19:45.375 --> 00:19:46.750
One of his plays,
the hidden ball,

438
00:19:46.833 --> 00:19:48.542
he sewed a pocket
into a player's uniform

439
00:19:48.667 --> 00:19:50.500
and had him stuff
the ball in there

440
00:19:50.542 --> 00:19:51.917
so he could run down the field
without anyone knowing

441
00:19:51.917 --> 00:19:53.542
he was actually carrying it.

442
00:19:53.625 --> 00:19:55.000
The rules committee
would slap it down and say,

443
00:19:55.083 --> 00:19:56.708
"No, you can't
do that anymore."

444
00:19:56.708 --> 00:19:58.833
So then Warner would go back
to the drawing board

445
00:19:58.875 --> 00:20:02.667
and come up with another trick
play or another innovation.

446
00:20:02.708 --> 00:20:05.708
He was pushing, pushing,
pushing the rules all the time.

447
00:20:05.792 --> 00:20:08.875
Warner's imagination
was constantly firing.

448
00:20:08.958 --> 00:20:10.625
He developed
a blocking sled.

449
00:20:10.708 --> 00:20:12.333
He developed
tackling dummies.

450
00:20:12.417 --> 00:20:14.333
He developed
the single wing offense,

451
00:20:14.417 --> 00:20:17.125
the double wing offense,
lightweight uniforms.

452
00:20:17.208 --> 00:20:20.917
So much of what he developed
we still see today

453
00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:22.500
nearly a hundred years later.

454
00:20:22.542 --> 00:20:25.708
[narrator] By 1908,
under Pop's guidance,

455
00:20:25.792 --> 00:20:28.625
Jim is beginning
to make a name for himself.

456
00:20:28.708 --> 00:20:30.542
By the time Carlisle
was scheduled to play

457
00:20:30.625 --> 00:20:32.750
University of Pennsylvania
in October,

458
00:20:32.833 --> 00:20:36.708
Jim Thorpe had created
a identity of toughness.

459
00:20:36.833 --> 00:20:39.458
So he came into that game
with a target on his back.

460
00:20:39.542 --> 00:20:42.458
[Thorpe] Word passed through
the Penn Eleven to get Thorpe,

461
00:20:42.542 --> 00:20:44.458
put him out of the game.

462
00:20:44.542 --> 00:20:46.750
They did everything
in the world to cripple me,

463
00:20:46.833 --> 00:20:49.833
but they didn't take into
consideration the tough hide

464
00:20:49.875 --> 00:20:53.083
and the stubborn constitution
of the prairie Indian.

465
00:20:53.167 --> 00:20:54.583
Well, you think about it,
you know,

466
00:20:54.708 --> 00:20:56.333
you're an Indian kid
in a boarding school.

467
00:20:56.417 --> 00:20:58.833
You've been taken away
from your parents violently.

468
00:20:58.875 --> 00:21:00.833
For young Indian kids,
you really don't have a chance

469
00:21:00.875 --> 00:21:02.750
to express that anger
in any other way

470
00:21:02.833 --> 00:21:05.208
except through
competitive sports.

471
00:21:05.208 --> 00:21:07.500
[narrator] In a fiercely
contested game,

472
00:21:07.583 --> 00:21:11.542
Carlisle trails 6-0
in the final minutes,

473
00:21:11.667 --> 00:21:14.333
but Jim Thorpe refuses
to back down.

474
00:21:14.458 --> 00:21:16.667
In the real world,
he could never really compete

475
00:21:16.792 --> 00:21:18.292
with white people.

476
00:21:18.417 --> 00:21:20.500
Playing football,
he got to compete with them

477
00:21:20.542 --> 00:21:22.625
on an equal playing field.

478
00:21:22.708 --> 00:21:25.458
[Thorpe] I got the ball on
a fast pass and was on my way,

479
00:21:25.542 --> 00:21:28.542
skirting the end,
carrying the mail 65 yards

480
00:21:28.667 --> 00:21:31.500
to a touchdown,
tying the score.

481
00:21:32.708 --> 00:21:35.625
Penn had been
doped to win,

482
00:21:35.708 --> 00:21:38.167
and our tie proved
quite an upset.

483
00:21:38.292 --> 00:21:40.333
[narrator] With Jim's help,
Carlisle goes on

484
00:21:40.417 --> 00:21:43.583
to a 10-2 record
that year.

485
00:21:43.667 --> 00:21:45.292
[Williams] At the same time
Jim's establishing himself

486
00:21:45.375 --> 00:21:46.792
as a football phenomenon,

487
00:21:46.875 --> 00:21:49.542
he also has his eye
on another sport.

488
00:21:54.083 --> 00:21:56.375
When Jim arrived at Carlisle,

489
00:21:56.500 --> 00:21:57.875
he hadn't done
any track and field.

490
00:21:57.958 --> 00:22:00.167
He just knew how to jump
and he knew how to run.

491
00:22:00.250 --> 00:22:02.708
And he was this
incredibly gifted athlete.

492
00:22:02.708 --> 00:22:04.792
Now that Jim was
on the track team,

493
00:22:04.792 --> 00:22:07.542
he was introduced to all these
other sports and competitions

494
00:22:07.625 --> 00:22:09.292
that he'd never seen before.

495
00:22:09.375 --> 00:22:11.125
He needed to be taught,

496
00:22:11.208 --> 00:22:14.417
and there was a very gifted
athlete on the team already

497
00:22:14.500 --> 00:22:16.292
called Albert Exendine.

498
00:22:16.375 --> 00:22:19.167
Warner said to Albert,
"Take Jim under your wing,

499
00:22:19.250 --> 00:22:20.708
and teach him
what he needs to know."

500
00:22:36.375 --> 00:22:37.792
The next thing you know,

501
00:22:37.875 --> 00:22:40.333
Jim Thorpe is
a track and field star.

502
00:22:43.292 --> 00:22:45.500
[narrator] Jim excels
at track and field,

503
00:22:45.542 --> 00:22:48.125
but his true passion
remains football.

504
00:22:48.208 --> 00:22:49.958
Jim really
comes into his own

505
00:22:50.042 --> 00:22:53.542
as a football phenomenon
in 1911,

506
00:22:53.542 --> 00:22:55.708
Carlisle had
a very good season,

507
00:22:55.792 --> 00:22:58.958
and Pop signed up
to play against Harvard.

508
00:23:00.125 --> 00:23:02.000
Well, everyone around
the country

509
00:23:02.042 --> 00:23:05.583
who was following football
was primed for this contest.

510
00:23:05.667 --> 00:23:08.458
The little Indian school
and Harvard.

511
00:23:09.958 --> 00:23:12.500
[Creek] Harvard at the time
was an absolute powerhouse.

512
00:23:12.542 --> 00:23:14.750
Starting in the late 1800s,
over the course of two decades,

513
00:23:14.875 --> 00:23:16.625
they won nine
national championships.

514
00:23:16.708 --> 00:23:18.042
They were unstoppable.

515
00:23:20.542 --> 00:23:24.375
One can only imagine
that Jim Thorpe could recognize

516
00:23:24.500 --> 00:23:26.167
who he was playing against.

517
00:23:26.208 --> 00:23:27.958
These are the elites
of this country.

518
00:23:28.042 --> 00:23:30.167
These are the sons
of the industrialists.

519
00:23:30.250 --> 00:23:32.125
These are the sons
of the landowners

520
00:23:32.208 --> 00:23:35.583
that have taken his homelands
away from his family,

521
00:23:35.667 --> 00:23:37.333
away from his tribe.

522
00:23:37.417 --> 00:23:39.667
And so a part of me
has to think

523
00:23:39.750 --> 00:23:41.625
that perhaps it was
a little bit personal.

524
00:23:43.333 --> 00:23:45.000
But with
the most important game

525
00:23:45.083 --> 00:23:48.292
of Thorpe's career looming,
there's a problem.

526
00:23:48.292 --> 00:23:50.042
[Buford]
Jim had an injury,

527
00:23:50.167 --> 00:23:54.667
so his leg was visibly bandaged
from his ankle to his knee.

528
00:23:54.708 --> 00:23:56.500
It was his kicking leg.

529
00:23:56.583 --> 00:23:59.292
"Crippled Jimmy Thorpe,"
as the press named him.

530
00:23:59.375 --> 00:24:00.750
[crowd cheering]

531
00:24:00.875 --> 00:24:02.333
[Williams]
From the opening drive

532
00:24:02.375 --> 00:24:04.833
Jim plays every minute
of the game,

533
00:24:04.958 --> 00:24:06.625
offense and defense,

534
00:24:06.708 --> 00:24:08.167
because that's the way
the game was played back then.

535
00:24:08.292 --> 00:24:10.875
[Schefter]
He never got a break,

536
00:24:10.958 --> 00:24:13.542
and he stayed out there
the entire time.

537
00:24:13.667 --> 00:24:16.000
So here he is
running the football,

538
00:24:16.125 --> 00:24:18.500
playing defense, kicking.

539
00:24:18.542 --> 00:24:19.833
[Eisenberg]
There were no substitutions.

540
00:24:19.958 --> 00:24:21.542
There was no bench.

541
00:24:21.625 --> 00:24:23.458
The whole idea was
you don't come off the field.

542
00:24:23.542 --> 00:24:25.167
It is a game of stamina.

543
00:24:25.208 --> 00:24:28.667
If we look at the NFL today,
there's nobody who does

544
00:24:28.792 --> 00:24:32.167
what Jim Thorpe did
back in the day.

545
00:24:32.208 --> 00:24:35.250
We have to put ourselves
in the DeLorean and go back

546
00:24:35.375 --> 00:24:37.417
and think about
what the game looked like

547
00:24:37.500 --> 00:24:38.833
when Jim Thorpe was playing.

548
00:24:38.917 --> 00:24:40.542
[Watson] What you would
be seeing back

549
00:24:40.625 --> 00:24:42.458
in the beginning
of the 20th century

550
00:24:42.542 --> 00:24:44.167
was a totally different game.

551
00:24:44.208 --> 00:24:47.750
The rules are changing
every year back then.

552
00:24:47.875 --> 00:24:49.875
[Eisenberg] There was no passing
in the beginning,

553
00:24:49.958 --> 00:24:51.792
so that was considered
borderline cheating.

554
00:24:51.792 --> 00:24:54.292
They didn't wear uniforms.
Very little padding.

555
00:24:54.375 --> 00:24:56.542
They had what they called
team sweaters.

556
00:24:56.667 --> 00:24:58.167
You couldn't tell who was
on what team.

557
00:24:58.208 --> 00:25:01.542
Touchdowns for much
of that period were five points.

558
00:25:01.625 --> 00:25:03.500
Field goals were four points.

559
00:25:03.542 --> 00:25:05.292
The yard markers
were different.

560
00:25:05.375 --> 00:25:06.750
The length of the field
was different.

561
00:25:06.833 --> 00:25:08.750
There was
very little scoring,

562
00:25:08.875 --> 00:25:10.417
and the vast majority
of plays

563
00:25:10.500 --> 00:25:13.333
were just taking the ball
into the line.

564
00:25:13.417 --> 00:25:15.375
It sounds like
a made-up universe,

565
00:25:15.458 --> 00:25:17.042
like some kind of
bizarro version of football,

566
00:25:17.042 --> 00:25:20.708
but that's very much
how football was played.

567
00:25:20.792 --> 00:25:22.500
Jim Thorpe
was made for football

568
00:25:22.625 --> 00:25:24.583
because he was great
at everything

569
00:25:24.667 --> 00:25:26.500
and he loved
to hit people,

570
00:25:26.542 --> 00:25:29.583
which was what football
was all about.

571
00:25:29.708 --> 00:25:31.750
[Thorpe] I gave little quarter
when I played football,

572
00:25:31.833 --> 00:25:33.833
and I never asked for any.

573
00:25:33.875 --> 00:25:35.917
When I was hurt,
I bit my lip,

574
00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:38.667
bandaged the injury
between quarters

575
00:25:38.750 --> 00:25:40.500
and kept giving
what I had just received.

576
00:25:40.625 --> 00:25:42.667
Even with his injured leg,

577
00:25:42.750 --> 00:25:46.167
Jim still managed to kick two
field goals in the first half.

578
00:25:46.250 --> 00:25:47.958
[crowd cheers]

579
00:25:48.042 --> 00:25:49.375
[narrator]
Along with a field goal,

580
00:25:49.500 --> 00:25:51.208
Harvard scores a touchdown.

581
00:25:51.208 --> 00:25:55.542
And going into the half,
Carlisle is down 9-6.

582
00:25:55.625 --> 00:25:57.833
In the second half
Carlisle comes roaring back,

583
00:25:57.917 --> 00:26:00.250
and Jim's fingerprints
are all over the game.

584
00:26:00.333 --> 00:26:01.958
He's running, he's kicking,

585
00:26:01.958 --> 00:26:04.167
he's tackling,
all on a busted leg.

586
00:26:04.250 --> 00:26:05.750
It gives you an idea

587
00:26:05.833 --> 00:26:07.917
of how great of an athlete
he has to be.

588
00:26:07.917 --> 00:26:09.833
Just from
a physical-toll standpoint,

589
00:26:09.958 --> 00:26:12.083
to do what Jim Thorpe
was doing,

590
00:26:12.167 --> 00:26:14.875
frankly, looking back on it,
it's like, it's crazy.

591
00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:17.708
[laughs]
It is absolutely crazy.

592
00:26:17.792 --> 00:26:19.625
[Williams] Carlisle scores
a touchdown.

593
00:26:19.625 --> 00:26:21.792
Then Jim connects
for two field goals.

594
00:26:21.875 --> 00:26:23.667
Suddenly,
the unthinkable happens.

595
00:26:23.792 --> 00:26:26.292
Carlisle beats Harvard.

596
00:26:26.375 --> 00:26:28.000
Years later,
Sports Illustrated

597
00:26:28.083 --> 00:26:30.875
would point to this game
and Jim's performance in it

598
00:26:30.958 --> 00:26:33.333
that would have earned
Jim the Heisman Trophy

599
00:26:33.333 --> 00:26:35.625
had the Heisman Trophy existed.

600
00:26:35.708 --> 00:26:37.000
There's something poetic

601
00:26:37.125 --> 00:26:38.875
and there's some sense
of justice

602
00:26:38.958 --> 00:26:41.625
in the way that Jim played,
because when he played

603
00:26:41.708 --> 00:26:43.458
he played
for all Native peoples.

604
00:26:43.542 --> 00:26:45.875
[Thorpe] Harvard,
the Crimson Tide,

605
00:26:45.875 --> 00:26:47.958
was our big enemy that year.

606
00:26:48.042 --> 00:26:51.167
Our victory
proved a great upset.

607
00:26:51.208 --> 00:26:52.833
Sturdy old John Harvard

608
00:26:52.917 --> 00:26:54.583
being knocked over
by the little Indian school

609
00:26:54.667 --> 00:26:57.083
was a calamity
no one had looked for.

610
00:26:57.167 --> 00:26:59.500
There's the famous headline,
"Thorpe Beat Harvard."

611
00:26:59.542 --> 00:27:02.500
He was seen
as this amazing football player.

612
00:27:02.625 --> 00:27:05.333
[Maraniss] Jim Thorpe had
probably the first

613
00:27:05.458 --> 00:27:09.083
nationally recognized
brilliant game of his career.

614
00:27:09.208 --> 00:27:11.500
Harvard was such a big deal
that all of

615
00:27:11.500 --> 00:27:13.500
the newspapers
from New York and Boston

616
00:27:13.625 --> 00:27:15.750
and Philadelphia
covered that game.

617
00:27:15.875 --> 00:27:19.583
♪♪

618
00:27:19.667 --> 00:27:21.167
[Hill] Jim Thorpe's
performance against Harvard

619
00:27:21.250 --> 00:27:23.875
you kind of have to rank
right up there

620
00:27:23.958 --> 00:27:25.708
with some of the greatest games
and performances

621
00:27:25.792 --> 00:27:27.333
that you've seen
throughout history.

622
00:27:27.417 --> 00:27:29.625
It's like
Kobe Bryant dropping 81,

623
00:27:29.708 --> 00:27:32.500
Tiger winning the Masters
by 12 strokes,

624
00:27:32.583 --> 00:27:35.500
Wayne Gretzky's
Game 7 magic over Toronto.

625
00:27:35.583 --> 00:27:39.708
All those ridiculous
athletic accomplishments

626
00:27:39.833 --> 00:27:42.917
that became the defining games
for the defining athlete,

627
00:27:43.000 --> 00:27:44.875
that's what
that game was for him.

628
00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:47.000
[narrator] Carlisle goes on
to have only one loss

629
00:27:47.167 --> 00:27:48.542
that entire season

630
00:27:48.625 --> 00:27:51.875
as Thorpe's star
continues to rise.

631
00:27:51.958 --> 00:27:53.833
[narrator] Jim Thorpe makes
gridiron history,

632
00:27:54.000 --> 00:27:57.667
scores 25 touchdowns,
198 points in a single season,

633
00:27:57.833 --> 00:27:59.750
a combined record
never equaled.

634
00:27:59.875 --> 00:28:03.125
[Jones] Jim gets named captain
of the Carlisle football team,

635
00:28:03.208 --> 00:28:06.042
and Walter Camp, who's
the father of American football,

636
00:28:06.125 --> 00:28:09.083
ends up naming Thorpe
to his All-American list.

637
00:28:09.167 --> 00:28:11.542
[Williams] Jim Thorpe is
at the top of his game,

638
00:28:11.667 --> 00:28:14.417
and yet he was
about to level up again.

639
00:28:19.500 --> 00:28:24.042
[Thorpe]
The year 1912 came.

640
00:28:24.125 --> 00:28:27.167
The magic year
of the Olympiad.

641
00:28:27.208 --> 00:28:30.542
I trained as I've never trained
before or since.

642
00:28:30.667 --> 00:28:34.833
In my heart,
I had known since 1909

643
00:28:34.875 --> 00:28:38.958
that I would compete
in the game of games.

644
00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:44.833
The modern Olympic Games
were created by a French lord,

645
00:28:44.875 --> 00:28:48.500
Baron Pierre de Coubertin,
in 1896.

646
00:28:48.583 --> 00:28:50.542
It was his vision

647
00:28:50.625 --> 00:28:53.667
to build a festival
of international sport

648
00:28:53.750 --> 00:28:55.875
that would
bring countries together

649
00:28:55.958 --> 00:28:59.333
to sit higher
than our political differences.

650
00:28:59.417 --> 00:29:01.917
He was inspired
after France had been crushed

651
00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:03.750
in the Franco-Prussian War.

652
00:29:03.833 --> 00:29:06.542
[Buford] He thought
that if nations could fight

653
00:29:06.542 --> 00:29:10.292
on a field of sports, they'd get
it out of their system

654
00:29:10.375 --> 00:29:12.000
and the world would be
a better place.

655
00:29:12.042 --> 00:29:16.750
So he decided to revive
the ancient Greek Olympics

656
00:29:16.833 --> 00:29:19.833
with the idea
that sports would take the place

657
00:29:19.875 --> 00:29:22.042
of armed conflict.

658
00:29:22.125 --> 00:29:25.333
So he created what was known
as the modern Olympics.

659
00:29:25.375 --> 00:29:28.167
[cheers and applause]

660
00:29:28.167 --> 00:29:31.958
♪

661
00:29:32.042 --> 00:29:36.458
The first four Olympics were
not particularly successful.

662
00:29:36.542 --> 00:29:39.500
There was no guarantee
that this idea of Coubertin's

663
00:29:39.542 --> 00:29:40.917
was going to survive.

664
00:29:41.000 --> 00:29:42.958
[Boykoff]
Baron Pierre de Coubertin

665
00:29:43.042 --> 00:29:47.375
revived the Olympics
on a bed of contradictions.

666
00:29:47.458 --> 00:29:49.500
The Olympics were supposed
to be for everybody,

667
00:29:49.583 --> 00:29:51.542
but the baron excluded women.

668
00:29:51.625 --> 00:29:53.167
He thought it was unseemly

669
00:29:53.250 --> 00:29:55.667
to have women involved
in sport on any level.

670
00:29:55.750 --> 00:29:57.333
And also he was classist.

671
00:29:57.417 --> 00:30:00.833
I mean, he had a real class bias
in favor of aristocrats,

672
00:30:00.917 --> 00:30:04.000
trying to exclude working people
from the Olympics

673
00:30:04.042 --> 00:30:07.750
with a specialized definition of
amateurism from the very start.

674
00:30:07.833 --> 00:30:10.500
The Olympics were
the ultimate example

675
00:30:10.625 --> 00:30:16.708
of what amateurism and the
amateur ideal was in that era.

676
00:30:16.792 --> 00:30:19.000
The idea was that
people should play sports

677
00:30:19.083 --> 00:30:22.167
purely for their passion,
not for a paycheck.

678
00:30:22.208 --> 00:30:25.000
That was considered
kind of lowbrow and unseemly.

679
00:30:25.042 --> 00:30:29.583
No money could ever
cross your palm in any way,

680
00:30:29.708 --> 00:30:31.333
or else
you were a professional.

681
00:30:31.417 --> 00:30:35.000
Every athlete taking part
in the 1912 Olympics

682
00:30:35.083 --> 00:30:39.167
had to sign a form
in which they had to promise

683
00:30:39.250 --> 00:30:42.125
they had never accepted money
of any kind

684
00:30:42.208 --> 00:30:44.542
in any connection
with sports.

685
00:30:44.667 --> 00:30:47.792
It was formed and created
by and for

686
00:30:47.875 --> 00:30:50.792
wealthy aristocratic athletes.

687
00:30:50.875 --> 00:30:52.583
They didn't need money.

688
00:30:52.708 --> 00:30:56.000
This version of the Olympics
is unrecognizable from today's.

689
00:30:56.042 --> 00:30:57.917
[Wigglesworth] Today we are
accustomed to seeing

690
00:30:58.042 --> 00:31:00.000
professionals from their sport,

691
00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:03.500
in basketball or in hockey
compete at the Olympics.

692
00:31:03.583 --> 00:31:05.250
Across just about
every sport,

693
00:31:05.333 --> 00:31:07.542
Olympic athletes are
encouraged to go out

694
00:31:07.625 --> 00:31:10.708
and get sponsors to help
them underwrite their training

695
00:31:10.792 --> 00:31:12.500
in their competition,

696
00:31:12.583 --> 00:31:16.500
in effect getting paid to
compete at that Olympic level.

697
00:31:16.542 --> 00:31:19.792
That was not the case back in
Jim Thorpe's competitive days.

698
00:31:19.875 --> 00:31:22.333
So you roll around into 1912,

699
00:31:22.333 --> 00:31:25.333
which is the fifth Olympiad,
in Stockholm.

700
00:31:26.875 --> 00:31:29.667
[Boykoff] The United States
Olympic team's journey

701
00:31:29.750 --> 00:31:32.083
to even participate
in Stockholm

702
00:31:32.208 --> 00:31:34.000
was quite the adventure
in and of itself.

703
00:31:34.083 --> 00:31:37.417
When Jim Thorpe got to
the pier in Manhattan

704
00:31:37.500 --> 00:31:39.333
and saw the SS Finland,

705
00:31:39.375 --> 00:31:42.417
it was a sight unlike anything
he had ever seen before.

706
00:31:42.500 --> 00:31:44.958
It was this floating paradise
of a sort,

707
00:31:45.042 --> 00:31:48.375
the breadth of that ship,
where it was going,

708
00:31:48.458 --> 00:31:51.250
to a world
that he'd never seen before.

709
00:31:51.333 --> 00:31:53.167
And it's important
to remember

710
00:31:53.208 --> 00:31:54.625
that this was
only a few months

711
00:31:54.708 --> 00:31:56.542
after the sinking
of the Titanic.

712
00:31:56.625 --> 00:32:00.625
So going on a transatlantic
journey was a little bit iffy.

713
00:32:00.708 --> 00:32:02.625
♪

714
00:32:02.708 --> 00:32:05.333
[Boykoff] They loaded on
thousands of pounds of food

715
00:32:05.375 --> 00:32:07.750
for both the humans
as well as the horses

716
00:32:07.875 --> 00:32:09.958
that were there
for the equestrian events.

717
00:32:10.042 --> 00:32:12.417
They built
a special cork track.

718
00:32:12.542 --> 00:32:15.708
There was a makeshift swimming
pool down in the lower deck.

719
00:32:15.792 --> 00:32:19.250
Athletes could practice the
discus by throwing it overboard

720
00:32:19.333 --> 00:32:21.333
and then pulling it back up
with a rope.

721
00:32:21.458 --> 00:32:23.167
So there are all
these ingenious schemes

722
00:32:23.208 --> 00:32:25.250
that allowed the athletes
to stay fresh

723
00:32:25.333 --> 00:32:27.417
as they get ready
for the Olympic Games.

724
00:32:27.500 --> 00:32:30.917
♪

725
00:32:31.000 --> 00:32:33.000
There's a mythos
around Jim Thorpe

726
00:32:33.042 --> 00:32:36.167
that he didn't train on the boat
going over to Sweden

727
00:32:36.292 --> 00:32:38.333
and that he wasn't a person

728
00:32:38.417 --> 00:32:41.667
who really dedicated himself
to his excellence.

729
00:32:41.708 --> 00:32:44.583
I think the media
characterizations of Jim Thorpe

730
00:32:44.708 --> 00:32:48.583
were very much that he didn't
have to work at his success.

731
00:32:48.667 --> 00:32:51.375
[Maraniss] Why would people say
that Jim didn't train?

732
00:32:51.458 --> 00:32:55.583
The same reason
why do so many sportswriters,

733
00:32:55.667 --> 00:32:58.000
when they're defining
an African American athlete,

734
00:32:58.125 --> 00:33:00.333
they'll just say
that they have natural talent

735
00:33:00.458 --> 00:33:02.792
as opposed to actually working
at it, right?

736
00:33:02.875 --> 00:33:05.333
Well, that was the way that
they could disparage Jim Thorpe.

737
00:33:05.417 --> 00:33:07.750
He was just natural.
He didn't have to train.

738
00:33:07.833 --> 00:33:09.000
But it's baloney.

739
00:33:09.083 --> 00:33:10.833
When in reality Jim Thorpe

740
00:33:10.917 --> 00:33:12.500
was actually
playing it smart.

741
00:33:12.583 --> 00:33:14.708
He was tapering off
as the Olympic Games approached,

742
00:33:14.833 --> 00:33:17.000
just like athletes do today.

743
00:33:17.083 --> 00:33:19.083
[Thorpe] I was in the best
condition of my life.

744
00:33:19.208 --> 00:33:21.333
I didn't work out strenuously,

745
00:33:21.417 --> 00:33:24.333
contenting myself
with an occasional run

746
00:33:24.458 --> 00:33:28.000
or trot about the deck,
as I felt ready for action

747
00:33:28.083 --> 00:33:31.167
and didn't want to become stale
or overtrained.

748
00:33:31.208 --> 00:33:34.208
I think the mythos around
Jim Thorpe's not training

749
00:33:34.208 --> 00:33:36.625
is tied up in a mythos
around American Indians

750
00:33:36.708 --> 00:33:40.542
in general, that we're not
hardworking, that we're lazy.

751
00:33:40.625 --> 00:33:43.042
They were sort of
setting the stage

752
00:33:43.125 --> 00:33:47.042
for his abilities
to be both adulated

753
00:33:47.167 --> 00:33:49.000
and disrespected
at the same time.

754
00:33:49.042 --> 00:33:51.792
[Watson]
When you look at just how

755
00:33:51.875 --> 00:33:53.583
minorities are described
in the media

756
00:33:53.708 --> 00:33:55.500
in the turn of the 20th century,

757
00:33:55.583 --> 00:33:58.875
as much as their
accomplishments were celebrated,

758
00:33:58.958 --> 00:34:01.167
there was still
that dehumanization.

759
00:34:01.208 --> 00:34:03.833
Native American achievements
never could stand on their own.

760
00:34:03.958 --> 00:34:07.250
They were always portrayed
through this lens of aggression.

761
00:34:07.333 --> 00:34:09.208
[Watson] The words
that were used to describe them

762
00:34:09.292 --> 00:34:11.208
made it very clear
that you are still deemed

763
00:34:11.292 --> 00:34:12.833
as "less than" in society.

764
00:34:12.917 --> 00:34:14.833
They were savages.

765
00:34:14.875 --> 00:34:16.708
Violent.

766
00:34:16.792 --> 00:34:20.167
[Watson] On a "warpath"
or "scalping" their opponent.

767
00:34:20.250 --> 00:34:22.083
Those were words
that were used to describe

768
00:34:22.167 --> 00:34:25.042
how they believed these
individuals lived their lives.

769
00:34:25.167 --> 00:34:26.667
[Proudfit] The sportswriters

770
00:34:26.750 --> 00:34:28.000
and the journalists of the time

771
00:34:28.083 --> 00:34:30.042
frame and control the narrative.

772
00:34:30.125 --> 00:34:31.917
And for Native people,

773
00:34:31.917 --> 00:34:33.500
other people have
been representing us

774
00:34:33.625 --> 00:34:36.333
and mischaracterizing us
since time immemorial.

775
00:34:36.375 --> 00:34:39.375
[Jones] It was a way
of stripping Native Americans of

776
00:34:39.458 --> 00:34:43.458
both their dignity
and their humanity.

777
00:34:45.333 --> 00:34:47.167
[Boykoff]
At the time that Jim Thorpe

778
00:34:47.250 --> 00:34:50.167
and the rest of the Olympic team
traveled to Stockholm,

779
00:34:50.292 --> 00:34:55.000
there was a practice in place
on all ships of segregating,

780
00:34:55.083 --> 00:34:56.708
in a lot of ways, by race.

781
00:34:56.833 --> 00:34:59.625
The context is important
politically at that time,

782
00:34:59.708 --> 00:35:01.792
1912 was a year
that Woodrow Wilson

783
00:35:01.875 --> 00:35:03.250
was elected president,

784
00:35:03.375 --> 00:35:05.083
and one of the first things
he did

785
00:35:05.083 --> 00:35:08.583
was he racially segregated
the federal bureaucracy.

786
00:35:08.667 --> 00:35:11.500
So African American people
had to use different bathrooms,

787
00:35:11.583 --> 00:35:14.458
eat in different lunchrooms,
work in different spaces.

788
00:35:14.542 --> 00:35:17.167
And that segregated culture
made its way

789
00:35:17.250 --> 00:35:19.125
on board the USS Finland.

790
00:35:19.250 --> 00:35:22.000
Jim and another
American athlete, Abel Kiviat,

791
00:35:22.042 --> 00:35:23.542
who was Jewish,

792
00:35:23.542 --> 00:35:25.542
were both put in steerage
on the ship

793
00:35:25.625 --> 00:35:29.417
rather than with
the better quarters higher up.

794
00:35:29.500 --> 00:35:31.042
Thorpe and his
fellow Olympians

795
00:35:31.125 --> 00:35:33.333
who weren't
lily-white Olympians

796
00:35:33.375 --> 00:35:35.333
who could stay in the top
accommodation on the top floor

797
00:35:35.458 --> 00:35:38.833
had to grapple with a lot of
racism on the way to Stockholm,

798
00:35:38.917 --> 00:35:40.333
but also more broadly in life.

799
00:35:40.375 --> 00:35:42.708
[cheers and applause]

800
00:35:42.792 --> 00:35:46.417
♪

801
00:35:46.500 --> 00:35:48.625
[Wigglesworth] Jim Thorpe made
the Olympic team to compete

802
00:35:48.708 --> 00:35:52.500
in both the pentathlon
and the decathlon,

803
00:35:52.583 --> 00:35:55.167
two events that are
really widely regarded

804
00:35:55.292 --> 00:35:58.625
as being among the most
difficult in the Games.

805
00:35:58.708 --> 00:36:01.917
[narrator] Although Jim had
earned recognition back home,

806
00:36:02.042 --> 00:36:04.000
he is far from being
the favorite.

807
00:36:04.083 --> 00:36:07.542
Contenders like
Sweden's Hugo Wieslander

808
00:36:07.542 --> 00:36:11.167
and even his own American
teammate Avery Brundage

809
00:36:11.208 --> 00:36:12.542
are expected to dominate.

810
00:36:12.625 --> 00:36:14.458
In the narrative
of Jim Thorpe,

811
00:36:14.542 --> 00:36:18.958
Avery Brundage appears
a number of times as a nemesis.

812
00:36:19.042 --> 00:36:21.667
Avery Brundage was
a terrible man.

813
00:36:21.750 --> 00:36:26.167
He was known from the 1940s
through the 1960s and beyond

814
00:36:26.208 --> 00:36:28.958
as "Slavery Avery"
for his racist beliefs.

815
00:36:29.042 --> 00:36:33.042
In his personal papers,
he heaps praise on the Nazis,

816
00:36:33.125 --> 00:36:36.458
calling them an "intelligent,
beneficent dictatorship."

817
00:36:36.542 --> 00:36:38.458
And he was convinced
in his own mind

818
00:36:38.542 --> 00:36:40.000
that he was going to win.

819
00:36:40.042 --> 00:36:42.833
On July 7, 1912,

820
00:36:42.917 --> 00:36:45.917
the competition begins
with the pentathlon,

821
00:36:46.000 --> 00:36:47.500
a single-day challenge

822
00:36:47.542 --> 00:36:50.333
featuring five
track and field events.

823
00:36:50.417 --> 00:36:53.250
Jim comes out of the gates
soaring at the pentathlon,

824
00:36:53.333 --> 00:36:55.333
almost literally.

825
00:36:55.458 --> 00:36:57.667
He finishes first
in the long jump.

826
00:36:57.792 --> 00:36:59.500
He then takes third
in the javelin

827
00:36:59.583 --> 00:37:02.375
behind Sweden's
Hugo Wieslander.

828
00:37:02.500 --> 00:37:05.500
One of Jim's most dominant
wins was in the pentathlon 200.

829
00:37:05.625 --> 00:37:07.667
He left the competition
in the dust,

830
00:37:07.708 --> 00:37:10.500
and he would finish
in a time of 22.9.

831
00:37:10.583 --> 00:37:13.375
The specificity
of that number is significant

832
00:37:13.542 --> 00:37:17.042
because 1912 marked
the first Olympics ever

833
00:37:17.125 --> 00:37:19.583
that used electronic timers.

834
00:37:19.667 --> 00:37:21.208
He follows that up
with another win,

835
00:37:21.333 --> 00:37:24.375
coming in first in the discus,
easily defeating

836
00:37:24.458 --> 00:37:27.417
his second-place
American rival, Avery Brundage.

837
00:37:27.500 --> 00:37:30.208
[Jones] The final event
of the pentathlon

838
00:37:30.292 --> 00:37:33.208
is the 1,500 meter,
the metric mile.

839
00:37:33.292 --> 00:37:34.792
For the Sac and Fox people,

840
00:37:34.875 --> 00:37:36.792
they had a traditional way
of looking at running,

841
00:37:36.875 --> 00:37:40.458
allowing the Earth to move you
forward rather than your legs.

842
00:37:40.542 --> 00:37:43.458
And that was the same kind of
conceptual energy

843
00:37:43.542 --> 00:37:45.167
that Jim brought
to his running.

844
00:37:45.292 --> 00:37:47.625
He was in his most comfortable,
safest space

845
00:37:47.708 --> 00:37:49.792
when he was running
as fast as he could.

846
00:37:49.875 --> 00:37:52.875
Jim Thorpe would win
his fourth overall event

847
00:37:52.958 --> 00:37:55.458
and finish five seconds ahead
of his nearest competitor,

848
00:37:55.542 --> 00:37:58.917
showing just how dominant he was
in those 1912 Olympics.

849
00:38:00.542 --> 00:38:02.417
[Williams] So let's be clear.

850
00:38:02.500 --> 00:38:05.667
Typically in a multi-discipline
event like the pentathlon,

851
00:38:05.750 --> 00:38:08.500
the athlete who wins
generally does fairly well

852
00:38:08.583 --> 00:38:10.625
in some combination
of the events.

853
00:38:10.708 --> 00:38:12.417
[O'Brien] But Jim Thorpe
just didn't do well

854
00:38:12.500 --> 00:38:14.000
in all the events.

855
00:38:14.125 --> 00:38:15.417
Jim Thorpe won four out of

856
00:38:15.500 --> 00:38:17.042
the five events
in the pentathlon.

857
00:38:17.167 --> 00:38:18.875
That is
absolutely unheard of.

858
00:38:18.958 --> 00:38:22.208
[narrator] He outclasses
both Sweden's Hugo Wieslander

859
00:38:22.333 --> 00:38:25.167
and his own teammate,
Avery Brundage,

860
00:38:25.208 --> 00:38:27.667
who unexpectedly fails
to win a medal.

861
00:38:27.750 --> 00:38:30.500
Jim was not particularly
aware of Avery Brundage,

862
00:38:30.625 --> 00:38:33.667
but Avery Brundage became
very aware of Jim Thorpe.

863
00:38:33.750 --> 00:38:37.500
An American Indian was not
supposed to beat Avery Brundage.

864
00:38:37.542 --> 00:38:40.000
With the nation's eyes
fixed on him,

865
00:38:40.083 --> 00:38:43.333
Jim is about to embark
on the grueling decathlon,

866
00:38:43.417 --> 00:38:46.667
squaring off against Brundage
in a showdown

867
00:38:46.708 --> 00:38:49.333
that would reverberate
through the rest of his life.

868
00:38:54.708 --> 00:38:58.542
[narrator] With Jim Thorpe's
outstanding performance

869
00:38:58.625 --> 00:39:00.042
in the pentathlon having
already secured a gold medal,

870
00:39:00.167 --> 00:39:01.708
another soon-to-be
famous American

871
00:39:01.792 --> 00:39:04.667
also has high hopes
in the 1912 Olympics.

872
00:39:04.708 --> 00:39:07.333
Believe it or not,
at the very same Olympic Games

873
00:39:07.375 --> 00:39:09.125
where Thorpe was competing,

874
00:39:09.208 --> 00:39:12.083
so was future
General George S. Patton.

875
00:39:12.208 --> 00:39:14.000
And his event was
the modern pentathlon,

876
00:39:14.083 --> 00:39:16.833
which is a military-themed event
that focused on running,

877
00:39:16.917 --> 00:39:20.375
shooting, swimming,
fencing, and horseback riding.

878
00:39:20.458 --> 00:39:23.792
When Baron Pierre de Coubertin
created the Olympics,

879
00:39:23.875 --> 00:39:26.833
he had people like George Patton
in mind as participants.

880
00:39:26.875 --> 00:39:29.583
Patton was the son
of a wealthy family,

881
00:39:29.667 --> 00:39:33.542
had all the training required
at his fingertips to do well.

882
00:39:33.625 --> 00:39:35.250
But George Patton
didn't do well at all.

883
00:39:35.375 --> 00:39:36.625
In fact, he placed fifth.

884
00:39:36.708 --> 00:39:38.333
[Maraniss]
In the swimming event,

885
00:39:38.417 --> 00:39:40.083
he had to get pulled
from the pool.

886
00:39:40.167 --> 00:39:43.625
And he claimed that he would
have won the sharpshooting,

887
00:39:43.708 --> 00:39:46.958
except that his bullets the
judges said missed the target

888
00:39:47.042 --> 00:39:49.708
actually went so cleanly
through the other bullets of his

889
00:39:49.792 --> 00:39:51.833
that they couldn't see them.

890
00:39:53.292 --> 00:39:56.208
[narrator] At the conclusion
of the modern pentathlon,

891
00:39:56.208 --> 00:39:58.333
a brand-new event
is set to begin.

892
00:39:58.458 --> 00:40:00.625
At the 1912 Olympics,

893
00:40:00.708 --> 00:40:02.833
the decathlon was introduced
for the very first time.

894
00:40:02.958 --> 00:40:05.917
You have to master
10 different events.

895
00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:07.750
[O'Brien] The 100 meters,
the long jump,

896
00:40:07.833 --> 00:40:10.458
the shot put, the high jump
and the 400 meters,

897
00:40:10.542 --> 00:40:12.667
110-meter hurdles,
the discus,

898
00:40:12.708 --> 00:40:14.625
the pole vault, the javelin,

899
00:40:14.625 --> 00:40:16.625
and the metric mile --
the 1,500 meters.

900
00:40:16.708 --> 00:40:19.333
The decathlon, in my opinion,
is the most difficult event

901
00:40:19.417 --> 00:40:21.000
in the sport
of track and field.

902
00:40:21.125 --> 00:40:23.000
[Jones] Jim is looking for
his second gold medal.

903
00:40:23.042 --> 00:40:26.375
Meanwhile, Avery Brundage
is looking for redemption

904
00:40:26.458 --> 00:40:29.125
after losing to Jim
during the pentathlon.

905
00:40:29.208 --> 00:40:32.917
On Saturday, July 13, 1912,

906
00:40:33.000 --> 00:40:36.750
the decathlon begins
with the 100-meter dash.

907
00:40:36.833 --> 00:40:38.542
[Petrzela] On the first day
of the decathlon,

908
00:40:38.667 --> 00:40:42.125
Thorpe finished in the top three
in all three events

909
00:40:42.208 --> 00:40:43.792
and finished the day number one.

910
00:40:43.875 --> 00:40:46.500
His rival, Avery Brundage,
on the other hand,

911
00:40:46.583 --> 00:40:48.958
was in a distant 14th place.

912
00:40:49.042 --> 00:40:50.458
[cheers and applause]

913
00:40:50.542 --> 00:40:52.333
[Jones] Day two
begins with the high jump,

914
00:40:52.417 --> 00:40:55.250
which Jim is heavily favored
to win,

915
00:40:55.375 --> 00:40:56.917
but there's a problem.

916
00:40:57.000 --> 00:41:01.667
When he went to compete,
his sneakers were missing.

917
00:41:03.500 --> 00:41:06.625
There is some sense that
Avery Brundage was involved,

918
00:41:06.708 --> 00:41:09.250
that he took the shoes
in an effort

919
00:41:09.333 --> 00:41:11.667
to sabotage his performance.

920
00:41:13.167 --> 00:41:17.125
Jim is then facing continuing
the decathlon without his shoes.

921
00:41:17.208 --> 00:41:18.917
Jim, needing to compete,

922
00:41:19.042 --> 00:41:23.333
went out and found a pair
of sneakers out of the trash.

923
00:41:23.417 --> 00:41:25.667
So he and Pop Warner
jerry-rigged two shoes

924
00:41:25.750 --> 00:41:27.708
that were different sizes.

925
00:41:27.792 --> 00:41:31.333
Thorpe had to wear two pairs
of heavy socks on one shoe.

926
00:41:31.458 --> 00:41:34.167
As an athlete,
you train for this one moment,

927
00:41:34.333 --> 00:41:35.750
and when that moment comes,

928
00:41:35.875 --> 00:41:37.667
you want everything
to be absolutely perfect.

929
00:41:37.708 --> 00:41:40.292
Even in absolutely
perfect conditions,

930
00:41:40.375 --> 00:41:41.750
competing in
the Olympic high jump

931
00:41:41.875 --> 00:41:43.625
is a near impossible task.

932
00:41:43.708 --> 00:41:46.750
And Jim did it with shoes
he found in the trash.

933
00:41:46.833 --> 00:41:49.500
[narrator]
Thorpe jumps over six feet,

934
00:41:49.583 --> 00:41:52.667
the only athlete
to reach that threshold.

935
00:41:52.750 --> 00:41:55.333
Over six feet
with garbage shoes.

936
00:41:55.375 --> 00:41:56.792
[Williams] Like most of

937
00:41:56.875 --> 00:41:58.875
the high jump competitors
of his day,

938
00:41:58.958 --> 00:42:00.917
Jim utilized
the straddle technique.

939
00:42:01.042 --> 00:42:02.917
Decades later, in 1968,

940
00:42:03.000 --> 00:42:05.750
Dick Fosbury revolutionizes
the sport

941
00:42:05.833 --> 00:42:08.083
by utilizing
a different technique,

942
00:42:08.208 --> 00:42:09.625
jumping backward over the bar.

943
00:42:09.708 --> 00:42:11.333
This is the technique

944
00:42:11.458 --> 00:42:15.708
that all Olympic high jumpers
utilize today.

945
00:42:15.792 --> 00:42:17.500
[Thorpe] The Europeans
looked upon the red man

946
00:42:17.583 --> 00:42:19.500
as a curiosity
of some sort.

947
00:42:19.583 --> 00:42:21.750
It seemed
they were disappointed

948
00:42:21.750 --> 00:42:24.708
that I didn't wear the warpaint
or the head feathers.

949
00:42:24.792 --> 00:42:28.375
I decided I would live up to
their conception of the Indian,

950
00:42:28.458 --> 00:42:30.375
so I broke out in a war dance

951
00:42:30.458 --> 00:42:32.542
with accompaniment
of full-tone yells.

952
00:42:32.625 --> 00:42:36.000
I think it was part of his
desire to really show that

953
00:42:36.083 --> 00:42:38.417
even though
the boarding schools

954
00:42:38.500 --> 00:42:40.750
attempted to strip Jim
of all of his culture

955
00:42:40.833 --> 00:42:42.250
and turn him
into a white man,

956
00:42:42.333 --> 00:42:45.250
they didn't take his identity
from him inside.

957
00:42:45.333 --> 00:42:48.792
He was letting the world know
that he was a Native American.

958
00:42:48.875 --> 00:42:53.125
[narrator] The next three events
see Jim extending his lead.

959
00:42:53.208 --> 00:42:54.833
So the last great obstacle

960
00:42:54.917 --> 00:42:58.042
between Jim Thorpe and
the Olympic gold medal in 1912

961
00:42:58.125 --> 00:43:00.125
is the eighth event,
the pole vault.

962
00:43:00.208 --> 00:43:03.375
[Thorpe] I considered myself
rather heavy for vaulting.

963
00:43:03.458 --> 00:43:05.667
Before I sailed
for the Olympic Games,

964
00:43:05.667 --> 00:43:08.667
my highest pole vault
was nine feet, six inches.

965
00:43:08.750 --> 00:43:11.625
I knew I could do better,

966
00:43:11.708 --> 00:43:13.708
but I was afraid
to attempt the higher mark

967
00:43:13.792 --> 00:43:16.333
for fear the ash pole
might break.

968
00:43:16.375 --> 00:43:17.958
The pole vault
is intimidating,

969
00:43:18.042 --> 00:43:19.375
and it's one of
the most difficult events

970
00:43:19.458 --> 00:43:20.833
in the decathlon.

971
00:43:20.917 --> 00:43:22.542
It was the event
that kept me

972
00:43:22.708 --> 00:43:24.292
off the 1992 Olympic team.

973
00:43:24.375 --> 00:43:26.042
[announcer] He's just coming
to grips with the fact,

974
00:43:26.042 --> 00:43:28.125
"I have no points
in this particular event.

975
00:43:28.208 --> 00:43:30.750
I'm now not going to
the Olympic Games."

976
00:43:30.833 --> 00:43:35.458
One misstep, one miscalculation,
and it's all over.

977
00:43:35.542 --> 00:43:41.500
♪

978
00:43:41.542 --> 00:43:43.417
[Jones]
Despite his concern,

979
00:43:43.500 --> 00:43:47.167
Jim launched himself 10 feet,
eight inches into the air,

980
00:43:47.208 --> 00:43:48.750
smashing his personal best

981
00:43:48.875 --> 00:43:51.333
and keeping him on track
to win his second gold.

982
00:43:52.375 --> 00:43:54.417
[narrator] It's at this point
in the competition,

983
00:43:54.500 --> 00:43:58.708
having dropped to 11th place,
that Avery Brundage realizes

984
00:43:58.833 --> 00:44:01.417
he has no chance
of defeating Thorpe.

985
00:44:01.542 --> 00:44:04.125
He did something that he
would rue till his dying days,

986
00:44:04.208 --> 00:44:06.875
and that was he dropped out
of the competition.

987
00:44:07.000 --> 00:44:09.250
[Maraniss] Thorpe was creaming
Brundage by so much

988
00:44:09.333 --> 00:44:10.625
that he quit after eight events.

989
00:44:10.708 --> 00:44:12.208
He didn't even finish it
himself.

990
00:44:12.292 --> 00:44:14.375
And probably there was
some measure of jealousy

991
00:44:14.542 --> 00:44:16.333
for the rest of his life.

992
00:44:16.875 --> 00:44:18.917
This would not be the last time

993
00:44:19.000 --> 00:44:22.000
that Brundage runs afoul
of an Olympic champion.

994
00:44:22.083 --> 00:44:24.667
Brundage went on
to a storied career.

995
00:44:24.708 --> 00:44:28.125
He was a power broker
in Olympic circles.

996
00:44:28.208 --> 00:44:33.833
He was passionate about the
spirit and ideals of amateurism.

997
00:44:33.917 --> 00:44:36.542
[Jones] Brundage was
the Olympic Committee chairman

998
00:44:36.625 --> 00:44:38.667
for the 1936 Games in Berlin.

999
00:44:38.750 --> 00:44:41.000
[narrator] The undisputed star
of the competition

1000
00:44:41.083 --> 00:44:44.000
was Ohio State University
track star Jesse Owens.

1001
00:44:44.083 --> 00:44:46.917
[Jones] Just days
after Jesse Owens won gold,

1002
00:44:47.000 --> 00:44:49.750
Brundage came after him
as a professional athlete

1003
00:44:49.875 --> 00:44:54.000
and banned him
from amateur sports for life.

1004
00:44:54.083 --> 00:44:57.500
[narrator] Going into the final
event, the 1500 meter,

1005
00:44:57.542 --> 00:44:59.833
Jim's lead is nearly
insurmountable.

1006
00:44:59.917 --> 00:45:03.833
As soon as the race begins,
Jim is off,

1007
00:45:03.875 --> 00:45:05.542
and no one can catch him.

1008
00:45:05.625 --> 00:45:08.167
When Jim crossed the finish line
in the 1500,

1009
00:45:08.208 --> 00:45:11.667
he not only took a gold medal
but cemented his legacy

1010
00:45:11.750 --> 00:45:13.958
as one of the premier athletes
of his day.

1011
00:45:14.042 --> 00:45:15.792
Jim Thorpe would finish
in the top three

1012
00:45:15.875 --> 00:45:17.333
in eight of the 10 events.

1013
00:45:17.417 --> 00:45:19.583
He would win four
of those events outright.

1014
00:45:19.667 --> 00:45:22.333
And in the decathlon,
that's total dominance.

1015
00:45:23.250 --> 00:45:27.000
For me, Jim Thorpe's achievement
at the Stockholm Olympics

1016
00:45:27.083 --> 00:45:29.000
are a singular achievement.

1017
00:45:29.125 --> 00:45:31.833
I haven't seen anything
since then

1018
00:45:31.875 --> 00:45:34.333
that approaches that level
of greatness

1019
00:45:34.375 --> 00:45:35.833
in so many different sports.

1020
00:45:35.875 --> 00:45:39.208
"Citius, altius, fortius"
was the motto

1021
00:45:39.292 --> 00:45:40.875
of the modern Olympics.

1022
00:45:40.875 --> 00:45:44.167
It meant "faster, higher,
stronger."

1023
00:45:44.250 --> 00:45:47.083
And Jim Thorpe embodied
all of these.

1024
00:45:47.208 --> 00:45:49.292
[Wigglesworth]
His record stood for decades

1025
00:45:49.375 --> 00:45:50.833
and really set a new bar

1026
00:45:50.917 --> 00:45:53.333
for what we as athletes
can accomplish.

1027
00:45:54.417 --> 00:45:56.958
[Thorpe] At the close,
of the Olympic Games,

1028
00:45:57.083 --> 00:46:00.500
all the winners were marched
before the royal box

1029
00:46:00.542 --> 00:46:03.583
before the applauding
thousands.

1030
00:46:03.667 --> 00:46:05.667
[narrator]
Jim Thorpe's two gold medals

1031
00:46:05.708 --> 00:46:09.042
are the last Olympic medals
ever made from pure gold.

1032
00:46:09.125 --> 00:46:12.667
He's also awarded
two ceremonial trophies,

1033
00:46:12.708 --> 00:46:15.000
presented by Czar Nicholas
of Russia

1034
00:46:15.125 --> 00:46:17.333
and King Gustav of Sweden.

1035
00:46:17.458 --> 00:46:19.875
[Thorpe] King Gustav placed
a laurel wreath on my head

1036
00:46:19.958 --> 00:46:21.958
and, in English, said,

1037
00:46:21.958 --> 00:46:26.292
"Sir, you are the greatest
athlete in the world."

1038
00:46:26.375 --> 00:46:31.708
And the story is that Jim
responded, "Thanks, King."

1039
00:46:31.708 --> 00:46:34.333
Now, we don't know
if that actually happened.

1040
00:46:34.417 --> 00:46:37.000
I don't think he said it.
He says he didn't say it.

1041
00:46:37.042 --> 00:46:42.208
That was sort of representative
of Jim Thorpe, "the Indian,"

1042
00:46:42.292 --> 00:46:44.625
not knowing how to deal
with royalty.

1043
00:46:44.708 --> 00:46:48.208
It was all representative of the
way that Thorpe was idealized,

1044
00:46:48.292 --> 00:46:51.167
romanticized, and diminished
at the same time.

1045
00:46:52.250 --> 00:46:57.625
When Jim won the gold medals,
he was a sensation,

1046
00:46:57.708 --> 00:47:01.042
the first international
celebrity athlete.

1047
00:47:01.125 --> 00:47:03.542
He astonished the world:

1048
00:47:03.625 --> 00:47:07.333
this phenomenal performance,
and by an American Indian.

1049
00:47:07.417 --> 00:47:09.417
[Wigglesworth]
The whole point of the Olympics

1050
00:47:09.542 --> 00:47:11.542
is to compete
and represent your country.

1051
00:47:11.625 --> 00:47:14.958
Jim accomplished so much
representing the United States,

1052
00:47:15.042 --> 00:47:20.375
and he returned from the Games
celebrated as an American hero.

1053
00:47:20.458 --> 00:47:22.375
[narrator]
Jim even receives a letter

1054
00:47:22.458 --> 00:47:25.500
from President Howard Taft
saying Thorpe's qualities

1055
00:47:25.583 --> 00:47:29.417
"characterize the best type
of American citizen."

1056
00:47:29.500 --> 00:47:31.542
The irony is that at that time,

1057
00:47:31.667 --> 00:47:35.542
he was not even recognized
as an American citizen

1058
00:47:35.708 --> 00:47:37.833
because Native Americans
in this country

1059
00:47:37.917 --> 00:47:40.667
had not yet been granted
citizenship.

1060
00:47:40.750 --> 00:47:43.042
[Buford]
He returns home,

1061
00:47:43.125 --> 00:47:47.083
and Carlisle gives
a welcoming reception for him.

1062
00:47:47.208 --> 00:47:50.167
[Thorpe] We were met by the
leading citizens of the town.

1063
00:47:50.250 --> 00:47:53.208
There was hand-shaking,
congratulations, and speeches.

1064
00:47:53.292 --> 00:47:55.042
Jim was the center
of attention.

1065
00:47:55.208 --> 00:47:57.375
You couldn't open a paper
without reading about him.

1066
00:47:57.458 --> 00:47:59.542
They were throwing parades.
There was parties.

1067
00:47:59.625 --> 00:48:02.250
He was expected to make
appearances all across America.

1068
00:48:02.375 --> 00:48:05.000
[Buford] New York gives him
this ticker-tape parade,

1069
00:48:05.083 --> 00:48:09.542
with him at the front
in the first car, by himself.

1070
00:48:09.625 --> 00:48:13.750
And Jim, as all the media said
the next day, sat there,

1071
00:48:13.833 --> 00:48:15.750
scrunched down in the front seat

1072
00:48:15.875 --> 00:48:18.667
with a Panama hat over his face
and chewing gum.

1073
00:48:18.750 --> 00:48:21.250
Obviously not the happy hero.

1074
00:48:21.375 --> 00:48:24.042
And really,
that's true of most of his life:

1075
00:48:24.042 --> 00:48:27.583
that he was never searching
for glory or for fame.

1076
00:48:27.667 --> 00:48:29.375
He just loved sports.

1077
00:48:29.500 --> 00:48:33.500
In a lot of ways, Thorpe was
the first celebrity sports star.

1078
00:48:33.542 --> 00:48:35.875
[Hill] Back then,
the idea of a celebrity athlete

1079
00:48:35.958 --> 00:48:37.500
was completely foreign.

1080
00:48:37.625 --> 00:48:39.500
He's known all around the world.
There's no social media.

1081
00:48:39.625 --> 00:48:42.958
You think about how slow
information passed at that time,

1082
00:48:43.042 --> 00:48:46.250
and yet still everybody knew
about his athletic feats.

1083
00:48:46.333 --> 00:48:48.167
[Hill] He didn't have Gatorade
or Nike behind him,

1084
00:48:48.250 --> 00:48:51.292
pushing him out there
and making him a celebrity.

1085
00:48:51.375 --> 00:48:53.708
There's no media vehicle
driving it

1086
00:48:53.833 --> 00:48:55.833
beyond what he is accomplishing
at a time

1087
00:48:55.875 --> 00:48:59.125
where people who looked like him
weren't supposed to be famous

1088
00:48:59.208 --> 00:49:01.000
and athletes in general

1089
00:49:01.083 --> 00:49:02.708
were not really supposed to be
famous like that.

1090
00:49:02.833 --> 00:49:04.583
[narrator]
Jim Thorpe has ushered in

1091
00:49:04.708 --> 00:49:07.000
a new era of celebrity athlete,

1092
00:49:07.083 --> 00:49:09.667
but his career
is just getting started.

1093
00:49:15.375 --> 00:49:18.833
[narrator] After the fanfare
of the Olympics faded,

1094
00:49:18.917 --> 00:49:20.375
Jim Thorpe returns to Carlisle,

1095
00:49:20.500 --> 00:49:23.125
ready for another season
on the gridiron.

1096
00:49:23.208 --> 00:49:25.208
♪

1097
00:49:25.292 --> 00:49:28.250
[Buford]
The West Point game of 1912

1098
00:49:28.333 --> 00:49:32.375
has to be seen in light
of Jim's prior reputation:

1099
00:49:32.500 --> 00:49:36.833
the fantastic 1911 season that
made him a football phenomenon

1100
00:49:36.875 --> 00:49:39.375
and then the Olympic Games
of 1912.

1101
00:49:39.500 --> 00:49:41.458
So he comes to this game

1102
00:49:41.583 --> 00:49:44.833
between Carlisle,
the little Indian school,

1103
00:49:44.875 --> 00:49:46.500
and West Point,

1104
00:49:46.583 --> 00:49:51.083
that trains the future officers
of the American Army.

1105
00:49:51.167 --> 00:49:55.333
November 9, 1912:
the Army against the Indians.

1106
00:49:55.417 --> 00:49:57.667
You can't imagine
a football game

1107
00:49:57.750 --> 00:49:59.750
loaded with more meaning
than that.

1108
00:49:59.833 --> 00:50:02.000
♪

1109
00:50:02.042 --> 00:50:03.500
[Doyle]
The largest

1110
00:50:03.583 --> 00:50:05.708
and most famous battles
of the Great Plains

1111
00:50:05.792 --> 00:50:08.792
happened just prior
to the boarding-school era.

1112
00:50:08.875 --> 00:50:10.542
Jim Thorpe
and the Carlisle players

1113
00:50:10.625 --> 00:50:14.458
were a generation after
the warriors who were killed

1114
00:50:14.542 --> 00:50:17.250
at these famous battles, like
Battle of the Little Bighorn.

1115
00:50:17.333 --> 00:50:20.833
And just 20 years
before the Army-Carlisle game

1116
00:50:20.875 --> 00:50:22.792
was the massacre
at Wounded Knee.

1117
00:50:22.875 --> 00:50:25.292
There were over 200
innocent women, men,

1118
00:50:25.375 --> 00:50:27.875
and children killed
by the U.S. Army.

1119
00:50:27.958 --> 00:50:30.542
So going into the game
with West Point,

1120
00:50:30.625 --> 00:50:32.875
the Carlisle players
were highly motivated.

1121
00:50:32.958 --> 00:50:34.375
♪

1122
00:50:34.458 --> 00:50:36.375
[Thorpe]
We traveled to West Point,

1123
00:50:36.458 --> 00:50:40.042
the academy on the Hudson,
and met the Army,

1124
00:50:40.125 --> 00:50:43.375
rated the toughest,
cleverest team of the season.

1125
00:50:43.458 --> 00:50:46.708
Our chances to win
were held to be slight.

1126
00:50:46.792 --> 00:50:50.625
[Anderson] Before the game,
Pop Warner delivers a speech

1127
00:50:50.708 --> 00:50:53.917
that was unlike any
in the history of the sport

1128
00:50:54.000 --> 00:50:55.458
since or before.

1129
00:50:55.542 --> 00:50:58.583
Telling his players
what it could represent:

1130
00:50:58.708 --> 00:51:03.208
all of the payback for all
of the injustices and violence

1131
00:51:03.208 --> 00:51:07.333
that's been perpetrated on their
people for so many decades.

1132
00:51:07.375 --> 00:51:09.042
He would literally tell
his players,

1133
00:51:09.125 --> 00:51:10.833
"You are gonna be playing
against the sons

1134
00:51:10.958 --> 00:51:12.625
of the men who killed
your ancestors."

1135
00:51:12.708 --> 00:51:15.125
[Anderson]
"Now is the time for revenge.

1136
00:51:15.208 --> 00:51:17.000
We are going to prove

1137
00:51:17.083 --> 00:51:21.042
that we can play the white man's
game better than the white man.

1138
00:51:21.125 --> 00:51:22.542
Remember Wounded Knee."

1139
00:51:22.542 --> 00:51:24.750
I mean,
if that's not a motivator,

1140
00:51:24.833 --> 00:51:26.708
I'm really not sure what is.

1141
00:51:26.792 --> 00:51:29.208
♪

1142
00:51:29.292 --> 00:51:31.292
[Buford]
With the help of the media,

1143
00:51:31.375 --> 00:51:33.417
the public was primed
for this contest.

1144
00:51:33.500 --> 00:51:35.458
The Army players,
who were outfitted

1145
00:51:35.542 --> 00:51:37.417
in their black-and-gold
uniforms,

1146
00:51:37.500 --> 00:51:42.292
on average weighed 40 pounds
more and were four inches taller

1147
00:51:42.375 --> 00:51:46.250
than the Indian players,
adorned in their red sweaters.

1148
00:51:46.375 --> 00:51:48.917
To the fans in the stands
at West Point,

1149
00:51:49.000 --> 00:51:51.750
this game looked like it was
gonna be a total mismatch.

1150
00:51:53.292 --> 00:51:56.542
The Army team that day
was incredibly historic.

1151
00:51:56.625 --> 00:52:01.167
On the roster were four
future legendary generals

1152
00:52:01.333 --> 00:52:04.583
who would go on
to lead America in World War II.

1153
00:52:04.667 --> 00:52:08.000
In fact, it was called later
"the class the stars fell on"

1154
00:52:08.083 --> 00:52:11.292
because so many generals
were on that team,

1155
00:52:11.375 --> 00:52:13.667
including future president
of the United States

1156
00:52:13.708 --> 00:52:16.333
Dwight David Eisenhower.

1157
00:52:16.417 --> 00:52:18.292
This was a delicious matchup:

1158
00:52:18.375 --> 00:52:22.083
Pop Warner's bag of tricks
versus the Army kids

1159
00:52:22.167 --> 00:52:25.250
who had spent years
studying military strategy.

1160
00:52:25.333 --> 00:52:28.417
For Pop, this game
was particularly personal.

1161
00:52:28.500 --> 00:52:33.042
As a teen, he had applied to
West Point, and he was rejected.

1162
00:52:33.042 --> 00:52:34.958
[Williams]
From the opening kickoff,

1163
00:52:34.958 --> 00:52:37.292
this game is an absolute war.

1164
00:52:37.375 --> 00:52:40.542
Reports from the game talk about
the violent collisions

1165
00:52:40.667 --> 00:52:42.167
and the intensity.

1166
00:52:42.292 --> 00:52:44.542
While Jim dominates the game
in the first half,

1167
00:52:44.625 --> 00:52:47.208
Carlisle doesn't have a lot
to show for his efforts.

1168
00:52:47.292 --> 00:52:50.667
At halftime, they only lead 7-6.

1169
00:52:50.708 --> 00:52:52.542
[Anderson]
In the locker room at halftime,

1170
00:52:52.667 --> 00:52:55.292
Eisenhower huddled
with Leland Hobbs,

1171
00:52:55.375 --> 00:52:58.000
who would go on to lead
the 30th Infantry

1172
00:52:58.083 --> 00:53:00.458
in Western Europe
in World War II.

1173
00:53:00.542 --> 00:53:03.292
The two of them conspired
to deliver

1174
00:53:03.375 --> 00:53:05.500
what they called
"the old one-two."

1175
00:53:05.583 --> 00:53:08.250
Their mission:
send Thorpe to the sideline

1176
00:53:08.333 --> 00:53:10.042
if not the hospital.

1177
00:53:10.125 --> 00:53:13.000
[Maraniss] Eisenhower writes
about this later,

1178
00:53:13.083 --> 00:53:14.583
acknowledging that their goal

1179
00:53:14.667 --> 00:53:17.083
was to knock Jim Thorpe
unconscious.

1180
00:53:17.167 --> 00:53:20.750
Eisenhower would later recall
he and his fellow teammate,

1181
00:53:20.833 --> 00:53:23.667
in trying to pursue Jim,

1182
00:53:23.708 --> 00:53:27.042
Jim stepped aside and let them
collide with each other

1183
00:53:27.125 --> 00:53:28.917
and they were taken out
of the game.

1184
00:53:29.042 --> 00:53:32.083
Thorpe was a locomotive,
and they just couldn't stop him.

1185
00:53:33.167 --> 00:53:35.625
[Buford] Damon Runyon, who's
a wonderful American humorist,

1186
00:53:35.708 --> 00:53:38.500
was in the stands watching,
and he said,

1187
00:53:38.542 --> 00:53:41.375
"No one had to ask
who had had the ball

1188
00:53:41.458 --> 00:53:42.958
or who had made the play.

1189
00:53:43.042 --> 00:53:45.542
They knew
that it was Jim Thorpe."

1190
00:53:45.667 --> 00:53:48.167
[Anderson] Late in the game,
Thorpe caught a punt

1191
00:53:48.250 --> 00:53:50.667
at Carlisle's 45-yard line.

1192
00:53:50.750 --> 00:53:54.333
And immediately,
five Army defenders are on him.

1193
00:53:54.417 --> 00:53:58.375
In a blur of twists and turns
and stiff-arms,

1194
00:53:58.500 --> 00:54:01.333
Thorpe gets through
that first crush of defenders.

1195
00:54:01.375 --> 00:54:03.583
And over the next 50 yards

1196
00:54:03.667 --> 00:54:08.375
manages to repel every other
Army defender on the field...

1197
00:54:08.500 --> 00:54:10.292
♪♪

1198
00:54:10.375 --> 00:54:12.708
...scoring for Carlisle.

1199
00:54:12.833 --> 00:54:17.333
It was the most magnificent
football run that Pop Warner

1200
00:54:17.417 --> 00:54:20.667
and everyone else in attendance
had ever seen.

1201
00:54:20.708 --> 00:54:23.250
And even the cadets
on the sideline stand up

1202
00:54:23.250 --> 00:54:25.500
and applaud for Jim Thorpe.

1203
00:54:25.542 --> 00:54:30.083
[narrator] Thorpe and Carlisle
go on to soundly defeat Army.

1204
00:54:30.167 --> 00:54:31.792
It wasn't even close.

1205
00:54:31.875 --> 00:54:35.000
Carlisle ended up beating Army
that day, 27-6,

1206
00:54:35.042 --> 00:54:38.000
and Jim was by far
the best player on the field.

1207
00:54:38.083 --> 00:54:40.875
[Thorpe] I can say for the men
who made up the team,

1208
00:54:40.875 --> 00:54:42.875
of which I was proud
to be the captain,

1209
00:54:42.958 --> 00:54:46.208
I've never known a team
to function more perfectly.

1210
00:54:46.333 --> 00:54:48.625
The Indians in the crowd
rejoiced

1211
00:54:48.708 --> 00:54:52.458
over the fact that their people,
the Carlisle boys,

1212
00:54:52.542 --> 00:54:57.125
were thumping the white kids
at a game created by whites.

1213
00:54:57.208 --> 00:54:59.000
[narrator]
The 1913 Howitzer,

1214
00:54:59.042 --> 00:55:02.333
the West Point student
yearbook, sums up the match.

1215
00:55:02.417 --> 00:55:05.417
"The Carlisle Indians
gave us the worst defeat

1216
00:55:05.500 --> 00:55:07.625
we have had in years,

1217
00:55:07.708 --> 00:55:11.208
and the running of Thorpe
was by far the most wonderful

1218
00:55:11.333 --> 00:55:15.000
and spectacular ever seen
on our field."

1219
00:55:15.042 --> 00:55:16.500
[Thorpe]
It was a mighty battle

1220
00:55:16.583 --> 00:55:18.292
we fought that day
against the army.

1221
00:55:18.375 --> 00:55:21.333
Every loyal Red son of Carlisle
did his duty.

1222
00:55:21.375 --> 00:55:24.208
And I call it the greatest act
of athletic revenge

1223
00:55:24.292 --> 00:55:25.958
in American history.

1224
00:55:27.042 --> 00:55:30.458
[Buford] Jim Thorpe had the
great football season in 1912.

1225
00:55:30.542 --> 00:55:33.708
Pop Warner said life
was "juicy fat" for Jim Thorpe.

1226
00:55:33.792 --> 00:55:36.375
Like with so many stories
of celebrity athletes

1227
00:55:36.500 --> 00:55:38.458
and their meteoric rises,
it always seems

1228
00:55:38.542 --> 00:55:40.625
that when they're at the top
of their game,

1229
00:55:40.708 --> 00:55:43.625
along comes something to
just knock them off their perch.

1230
00:55:43.708 --> 00:55:46.833
In 1913, just a year
after his Olympic victory,

1231
00:55:46.958 --> 00:55:48.500
a scandal broke out.

1232
00:55:48.583 --> 00:55:50.500
[Thorpe]
This was the first rumble,

1233
00:55:50.583 --> 00:55:53.083
which was to attain
a thunderous crescendo

1234
00:55:53.167 --> 00:55:58.333
and hurl my records and hopes
from the heights into oblivion.

1235
00:56:03.208 --> 00:56:06.167
[Maraniss]
1912, for Jim Thorpe,

1236
00:56:06.250 --> 00:56:07.958
was the single greatest year
that any athlete ever had.

1237
00:56:08.042 --> 00:56:10.667
He won his gold medals
by the greatest margin ever

1238
00:56:10.708 --> 00:56:13.333
and then had this great
All-American football season

1239
00:56:13.458 --> 00:56:14.833
where they defeated Army.

1240
00:56:14.875 --> 00:56:17.042
I don't think you can find
any athlete

1241
00:56:17.125 --> 00:56:18.875
who did all of that in one year.

1242
00:56:20.042 --> 00:56:23.542
[narrator] But 1913 would prove
to be very different.

1243
00:56:23.625 --> 00:56:26.583
It all started with an article
in a small paper

1244
00:56:26.667 --> 00:56:28.542
in Worcester, Massachusetts.

1245
00:56:28.625 --> 00:56:32.333
Apparently, a journalist
was visiting a baseball coach

1246
00:56:32.333 --> 00:56:34.750
and saw a photograph
of Jim Thorpe behind him.

1247
00:56:34.875 --> 00:56:36.750
And the coach said, "Oh, yeah.
That was Jim Thorpe.

1248
00:56:36.833 --> 00:56:38.833
He used to play baseball
for me."

1249
00:56:38.875 --> 00:56:40.625
Even though it was
just the minor leagues,

1250
00:56:40.708 --> 00:56:42.167
because Jim was paid,

1251
00:56:42.250 --> 00:56:43.833
it technically made him
a professional.

1252
00:56:43.917 --> 00:56:46.125
And that violated
the amateur status

1253
00:56:46.208 --> 00:56:48.833
that you had to have to compete
in the Olympic Games.

1254
00:56:48.875 --> 00:56:50.917
Jim had signed that form
for the Olympics,

1255
00:56:51.000 --> 00:56:53.417
saying he had never accepted
any money,

1256
00:56:53.500 --> 00:56:54.958
that he was an amateur.

1257
00:56:55.042 --> 00:56:56.792
But he wasn't.

1258
00:56:56.875 --> 00:56:59.625
♪♪

1259
00:56:59.708 --> 00:57:02.000
[Maraniss] The story immediately
spread all over the country,

1260
00:57:02.042 --> 00:57:05.500
to the big papers in New York,
Philadelphia.

1261
00:57:05.500 --> 00:57:07.792
And so the question was,
"What do we do?"

1262
00:57:07.875 --> 00:57:11.667
Jim was busted and agonized
over what he was to do.

1263
00:57:11.750 --> 00:57:16.125
The only person that he
could rely on in this mess

1264
00:57:16.208 --> 00:57:17.583
was Pop Warner.

1265
00:57:17.667 --> 00:57:19.333
[Creek]
So when the scandal broke out,

1266
00:57:19.375 --> 00:57:21.583
Pop Warner acted
like he knew nothing about it,

1267
00:57:21.708 --> 00:57:24.083
which is impossible considering
he knew most of his players

1268
00:57:24.167 --> 00:57:25.667
played summer ball.

1269
00:57:25.750 --> 00:57:29.333
Pop sat down
and crafted a letter with Jim

1270
00:57:29.375 --> 00:57:31.083
to send to the American
Olympic Committee,

1271
00:57:31.208 --> 00:57:34.458
saying, in essence,
"I was just an Indian schoolboy.

1272
00:57:34.542 --> 00:57:36.167
I didn't know any better,

1273
00:57:36.292 --> 00:57:40.000
and I'm so sorry that I have
brought this on everyone."

1274
00:57:40.083 --> 00:57:41.708
[Thorpe]
All my life,

1275
00:57:41.792 --> 00:57:44.333
I have laid my cards face up
on the table.

1276
00:57:44.375 --> 00:57:47.167
I went to my room
and wrote the letter.

1277
00:57:47.208 --> 00:57:48.792
I found it the hardest

1278
00:57:48.875 --> 00:57:51.833
and cruelest I have ever
written in my life.

1279
00:57:53.667 --> 00:57:57.458
The letter that Jim Thorpe
ultimately submitted

1280
00:57:57.542 --> 00:57:59.167
to the International
Olympic Committee,

1281
00:57:59.250 --> 00:58:01.917
it put all the blame
on Jim Thorpe

1282
00:58:02.000 --> 00:58:05.292
instead of the responsible
adults that were around him,

1283
00:58:05.375 --> 00:58:07.000
including Pop Warner,

1284
00:58:07.083 --> 00:58:09.958
who gets off scot-free
in the depiction of this letter.

1285
00:58:10.042 --> 00:58:13.750
After all these years, the
only thing I wish to say now

1286
00:58:13.833 --> 00:58:15.875
is that I have reason
to believe

1287
00:58:16.000 --> 00:58:18.500
that some of the authorities
at Carlisle knew where I was

1288
00:58:18.625 --> 00:58:22.833
during 1909 and 1910
and what I was doing.

1289
00:58:22.958 --> 00:58:26.042
What they'd done essentially,
is hang Jim out to dry.

1290
00:58:26.125 --> 00:58:29.208
Pop Warner certainly was not
going to take the fall.

1291
00:58:29.292 --> 00:58:31.042
Nobody.

1292
00:58:31.125 --> 00:58:34.958
It was Jim who was at fault,
and he was the scapegoat.

1293
00:58:35.042 --> 00:58:38.833
I mean, Pop Warner...
It was such a deep betrayal.

1294
00:58:38.958 --> 00:58:42.000
I mean, after everything
that Jim Thorpe had done

1295
00:58:42.042 --> 00:58:45.708
to really give Pop Warner
his own separate legacy,

1296
00:58:45.792 --> 00:58:47.542
all the success
and the attention

1297
00:58:47.667 --> 00:58:49.250
he was able to bring him
as a coach,

1298
00:58:49.333 --> 00:58:53.833
for him to then just, at
a crucial moment in his life,

1299
00:58:53.875 --> 00:58:56.042
just totally stab him
in the back...

1300
00:58:58.500 --> 00:59:03.417
So they insisted
that he send back his medals.

1301
00:59:03.500 --> 00:59:05.500
[Maraniss]
The gold medals and trophies

1302
00:59:05.542 --> 00:59:06.875
were taken away from him.

1303
00:59:06.958 --> 00:59:10.167
It was an act
of enormous injustice.

1304
00:59:10.250 --> 00:59:14.292
His records would be stripped
from the Olympic record,

1305
00:59:14.375 --> 00:59:16.583
and the second-
and third-place winners

1306
00:59:16.667 --> 00:59:18.875
would be bumped up to first
and second,

1307
00:59:18.958 --> 00:59:20.417
and he would just be eliminated.

1308
00:59:20.500 --> 00:59:22.125
Hugo Wieslander,

1309
00:59:22.208 --> 00:59:24.083
the Swedish track star
who placed second to Jim,

1310
00:59:24.167 --> 00:59:27.125
was offered his gold medal when
Jim was stripped of the award.

1311
00:59:27.208 --> 00:59:29.833
But he said, "No.
This belongs to Thorpe."

1312
00:59:29.917 --> 00:59:32.833
Jim was busted.
It was over.

1313
00:59:32.875 --> 00:59:36.542
This incredible victory
in Stockholm

1314
00:59:36.667 --> 00:59:40.083
that made him the idol
of the whole world was over.

1315
00:59:40.208 --> 00:59:42.792
[O'Brien] As athletes,
we win or lose on the track.

1316
00:59:42.875 --> 00:59:44.917
Our performance is out there
on the field of play.

1317
00:59:45.000 --> 00:59:47.333
And it's the purest form
of sport.

1318
00:59:47.458 --> 00:59:49.417
There's a start line
and a finish line.

1319
00:59:49.500 --> 00:59:51.667
And they stole that
from Jim Thorpe.

1320
00:59:51.750 --> 00:59:54.292
I adopted
a fatalistic viewpoint

1321
00:59:54.375 --> 00:59:57.458
and considered the episode
just another event

1322
00:59:57.542 --> 01:00:01.167
in the Red man's life
of ups and downs.

1323
01:00:01.292 --> 01:00:03.042
Jim Thorpe losing his medals

1324
01:00:03.125 --> 01:00:07.708
was one of the great injustices
in the sports world of all time.

1325
01:00:07.833 --> 01:00:12.250
This injustice happened on the
firm foundation of hypocrisy.

1326
01:00:12.333 --> 01:00:13.958
It was actually not uncommon

1327
01:00:13.958 --> 01:00:16.167
for athletes to do
exactly what Jim did.

1328
01:00:16.292 --> 01:00:19.208
Most of the time,
athletes used a pseudonym

1329
01:00:19.292 --> 01:00:22.458
to protect their names and
to protect their amateur status.

1330
01:00:22.542 --> 01:00:25.667
There were so many pseudonyms
in the Eastern Carolina League

1331
01:00:25.792 --> 01:00:27.667
that they called it
"the Pocahontas league"

1332
01:00:27.708 --> 01:00:29.667
'cause everybody was named
John Smith.

1333
01:00:29.750 --> 01:00:31.792
Dwight Eisenhower,
the future president,

1334
01:00:31.875 --> 01:00:34.500
played under the name Wilson
in the Kansas State League.

1335
01:00:34.542 --> 01:00:36.667
Jim Thorpe played
under the name Jim Thorpe.

1336
01:00:36.750 --> 01:00:38.167
He never tried to hide it.

1337
01:00:38.292 --> 01:00:40.125
And the final hypocrisy

1338
01:00:40.208 --> 01:00:44.542
is that even the bylaws
of the Olympics in 1912

1339
01:00:44.667 --> 01:00:47.125
said that any challenge
to someone's amateurism

1340
01:00:47.208 --> 01:00:49.875
had to come within 30 days
of the Olympics.

1341
01:00:49.958 --> 01:00:52.625
The stories broke
six months later.

1342
01:00:52.708 --> 01:00:54.042
[Boykoff]
Because of the manner

1343
01:00:54.125 --> 01:00:55.833
in which the medals
were taken away,

1344
01:00:55.917 --> 01:00:57.875
it was a ding to his integrity.

1345
01:00:57.958 --> 01:00:59.750
It wasn't just
that people thought

1346
01:00:59.875 --> 01:01:01.958
he didn't deserve the metals.

1347
01:01:02.042 --> 01:01:04.375
It was that
he supposedly cheated

1348
01:01:04.458 --> 01:01:06.167
en route to getting the medals.

1349
01:01:06.250 --> 01:01:08.375
One of the prevailing
stereotypes of the day

1350
01:01:08.458 --> 01:01:11.208
was that Native Americans were
deceitful and untrustworthy.

1351
01:01:11.292 --> 01:01:13.833
And so I think it was easy
for American society

1352
01:01:13.958 --> 01:01:15.833
to label Jim that way.

1353
01:01:15.875 --> 01:01:18.833
[narrator] Regarding the
journalist who broke the story,

1354
01:01:18.917 --> 01:01:21.000
Thorpe later reflected...

1355
01:01:21.042 --> 01:01:23.833
[Thorpe] He wrote the story
that hurtled around the world

1356
01:01:23.958 --> 01:01:26.875
and toppled me from the heights
of amateur athletics.

1357
01:01:27.000 --> 01:01:29.542
He must have been proud
of his scoop.

1358
01:01:29.625 --> 01:01:31.708
I wonder if, in his happiness,

1359
01:01:31.833 --> 01:01:34.875
he ever thought what his story
would cost me.

1360
01:01:34.958 --> 01:01:37.917
[O'Brien] It's every athlete's
goal to win those major medals.

1361
01:01:38.000 --> 01:01:41.500
Those titles become part of you.
That's part of your identity.

1362
01:01:41.583 --> 01:01:45.042
Having them take away my titles,
having them take away my medals

1363
01:01:45.167 --> 01:01:48.500
would be like taking a piece
of me away physically.

1364
01:01:48.583 --> 01:01:51.792
Jim would tell one
of his friends,

1365
01:01:51.875 --> 01:01:53.500
"They took my medals away.

1366
01:01:53.583 --> 01:01:57.375
I won them fair and square,
and now I don't have them.

1367
01:01:57.458 --> 01:01:59.333
Now I don't have anything."

1368
01:02:04.875 --> 01:02:08.125
[Williams] As soon as Jim loses
his amateur status,

1369
01:02:08.208 --> 01:02:09.708
everyone assumes he's simply
gonna pursue a career

1370
01:02:09.792 --> 01:02:11.042
playing professional football.

1371
01:02:11.125 --> 01:02:13.417
Instead,
owners from a different sport

1372
01:02:13.500 --> 01:02:15.542
saw the value
in Jim's celebrity,

1373
01:02:15.625 --> 01:02:19.042
and offers began to flow in
from professional baseball.

1374
01:02:20.583 --> 01:02:22.000
[Eisenberg]
Jim is a commodity.

1375
01:02:22.083 --> 01:02:24.000
He's the best known athlete
in America,

1376
01:02:24.042 --> 01:02:26.167
and people are fascinated
by him.

1377
01:02:26.208 --> 01:02:29.833
[Maraniss] He was signed
by the New York Giants in 1913

1378
01:02:29.917 --> 01:02:32.750
because he was the most
famous athlete in the world.

1379
01:02:32.833 --> 01:02:35.917
And the Giants,
led by John McGraw,

1380
01:02:36.000 --> 01:02:38.042
knew that later that year,
they'd be traveling

1381
01:02:38.125 --> 01:02:40.875
around the world
with the Chicago White Sox,

1382
01:02:40.958 --> 01:02:43.333
bringing baseball
to the rest of the world.

1383
01:02:43.375 --> 01:02:46.458
The rest of the world knew none
of the famous baseball players.

1384
01:02:46.542 --> 01:02:48.333
They didn't know
Christy Mathewson.

1385
01:02:48.333 --> 01:02:49.958
They didn't know Ty Cobb.

1386
01:02:50.042 --> 01:02:53.833
They knew one athlete
from America: Jim Thorpe.

1387
01:02:53.958 --> 01:02:56.125
[Petrzela] When Thorpe signed
with the New York Giants

1388
01:02:56.125 --> 01:02:58.958
and went around the world
doing exhibition games,

1389
01:02:59.042 --> 01:03:03.125
he played baseball in places
including Japan, Egypt,

1390
01:03:03.208 --> 01:03:05.917
and even in front of the king
and queen in London.

1391
01:03:06.000 --> 01:03:09.333
On the voyage home,
they traveled on the Lusitania,

1392
01:03:09.458 --> 01:03:12.667
the same ship that,
just a few months later,

1393
01:03:12.708 --> 01:03:16.208
was sunk by a German U-boat
in World War I.

1394
01:03:18.250 --> 01:03:20.083
[Williams] Prior to signing
with the Giants,

1395
01:03:20.167 --> 01:03:22.167
Jim had played a couple of years
of minor-league baseball,

1396
01:03:22.250 --> 01:03:25.708
but this was primarily
with small, scrappy farm teams.

1397
01:03:25.792 --> 01:03:27.500
These were really sandlot games,

1398
01:03:27.542 --> 01:03:30.042
nothing compared to what
he'd experience in the majors.

1399
01:03:30.167 --> 01:03:31.833
[Creek]
The fact that he went

1400
01:03:31.875 --> 01:03:33.208
up to the professional league
so quickly,

1401
01:03:33.292 --> 01:03:34.875
he just didn't have time
to acquire the skills

1402
01:03:35.000 --> 01:03:36.833
needed to be a good ballplayer.

1403
01:03:36.917 --> 01:03:39.208
But folks in the front office
wanted him on the team

1404
01:03:39.292 --> 01:03:41.667
because they knew
they could bring the fans in

1405
01:03:41.708 --> 01:03:44.000
and sell tickets...
[crowd cheering]

1406
01:03:44.083 --> 01:03:47.208
...even though he really wasn't
ready for that experience.

1407
01:03:47.292 --> 01:03:49.792
Hitting is when you figure out
who really can play baseball

1408
01:03:49.875 --> 01:03:51.500
and who cannot.

1409
01:03:51.583 --> 01:03:53.500
When something's coming at you
90 miles an hour,

1410
01:03:53.542 --> 01:03:56.292
100 miles an hour, that ain't
easy to get around on.

1411
01:03:56.375 --> 01:03:58.542
And one of the biggest obstacles
for Jim Thorpe

1412
01:03:58.625 --> 01:04:00.167
was that he couldn't hit
a curveball.

1413
01:04:00.250 --> 01:04:02.042
[Eisenberg]
In fact, his batting average

1414
01:04:02.167 --> 01:04:04.917
in his first year with
the Giants was in the .160s.

1415
01:04:05.000 --> 01:04:07.042
Let me tell you.
I'm the sportswriter.

1416
01:04:07.167 --> 01:04:11.458
So I know if I've got Jim Thorpe
in front of me hitting .160,

1417
01:04:11.542 --> 01:04:12.833
I'm not being really nice.

1418
01:04:12.917 --> 01:04:14.833
The headlines are savage.

1419
01:04:14.917 --> 01:04:18.208
"Jim Thorpe is a joke.
Why is he in the major leagues?"

1420
01:04:18.292 --> 01:04:21.083
[Hill]
The criticism, the denigration

1421
01:04:21.167 --> 01:04:23.042
was there immediately

1422
01:04:23.167 --> 01:04:25.667
and I think really gave you
a window of a racial dynamic

1423
01:04:25.750 --> 01:04:27.833
where you build people up,
then,

1424
01:04:27.917 --> 01:04:29.792
when they get to the place
that you built them up,

1425
01:04:29.875 --> 01:04:31.667
you start chopping away.

1426
01:04:31.667 --> 01:04:35.625
It wasn't just like Joe DiMaggio
getting booed at a game.

1427
01:04:35.708 --> 01:04:37.167
No one was talking about
his race.

1428
01:04:37.208 --> 01:04:38.833
No one was talking about
his culture.

1429
01:04:38.917 --> 01:04:40.833
They would shout things at him
like "Dog soup,"

1430
01:04:40.917 --> 01:04:42.792
or they would do war whoops
to taunt him.

1431
01:04:42.875 --> 01:04:44.542
[crowd booing]

1432
01:04:44.625 --> 01:04:47.375
It was almost like all of Jim's
acceptance in society

1433
01:04:47.458 --> 01:04:49.958
and as a player hinged
on his performance.

1434
01:04:50.042 --> 01:04:52.208
If he wasn't winning,
the crowds weren't with him.

1435
01:04:52.208 --> 01:04:54.542
[Maraniss]
John McGraw, the manager,

1436
01:04:54.625 --> 01:04:56.458
doesn't let him play much.

1437
01:04:56.542 --> 01:04:59.292
He's a benchwarmer
for most of that first year.

1438
01:04:59.375 --> 01:05:02.333
[Buford] Huge problem was that
McGraw was a micromanager.

1439
01:05:02.375 --> 01:05:04.667
He liked to tell a player
every single step

1440
01:05:04.792 --> 01:05:07.083
of what he was supposed to do
when he was going up to bat.

1441
01:05:07.167 --> 01:05:11.250
Warner left Jim alone.
He rarely got in his way.

1442
01:05:11.333 --> 01:05:13.417
McGraw was the polar opposite.

1443
01:05:13.500 --> 01:05:17.875
And he and Jim quickly developed
an antipathy to each other.

1444
01:05:17.958 --> 01:05:20.250
[Petrzela] Jim struggled
a lot with baseball,

1445
01:05:20.333 --> 01:05:22.167
which didn't come so naturally
to him.

1446
01:05:22.250 --> 01:05:24.000
[Eisenberg]
But playing baseball,

1447
01:05:24.125 --> 01:05:26.500
by far the most popular sport
in America at the time,

1448
01:05:26.583 --> 01:05:28.625
that kept him in the spotlight.

1449
01:05:28.708 --> 01:05:32.083
As a football player, he's still
the star that he was in college,

1450
01:05:32.208 --> 01:05:35.667
and that got the attention
of the Ohio League.

1451
01:05:35.750 --> 01:05:38.958
[Creek] Jim's professional
football career began in 1915

1452
01:05:39.042 --> 01:05:41.333
with the Canton Bulldogs
in the Ohio League.

1453
01:05:41.375 --> 01:05:43.333
[Maraniss] The Ohio League
was the precursor

1454
01:05:43.375 --> 01:05:46.042
to the National Football League,
but it was nothing like it.

1455
01:05:46.125 --> 01:05:48.000
It wasn't even really a league.

1456
01:05:48.042 --> 01:05:51.708
Players could go from one team
to another week by week,

1457
01:05:51.792 --> 01:05:53.208
depending on who would
pay them more.

1458
01:05:53.333 --> 01:05:55.083
[Eisenberg]
No rules about scheduling.

1459
01:05:55.208 --> 01:05:56.917
No rules about contracts.

1460
01:05:57.000 --> 01:05:59.167
It was very loosely structured.

1461
01:05:59.250 --> 01:06:01.125
[Williams]
Most people at the time

1462
01:06:01.208 --> 01:06:04.208
were barely even aware
that pro football existed.

1463
01:06:04.292 --> 01:06:06.583
This was years before the advent
of the NFL.

1464
01:06:06.708 --> 01:06:10.250
Back then, college football
was considered the real draw.

1465
01:06:10.375 --> 01:06:12.167
[Schefter]
Boxing was more popular.

1466
01:06:12.208 --> 01:06:16.375
Horse racing was more popular.
Tennis, golf, baseball.

1467
01:06:16.458 --> 01:06:19.417
Everything was more popular
than football back in the day.

1468
01:06:19.500 --> 01:06:22.167
It may be shocking
for people to understand this,

1469
01:06:22.208 --> 01:06:24.042
especially seeing what football
has become today,

1470
01:06:24.167 --> 01:06:27.083
but, you know, it wasn't
some billion-dollar industry.

1471
01:06:27.167 --> 01:06:29.000
It wasn't powered
by shoe companies.

1472
01:06:29.083 --> 01:06:31.167
It wasn't supposed to be
this thing

1473
01:06:31.208 --> 01:06:33.000
where people were
supposed to get rich.

1474
01:06:33.125 --> 01:06:34.708
[Eisenberg]
The Canton Bulldogs

1475
01:06:34.708 --> 01:06:36.667
had one of the better teams
in the Ohio League,

1476
01:06:36.750 --> 01:06:39.250
and they offered Jim
$250 a game,

1477
01:06:39.375 --> 01:06:42.458
which is $7,000
in today's dollars.

1478
01:06:42.542 --> 01:06:46.000
It was unheard of to pay anyone
that amount of money.

1479
01:06:46.083 --> 01:06:48.167
It's the first time
there's money in football.

1480
01:06:48.250 --> 01:06:51.208
The salary was a headline.

1481
01:06:51.333 --> 01:06:54.375
Really, you can point to that

1482
01:06:54.458 --> 01:06:57.542
as a birth moment
of professional football.

1483
01:06:57.708 --> 01:07:00.083
It's Jim Thorpe signing
with the Canton Bulldogs.

1484
01:07:00.208 --> 01:07:03.042
Jim Thorpe helped put that sport
on the map.

1485
01:07:04.375 --> 01:07:07.083
[Eisenberg] Jim's best years
as a pro football player

1486
01:07:07.167 --> 01:07:09.083
were with the Canton Bulldogs.

1487
01:07:09.167 --> 01:07:10.500
He's a dominant player.

1488
01:07:10.583 --> 01:07:12.542
He's the best player
on every field.

1489
01:07:12.625 --> 01:07:15.208
Jim would go on to help them
become a dynasty.

1490
01:07:15.292 --> 01:07:17.875
He won four national
championships in five years.

1491
01:07:17.958 --> 01:07:21.042
This was the apex of Jim's
professional football career.

1492
01:07:21.125 --> 01:07:24.667
And they have an incredible
run until the early '20s

1493
01:07:24.750 --> 01:07:27.208
with him as coach and player.

1494
01:07:27.292 --> 01:07:29.417
People come to see him play.

1495
01:07:29.500 --> 01:07:33.000
He encourages other players,
like Knute Rockne,

1496
01:07:33.042 --> 01:07:36.125
to come and play with him
or against him.

1497
01:07:36.208 --> 01:07:38.750
They just wanted to be
on the same field with him

1498
01:07:38.875 --> 01:07:40.500
because he was so revered.

1499
01:07:40.583 --> 01:07:42.708
A professional game
at Massillon, Ohio.

1500
01:07:42.833 --> 01:07:44.208
I was with the Canton Bulldogs.

1501
01:07:44.333 --> 01:07:46.000
And Rockne, he slipped through
and tackled me

1502
01:07:46.083 --> 01:07:49.042
for a couple-yard losses,
and I said, "Well, Rock,

1503
01:07:49.042 --> 01:07:50.500
you're doing fine work."

1504
01:07:50.583 --> 01:07:52.333
But I said, "Listen.

1505
01:07:52.417 --> 01:07:54.417
All these people up here in the
stands come to see old Jim run.

1506
01:07:54.500 --> 01:07:56.167
How about letting old Jim run?"

1507
01:07:56.292 --> 01:07:58.083
He says, "Well, you big rascal,

1508
01:07:58.167 --> 01:08:00.000
if you think you can do it,
let's see you do it."

1509
01:08:00.083 --> 01:08:02.167
So the next time
I carried the ball around,

1510
01:08:02.250 --> 01:08:04.125
I hit him in the side
of the head with my knee

1511
01:08:04.250 --> 01:08:06.958
and my hip and my elbow
and knocked him out.

1512
01:08:07.042 --> 01:08:08.583
So I run on down
for a touchdown.

1513
01:08:08.667 --> 01:08:11.000
I walked up to him
and I said, "Thataboy, Rock.

1514
01:08:11.083 --> 01:08:13.417
You let old Jim run,
didn't you?"

1515
01:08:13.542 --> 01:08:16.292
[narrator] Even while playing
for the Canton Bulldogs,

1516
01:08:16.375 --> 01:08:19.667
Jim Thorpe never gives up
on baseball.

1517
01:08:19.833 --> 01:08:24.375
After marrying Iva Miller
in 1913 and starting a family,

1518
01:08:24.458 --> 01:08:27.667
he dedicates himself to honing
his baseball skills,

1519
01:08:27.708 --> 01:08:30.625
driven by his relentless
competitive spirit.

1520
01:08:30.708 --> 01:08:32.750
[Buford]
Other sports came easily to him.

1521
01:08:32.875 --> 01:08:36.875
But baseball didn't,
and he had to work hard at it.

1522
01:08:37.000 --> 01:08:38.792
His journey takes him
through stints

1523
01:08:38.875 --> 01:08:41.917
with the Milwaukee Brewers,
the Cincinnati Reds,

1524
01:08:42.000 --> 01:08:44.083
and a return
to the New York Giants,

1525
01:08:44.167 --> 01:08:47.292
until he's traded once more
in 1919.

1526
01:08:47.375 --> 01:08:49.292
He's struggling for many years

1527
01:08:49.375 --> 01:08:53.792
until he finally gets his chance
in Boston for the Boston Braves.

1528
01:08:53.875 --> 01:08:55.500
And for that one year,

1529
01:08:55.583 --> 01:08:57.500
he showed that he really did
have baseball talent.

1530
01:08:57.583 --> 01:09:00.875
He led the National League
in hitting for most of the year.

1531
01:09:00.958 --> 01:09:03.958
He was up there in the weekly
scores of batting averages,

1532
01:09:04.042 --> 01:09:06.167
with Ty Cobb leading
the American League.

1533
01:09:06.250 --> 01:09:08.292
[Williams] To put the last year
of Jim's baseball career

1534
01:09:08.375 --> 01:09:11.792
in some context:
Jim hit .327 that year.

1535
01:09:11.875 --> 01:09:14.625
Ken Griffey Jr., by contrast,
who's considered to be

1536
01:09:14.708 --> 01:09:17.708
one of the greatest
baseball players of all time,

1537
01:09:17.792 --> 01:09:21.542
the best batting average he had
in any season: .327.

1538
01:09:21.667 --> 01:09:25.750
♪♪

1539
01:09:25.833 --> 01:09:28.833
So he becomes now known
as the iron man of sports.

1540
01:09:28.958 --> 01:09:30.917
He can play anything.

1541
01:09:31.042 --> 01:09:33.375
All year long,
he's playing both sports.

1542
01:09:33.458 --> 01:09:37.250
So now we give athletes
a heck of a lot of praise

1543
01:09:37.375 --> 01:09:38.875
if they just play two sports.

1544
01:09:39.042 --> 01:09:40.958
Bo knows baseball.
[rock music playing]

1545
01:09:41.042 --> 01:09:43.208
♪♪

1546
01:09:43.292 --> 01:09:45.333
Bo knows football.

1547
01:09:45.458 --> 01:09:47.333
Of course we remember
Bo Jackson being

1548
01:09:47.417 --> 01:09:49.250
a hell of a football player,
a hell of a baseball player.

1549
01:09:49.333 --> 01:09:53.500
Deion Sanders was really good
at football and baseball.

1550
01:09:53.542 --> 01:09:56.000
I'm hard pressed to come up with
too many more after that.

1551
01:09:56.083 --> 01:09:58.208
[Hill]
And nine times out of ten,

1552
01:09:58.292 --> 01:09:59.833
if we're keeping it real,

1553
01:09:59.917 --> 01:10:02.000
they're not equally good
at both of those sports.

1554
01:10:02.042 --> 01:10:03.500
[announcer]
Here's Usain Bolt.

1555
01:10:03.583 --> 01:10:05.042
We'll get an early look
at his speed.

1556
01:10:05.125 --> 01:10:07.125
It's usually one
they're great at,

1557
01:10:07.208 --> 01:10:09.667
and the other one...all right.

1558
01:10:11.292 --> 01:10:15.167
But Jim, he excelled at
football, baseball, and track.

1559
01:10:15.292 --> 01:10:17.417
He's not just
a three-sport athlete.

1560
01:10:17.500 --> 01:10:19.167
You add up
all the decathlon events,

1561
01:10:19.250 --> 01:10:21.333
Jim was a 12-sport athlete.

1562
01:10:21.375 --> 01:10:23.333
[Schefter]
Jim Thorpe came as close

1563
01:10:23.417 --> 01:10:26.250
to mastering all his trades
as anybody else ever has.

1564
01:10:26.333 --> 01:10:29.167
Literally we won't see
a Jim Thorpe ever again.

1565
01:10:29.250 --> 01:10:31.000
There's never gonna be
an athlete

1566
01:10:31.083 --> 01:10:33.417
who's gonna be good
at that many things.

1567
01:10:33.542 --> 01:10:35.583
[narrator]
Jim's talent and star power

1568
01:10:35.667 --> 01:10:39.292
make him the perfect figurehead
to launch a new league.

1569
01:10:39.375 --> 01:10:42.833
Pro football in the early 1900s
was the Wild West.

1570
01:10:42.833 --> 01:10:45.667
They knew that it's got to be
regulated somehow.

1571
01:10:45.708 --> 01:10:49.542
So some of the owners
get together in 1920 in Canton,

1572
01:10:49.625 --> 01:10:52.833
and they sit down
in a Hupmobile auto showroom,

1573
01:10:52.875 --> 01:10:54.500
and they form a league

1574
01:10:54.583 --> 01:10:57.833
that will eventually be
the National Football League.

1575
01:10:57.875 --> 01:11:01.333
And they unanimously elect Jim
as the first president

1576
01:11:01.375 --> 01:11:05.083
of that brand-new league,
knowing that his name means

1577
01:11:05.167 --> 01:11:07.167
that every newspaper
in the country

1578
01:11:07.250 --> 01:11:09.167
will cover this new league

1579
01:11:09.208 --> 01:11:13.333
and thereby bring some respect
and attention to this sport,

1580
01:11:13.417 --> 01:11:16.833
which is why the Pro Football
Hall of Fame is in Canton.

1581
01:11:16.917 --> 01:11:19.708
[narrator] A shrine
to the memory of the greats

1582
01:11:19.792 --> 01:11:21.833
of professional football
is dedicated in Canton, Ohio.

1583
01:11:21.875 --> 01:11:24.208
It was here that
the National Football League

1584
01:11:24.292 --> 01:11:25.833
was founded in 1920.

1585
01:11:25.917 --> 01:11:28.000
No man has ever touched
the record of Jim Thorpe

1586
01:11:28.042 --> 01:11:29.750
as an all-around athlete.

1587
01:11:29.833 --> 01:11:32.167
[Eisenberg] It's a straight line
from that meeting

1588
01:11:32.208 --> 01:11:38.292
to the multi-multibillion-dollar
colossus that the NFL is today.

1589
01:11:38.375 --> 01:11:41.375
He really created that sport.

1590
01:11:41.375 --> 01:11:44.250
[crowd cheering]

1591
01:11:49.708 --> 01:11:53.333
[O'Brien]
Jim Thorpe had spent a decade

1592
01:11:53.375 --> 01:11:54.583
performing at the highest levels
of athletic achievement.

1593
01:11:54.708 --> 01:11:56.500
But that's a decade
of no off days

1594
01:11:56.542 --> 01:11:58.625
and a decade of putting
that punishment on your body.

1595
01:11:58.708 --> 01:12:02.583
[Eisenberg] He's in his 30s,
and he has lost a step.

1596
01:12:02.667 --> 01:12:04.333
And he will continue
to lose a step.

1597
01:12:04.375 --> 01:12:07.333
His decision to be
a two-sport athlete

1598
01:12:07.417 --> 01:12:09.167
had a huge impact
on his family life.

1599
01:12:09.208 --> 01:12:11.750
In baseball,
you're gone for six months.

1600
01:12:11.833 --> 01:12:14.333
And then, his offseason,
he's playing football.

1601
01:12:14.417 --> 01:12:15.833
Also gone.

1602
01:12:15.917 --> 01:12:17.208
He was rarely home.

1603
01:12:17.292 --> 01:12:18.667
Jim and Iva divorced,

1604
01:12:18.750 --> 01:12:21.000
and he then married
Freeda Kirkpatrick,

1605
01:12:21.042 --> 01:12:23.417
and they had four boys.

1606
01:12:23.542 --> 01:12:26.333
It just gets harder and harder
and harder.

1607
01:12:26.375 --> 01:12:28.542
[Proudfit] In an effort
to provide for his family,

1608
01:12:28.625 --> 01:12:30.500
he started to be
more and more absent.

1609
01:12:30.625 --> 01:12:32.708
[Eisenberg] He went
from the Canton Bulldogs

1610
01:12:32.792 --> 01:12:34.875
to a team in Cleveland in 1921.

1611
01:12:34.958 --> 01:12:38.583
And then he coached an
all-Indian team, Oorang Indians,

1612
01:12:38.708 --> 01:12:40.625
which was really
an advertisement

1613
01:12:40.708 --> 01:12:42.750
for a guy that owned dogs.

1614
01:12:42.833 --> 01:12:44.625
[Thorpe]
We traveled through Ohio,

1615
01:12:44.708 --> 01:12:47.125
picking up games at random
without a schedule,

1616
01:12:47.208 --> 01:12:48.708
football gypsies.

1617
01:12:48.792 --> 01:12:50.625
I had traveled
a long and windy road,

1618
01:12:50.708 --> 01:12:52.500
over hills and valleys.

1619
01:12:52.583 --> 01:12:55.167
It seemed in this era
of my life,

1620
01:12:55.292 --> 01:12:57.000
I had slipped into the valley.

1621
01:12:57.042 --> 01:12:59.875
[Eisenberg] In 1925, the
New York Giants brought him in.

1622
01:12:59.958 --> 01:13:01.667
They paid him by the half

1623
01:13:01.708 --> 01:13:03.833
because they weren't sure
that he could finish a game.

1624
01:13:03.958 --> 01:13:06.667
And it didn't go well.
They cut him after four games.

1625
01:13:06.750 --> 01:13:08.583
He was fading.

1626
01:13:08.708 --> 01:13:11.375
As Jim Thorpe's career
was on the decline,

1627
01:13:11.458 --> 01:13:13.750
there was a star
coming into the NFL.

1628
01:13:13.833 --> 01:13:15.542
[narrator]
Red Grange ,

1629
01:13:15.625 --> 01:13:17.000
the fabulous Galloping Ghost
of Illinois.

1630
01:13:17.083 --> 01:13:19.000
[Eisenberg]
He was just an incredible, fast,

1631
01:13:19.042 --> 01:13:22.667
elusive runner, and it just
fascinated the football public.

1632
01:13:22.708 --> 01:13:26.667
[Grange] Now, I played one game
against Jim Thorpe.

1633
01:13:26.708 --> 01:13:30.292
He was 40 years old,
and you could still see

1634
01:13:30.375 --> 01:13:32.375
that he had been
a great football player.

1635
01:13:32.500 --> 01:13:34.958
He was big, and he was strong,
and he loved it.

1636
01:13:35.042 --> 01:13:36.792
He loved that contact.

1637
01:13:36.875 --> 01:13:39.500
He loved to run into people,
and that's what it takes.

1638
01:13:39.625 --> 01:13:42.583
[Proudfit] Not only did Jim
continue to play football,

1639
01:13:42.667 --> 01:13:45.792
but in an effort
to recapture his name

1640
01:13:45.875 --> 01:13:48.208
and his significance
in the sports world,

1641
01:13:48.292 --> 01:13:50.625
he started playing basketball.

1642
01:13:50.708 --> 01:13:52.583
[Thorpe]
I organized teams,

1643
01:13:52.667 --> 01:13:56.208
played itinerant games,
and eked out a living

1644
01:13:56.208 --> 01:13:59.167
from those who paid their
admissions to see Thorpe

1645
01:13:59.208 --> 01:14:02.000
and his unheralded
farewell tour.

1646
01:14:02.042 --> 01:14:05.500
♪

1647
01:14:05.542 --> 01:14:09.333
Every athlete's sports life
comes to an end,

1648
01:14:09.458 --> 01:14:12.542
and Jim Thorpe's came to an end
in 1928.

1649
01:14:13.708 --> 01:14:16.667
I was now 41 years old.

1650
01:14:16.708 --> 01:14:19.000
The years had put weight
on my frame

1651
01:14:19.125 --> 01:14:20.833
and taken fire from my feet.

1652
01:14:21.708 --> 01:14:23.833
Football was my love.

1653
01:14:23.917 --> 01:14:27.792
And now was I saying goodbye
to the game

1654
01:14:27.875 --> 01:14:30.625
of which I felt I had become
a part?

1655
01:14:30.708 --> 01:14:33.500
Later, many sportswriters
and commentators

1656
01:14:33.542 --> 01:14:36.458
would say that Jim had played
too early,

1657
01:14:36.542 --> 01:14:40.167
before agents, testimonials,
and money,

1658
01:14:40.208 --> 01:14:43.042
big-time money,
enter into the world of sports.

1659
01:14:43.125 --> 01:14:45.500
♪

1660
01:14:45.625 --> 01:14:48.583
You have Babe Ruth.

1661
01:14:50.125 --> 01:14:52.708
You have Red Grange.

1662
01:14:54.042 --> 01:14:55.958
Jack Dempsey is a fighter.

1663
01:14:56.917 --> 01:15:00.208
The bonanza came
after Jim's time.

1664
01:15:00.292 --> 01:15:02.292
Athletes made a lot of money.

1665
01:15:02.375 --> 01:15:04.708
♪♪

1666
01:15:04.792 --> 01:15:07.500
Jim Thorpe struggled monetarily
after retirement.

1667
01:15:07.542 --> 01:15:09.583
No question about it.

1668
01:15:09.667 --> 01:15:12.333
[Buford] Ironically,
the greatest athlete of all

1669
01:15:12.375 --> 01:15:14.500
couldn't benefit in the way that
other athletes could benefit.

1670
01:15:14.583 --> 01:15:16.958
[Boykoff] There was a lot
of anti-Indigenous racism

1671
01:15:17.042 --> 01:15:18.542
at that time.

1672
01:15:18.625 --> 01:15:20.917
It was difficult to find
lucrative employment.

1673
01:15:21.042 --> 01:15:22.458
So there are 25 years

1674
01:15:22.542 --> 01:15:26.417
where he was constantly looking
for a job.

1675
01:15:26.542 --> 01:15:31.167
He was a bar owner,
a greeter at bars.

1676
01:15:31.292 --> 01:15:33.333
Jobs were scarce,

1677
01:15:33.417 --> 01:15:35.292
and I had made the mistake
in my life

1678
01:15:35.375 --> 01:15:39.167
of devoting all my time to
athletics, overlooking the fact

1679
01:15:39.292 --> 01:15:42.375
that someday I might need
a business calling

1680
01:15:42.458 --> 01:15:45.750
upon which to lean
in days such as these.

1681
01:15:46.958 --> 01:15:50.125
[Buford] In the 1930s --
this is the Depression --

1682
01:15:50.208 --> 01:15:53.708
thousands of has-been athletes
went out to Hollywood.

1683
01:15:53.792 --> 01:15:56.000
♪

1684
01:15:56.042 --> 01:15:58.708
It was seen as a place
where they might work.

1685
01:15:58.833 --> 01:16:01.875
With the advent
of the sound pictures, talkies,

1686
01:16:01.958 --> 01:16:04.542
the Western had come back
into favor.

1687
01:16:04.625 --> 01:16:06.708
You could have
the horses galloping

1688
01:16:06.792 --> 01:16:08.750
and the rifles crackling.

1689
01:16:08.833 --> 01:16:13.250
And so Jim, as well as hundreds
if not thousands of Indians,

1690
01:16:13.333 --> 01:16:14.833
also went out to Hollywood.

1691
01:16:14.875 --> 01:16:17.833
He thought he could make his way
as an actor.

1692
01:16:17.917 --> 01:16:19.667
♪♪

1693
01:16:19.750 --> 01:16:21.417
[Buford] When he first arrived
in Hollywood,

1694
01:16:21.500 --> 01:16:25.333
he couldn't find any work,
and he was just doing odd jobs.

1695
01:16:25.458 --> 01:16:27.292
I took a shovel
and worked on the site

1696
01:16:27.375 --> 01:16:30.792
of the new county hospital,
loading dirt into trucks.

1697
01:16:30.875 --> 01:16:33.458
I was paid $4 a day.

1698
01:16:33.542 --> 01:16:35.667
I had worked there
only a few weeks

1699
01:16:35.708 --> 01:16:37.708
when newspaper reporters
found me.

1700
01:16:37.792 --> 01:16:40.333
They posed me with a pick
and shovel,

1701
01:16:40.417 --> 01:16:42.292
and the papers carried
the picture.

1702
01:16:42.375 --> 01:16:45.708
You know, the famous Jim Thorpe
is now digging ditches.

1703
01:16:45.792 --> 01:16:47.667
A far cry from the day

1704
01:16:47.792 --> 01:16:50.542
when I stood beside King Gustav
of Sweden

1705
01:16:50.625 --> 01:16:52.917
with my arms loaded
with trophies.

1706
01:16:53.000 --> 01:16:56.042
As soon as the word spread that
Jim Thorpe was digging ditches,

1707
01:16:56.125 --> 01:17:00.083
it became this enormous
symbolic event.

1708
01:17:00.208 --> 01:17:03.583
Photos went out to
every newspaper in the country.

1709
01:17:03.667 --> 01:17:06.917
[Doyle] The sense was this man
had fallen so far.

1710
01:17:07.000 --> 01:17:09.625
And I think it's easy
to perceive it that way,

1711
01:17:09.708 --> 01:17:12.208
but I don't think that he saw it
that way.

1712
01:17:12.333 --> 01:17:15.167
Jim Thorpe was not a person
who felt sorry for himself.

1713
01:17:15.208 --> 01:17:16.833
He was a hardworking man,

1714
01:17:16.875 --> 01:17:20.625
and he saw work like that
as an opportunity.

1715
01:17:20.708 --> 01:17:23.625
[Buford]
And the studios heard about him,

1716
01:17:23.708 --> 01:17:26.667
and that's what started
the studio career.

1717
01:17:26.750 --> 01:17:30.667
And he realized that his name
had a certain currency

1718
01:17:30.750 --> 01:17:32.208
in the movies.

1719
01:17:32.333 --> 01:17:35.333
People could put
"and also starring Jim Thorpe"

1720
01:17:35.375 --> 01:17:36.917
or "Jim Thorpe appearing."

1721
01:17:37.000 --> 01:17:40.292
He found that jobs came to him
because of that.

1722
01:17:40.375 --> 01:17:42.625
♪

1723
01:17:42.708 --> 01:17:45.833
Jim's big-screen debut
was in Battling Buffalo Bill,

1724
01:17:45.833 --> 01:17:47.667
where he played
a Cheyenne warrior.

1725
01:17:47.750 --> 01:17:49.792
He was also a pirate
in Captain Blood.

1726
01:17:49.875 --> 01:17:53.125
He played a native in King Kong,

1727
01:17:53.208 --> 01:17:55.000
and he was in Always Kickin',
where he played himself.

1728
01:17:55.042 --> 01:17:56.542
Listen, boys.

1729
01:17:56.625 --> 01:17:58.833
If the laces are not up
on receiving the ball

1730
01:17:58.875 --> 01:18:00.667
from the center,
don't take too much time.

1731
01:18:00.708 --> 01:18:03.500
Adjust the ball
on a step forward and kick.

1732
01:18:04.542 --> 01:18:09.667
But you had very limited roles
for Native Americans who spoke,

1733
01:18:09.750 --> 01:18:13.875
so he was relegated to play
generic characters

1734
01:18:13.958 --> 01:18:15.458
who had few lines, if any.

1735
01:18:15.542 --> 01:18:17.833
-No. More.
-That's all you get.

1736
01:18:17.917 --> 01:18:19.375
Hudson Bay pay more.

1737
01:18:19.500 --> 01:18:20.958
[gunshot echoes]

1738
01:18:21.042 --> 01:18:23.375
[Proudfit] He was asked
to wear a headdress,

1739
01:18:23.458 --> 01:18:28.458
speak in generic, stereotypical
Hollywood Native speak.

1740
01:18:28.542 --> 01:18:31.458
In spring,
Big Jim Foster's cabin burn.

1741
01:18:31.542 --> 01:18:32.833
Furs gone.

1742
01:18:32.875 --> 01:18:34.750
But he was also
really frustrated

1743
01:18:34.833 --> 01:18:37.125
that most of the roles
during this period of time

1744
01:18:37.208 --> 01:18:39.542
were going to non-Indians
playing Indians.

1745
01:18:39.625 --> 01:18:42.833
These are non-Indigenous
actors in war paint,

1746
01:18:42.917 --> 01:18:44.667
doing buffoonish
characterizations

1747
01:18:44.750 --> 01:18:47.750
of what they thought
Native Americans behaved like.

1748
01:18:47.833 --> 01:18:51.125
In 1926, a group called
the War Paint Club was formed,

1749
01:18:51.208 --> 01:18:54.167
and its goal was to ensure
that Hollywood would hire

1750
01:18:54.208 --> 01:18:57.875
Native actors
to play Native people in films.

1751
01:18:57.958 --> 01:19:01.333
Jim lent his voice and celebrity
to this cause.

1752
01:19:01.500 --> 01:19:06.125
Jim's advocacy for his fellow
Indians was so strong and moving

1753
01:19:06.208 --> 01:19:10.667
that they called him ahkapanata,
which was a Sac and Fox term

1754
01:19:10.750 --> 01:19:14.000
which essentially meant
"caretaker."

1755
01:19:14.083 --> 01:19:15.792
[narrator]
After years of advocating

1756
01:19:15.875 --> 01:19:18.208
on behalf
of all Native Americans,

1757
01:19:18.292 --> 01:19:20.667
the final act
of Jim Thorpe's life

1758
01:19:20.750 --> 01:19:23.167
finds him advocating for himself

1759
01:19:23.208 --> 01:19:27.083
as he fights to win back
his Olympic medals.

1760
01:19:31.625 --> 01:19:34.917
[narrator]
In Oklahoma,

1761
01:19:35.000 --> 01:19:36.792
members of 15 Indian tribes
stage a colorful celebration

1762
01:19:36.875 --> 01:19:38.708
in honor of a famous
Indian athlete, Jim Thorpe,

1763
01:19:38.833 --> 01:19:40.625
who joins the dances himself.

1764
01:19:40.708 --> 01:19:43.292
In 1950, The Associated Press
took a poll of sportswriters

1765
01:19:43.375 --> 01:19:46.667
of the greatest athlete of the
first half of the 20th century.

1766
01:19:46.708 --> 01:19:51.042
Jim Thorpe won by a mile over
Jackie Robinson and Jesse Owens

1767
01:19:51.125 --> 01:19:53.833
and Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb
and Jack Dempsey.

1768
01:19:53.917 --> 01:19:55.250
It was Jim Thorpe.

1769
01:19:55.333 --> 01:19:57.583
So he was back
in the limelight again,

1770
01:19:57.708 --> 01:20:02.917
and it prompted the making of
the Warner Bros. biopic in 1951,

1771
01:20:03.042 --> 01:20:05.375
Jim Thorpe: All-American.

1772
01:20:05.458 --> 01:20:07.958
[narrator] Jim Thorpe Week then
reaches its climax in a parade.

1773
01:20:08.042 --> 01:20:10.292
Celebration lasts
far into the night,

1774
01:20:10.375 --> 01:20:13.000
as Oklahoma hails
the motion-picture life story

1775
01:20:13.083 --> 01:20:15.500
of the man recently voted
the outstanding athlete

1776
01:20:15.583 --> 01:20:19.208
of the last half-century,
Jim Thorpe: All-American.

1777
01:20:19.208 --> 01:20:23.583
The director was Michael Curtiz,
who had directed Casablanca.

1778
01:20:23.667 --> 01:20:25.667
The star was Burt Lancaster,

1779
01:20:25.792 --> 01:20:28.500
a great movie star,
a good athlete.

1780
01:20:28.542 --> 01:20:30.958
Sir, you are the greatest
athlete in the world.

1781
01:20:31.042 --> 01:20:33.250
Thank you, Your Majesty.

1782
01:20:33.333 --> 01:20:35.667
[Maraniss] Very popular.
It was on all the big screens

1783
01:20:35.750 --> 01:20:37.458
and the outdoor theaters
around the country.

1784
01:20:37.542 --> 01:20:39.542
[Buford] Jim Thorpe was
sort of plaintive, you know?

1785
01:20:39.542 --> 01:20:43.375
He said, "I get a funny feeling
watching Burt play me."

1786
01:20:43.458 --> 01:20:45.833
He said, "I don't think I was
ever as handsome

1787
01:20:45.958 --> 01:20:48.250
as Burt Lancaster."

1788
01:20:48.333 --> 01:20:51.083
[Jones] Even though Jim was back
in the public eye,

1789
01:20:51.167 --> 01:20:54.000
the recognition that he really
wanted was from the Olympics.

1790
01:20:54.083 --> 01:20:56.250
[narrator]
In the later years of his life,

1791
01:20:56.375 --> 01:20:58.292
Jim works tirelessly,

1792
01:20:58.375 --> 01:21:01.167
petitioning to have
his Olympic medals restored.

1793
01:21:01.167 --> 01:21:04.167
Contemporary account
after contemporary account

1794
01:21:04.208 --> 01:21:07.417
talked about how Thorpe was
totally disconsolate

1795
01:21:07.542 --> 01:21:09.083
by losing those medals.

1796
01:21:09.167 --> 01:21:11.542
He wanted them back
more than anything.

1797
01:21:11.667 --> 01:21:14.708
In one plea to the president
of the Amateur Athletic Union,

1798
01:21:14.833 --> 01:21:16.125
he writes...

1799
01:21:16.208 --> 01:21:18.000
[Thorpe]
You will have the knowledge

1800
01:21:18.083 --> 01:21:21.042
that you made an old
American Indian a happy man.

1801
01:21:21.125 --> 01:21:23.542
And when I go
to the happy hunting ground,

1802
01:21:23.625 --> 01:21:25.833
my blessings will be upon you.

1803
01:21:25.917 --> 01:21:29.833
[narrator] However,
he is rejected time and again.

1804
01:21:29.917 --> 01:21:32.625
[Hill] I mean, it was something
that he never got over

1805
01:21:32.708 --> 01:21:36.125
and really loomed over him
the rest of his life.

1806
01:21:37.958 --> 01:21:39.875
[Buford] Jim Thorpe
did not have a good heart,

1807
01:21:40.000 --> 01:21:41.500
and he'd had heart attacks.

1808
01:21:41.625 --> 01:21:46.708
In 1953, Jim Thorpe had
one last heart attack and died.

1809
01:21:46.833 --> 01:21:50.417
♪♪

1810
01:21:52.000 --> 01:21:54.958
His passing prompts an
outpouring of support

1811
01:21:55.042 --> 01:21:58.708
from many, including
former collegiate adversary

1812
01:21:58.708 --> 01:22:01.667
and newly elected president
of the United States

1813
01:22:01.750 --> 01:22:03.667
Dwight Eisenhower.

1814
01:22:03.750 --> 01:22:07.500
"I learned with sorrow
of the death of my old friend.

1815
01:22:07.500 --> 01:22:10.333
I personally feel
that no other athlete

1816
01:22:10.417 --> 01:22:15.417
has possessed his all-round
abilities in games and sports."

1817
01:22:15.542 --> 01:22:17.958
[Watson] In his death,
there's a groundswell of support

1818
01:22:18.042 --> 01:22:20.250
from the public
to return his medals.

1819
01:22:20.333 --> 01:22:23.958
People grabbed on to him
almost like a folk hero

1820
01:22:24.042 --> 01:22:26.917
as the man wronged
by the big guys.

1821
01:22:27.000 --> 01:22:30.000
They wanted some vindication
for Jim.

1822
01:22:30.125 --> 01:22:32.500
[Maraniss] His family had fought
for them over the years.

1823
01:22:32.625 --> 01:22:35.833
Various other athletes
were pushing for it.

1824
01:22:35.958 --> 01:22:39.667
The campaign, which went on for
decades and decades and decades,

1825
01:22:39.667 --> 01:22:43.583
was thwarted over and over again
by Avery Brundage,

1826
01:22:43.708 --> 01:22:47.417
the competitor who had lost
to Jim in the Olympics.

1827
01:22:47.500 --> 01:22:50.208
Over the years, Brundage had
risen through the ranks

1828
01:22:50.292 --> 01:22:51.917
to become president

1829
01:22:52.042 --> 01:22:53.792
of the International
Olympic Committee.

1830
01:22:53.875 --> 01:22:56.750
Throughout Brundage's tenure
as a leader

1831
01:22:56.833 --> 01:22:58.333
within the Olympic movement,

1832
01:22:58.375 --> 01:23:02.750
he continued to not reinstate
the honors

1833
01:23:02.833 --> 01:23:04.542
that Thorpe had earned.

1834
01:23:04.625 --> 01:23:07.625
As long as Avery Brundage
was alive, it would not happen.

1835
01:23:07.708 --> 01:23:11.000
It chugs along like that
until Avery Brundage is out.

1836
01:23:11.083 --> 01:23:12.875
He retires.
He's gone.

1837
01:23:12.958 --> 01:23:16.000
With Thorpe's nemesis
out of the way

1838
01:23:16.042 --> 01:23:18.458
and continued support
for his cause,

1839
01:23:18.542 --> 01:23:21.833
including from
President Gerald Ford,

1840
01:23:21.917 --> 01:23:24.625
justice ultimately prevails.

1841
01:23:24.708 --> 01:23:28.375
Jim's medals were restored
to him 30 years after his death,

1842
01:23:28.500 --> 01:23:30.042
in 1982.

1843
01:23:30.208 --> 01:23:33.000
But Jim Thorpe is listed
as co-winner

1844
01:23:33.042 --> 01:23:34.875
with the second-place finishers

1845
01:23:34.958 --> 01:23:36.958
in the pentathlon
and decathlon,

1846
01:23:37.042 --> 01:23:41.000
an injustice that stands
until 2022.

1847
01:23:41.125 --> 01:23:43.000
[Muir]
Long considered one of the most

1848
01:23:43.042 --> 01:23:44.833
controversial decisions
in sports...

1849
01:23:44.917 --> 01:23:46.917
A resolution
in what some are calling

1850
01:23:47.000 --> 01:23:48.958
the first international
sports scandal.

1851
01:23:49.042 --> 01:23:50.625
After more than 100 years,

1852
01:23:50.708 --> 01:23:53.333
Jim Thorpe has been reinstated
as the sole winner

1853
01:23:53.375 --> 01:23:58.333
of the 1912 Olympic pentathlon
and decathlon in Sweden.

1854
01:23:58.375 --> 01:24:02.167
This day has certainly been a
long time coming for Jim Thorpe.

1855
01:24:02.208 --> 01:24:05.583
It took 110 years for justice
to finally be done.

1856
01:24:05.667 --> 01:24:10.042
In 2024, nearly 80 years
after his death,

1857
01:24:10.125 --> 01:24:12.500
Jim Thorpe is
posthumously awarded

1858
01:24:12.542 --> 01:24:15.250
the Presidential Medal
of Freedom...

1859
01:24:15.333 --> 01:24:17.375
Jim Thorpe,
a one-of-a-kind champion.

1860
01:24:17.375 --> 01:24:18.833
Not just the greatest
ballplayer.

1861
01:24:18.917 --> 01:24:20.500
The greatest athlete
of all time.

1862
01:24:20.625 --> 01:24:23.000
...the nation's highest
civilian honor.

1863
01:24:24.792 --> 01:24:26.667
Jim Thorpe's legacy
is astounding

1864
01:24:26.750 --> 01:24:28.208
when you look back on it.

1865
01:24:28.208 --> 01:24:30.292
No one has carved the path
that he carved.

1866
01:24:30.375 --> 01:24:32.292
To be a dominant
football player,

1867
01:24:32.375 --> 01:24:34.667
to be a Major League Baseball
player,

1868
01:24:34.750 --> 01:24:36.500
to be an Olympic gold medalist:

1869
01:24:36.542 --> 01:24:40.333
To do all those things
in one athlete's life,

1870
01:24:40.417 --> 01:24:41.958
he is in a category by himself.

1871
01:24:42.042 --> 01:24:43.833
No one has replicated that,

1872
01:24:43.958 --> 01:24:46.375
and I daresay we'll never see
another.

1873
01:24:46.458 --> 01:24:49.042
[O'Brien] Jim Thorpe is a giant
in the sport of track and field.

1874
01:24:49.125 --> 01:24:51.667
I was in the Olympics
80 years after Jim Thorpe,

1875
01:24:51.792 --> 01:24:54.875
and even though almost a century
of history separates us,

1876
01:24:54.958 --> 01:24:56.542
he had a big impact on me.

1877
01:24:56.667 --> 01:24:59.375
[Doyle] This is an athlete
that really dominated

1878
01:24:59.375 --> 01:25:01.417
the first half
of the 20th century,

1879
01:25:01.500 --> 01:25:04.708
but also he represents so
much more than just an athlete.

1880
01:25:04.792 --> 01:25:07.833
[Buford] He became
an inspiration for any outsider.

1881
01:25:07.875 --> 01:25:11.292
Anyone who felt excluded
from the American mainstream,

1882
01:25:11.375 --> 01:25:14.667
the American elite
was keeping them out of sports,

1883
01:25:14.750 --> 01:25:16.333
Jim Thorpe became their man.

1884
01:25:16.458 --> 01:25:18.125
[Maraniss]
Jim Thorpe was a survivor.

1885
01:25:18.208 --> 01:25:20.417
He endured
all of the difficulties

1886
01:25:20.500 --> 01:25:22.083
that Native Americans endured

1887
01:25:22.167 --> 01:25:25.167
during the 19th
and early 20th century.

1888
01:25:25.208 --> 01:25:28.083
What he represents
is the perseverance

1889
01:25:28.167 --> 01:25:30.042
of Native peoples
in this country.

1890
01:25:30.125 --> 01:25:31.500
He represents the very height,

1891
01:25:31.583 --> 01:25:34.167
the very top
a person could achieve.

1892
01:25:34.292 --> 01:25:38.000
His legacy is that other Native
people want their children

1893
01:25:38.042 --> 01:25:40.083
and future generations
and even themselves,

1894
01:25:40.167 --> 01:25:42.750
their own generations,
to match that.

1895
01:25:42.875 --> 01:25:46.292
[Proudfit] Perseverance
was in everything that he did.

1896
01:25:46.292 --> 01:25:49.375
If you think about
Jim Thorpe's life,

1897
01:25:49.500 --> 01:25:53.208
he's not just a tragic figure
of American history.

1898
01:25:53.208 --> 01:25:55.667
He's not just another
sad Indian.

1899
01:25:55.750 --> 01:25:58.833
He was the greatest athlete
of all time

1900
01:25:58.875 --> 01:26:02.000
and one of the greatest
Americans who ever lived.

1901
01:26:02.042 --> 01:26:04.875
♪