PRINTER'S NO. 1372
No. 113 Session of 1999
INTRODUCED BY McCALL, ARMSTRONG, YOUNGBLOOD, S. H. SMITH,
BELFANTI, HESS, DAILEY, HENNESSEY, MARSICO, CIVERA, HORSEY,
PETRONE, PIPPY, CALTAGIRONE, GEORGE, CORRIGAN, CAPPABIANCA,
COY, BEBKO-JONES, JAMES, MELIO, FAIRCHILD, EVANS, DEMPSEY,
READSHAW, MASLAND, ARGALL, TRELLO, WOJNAROSKI, M. COHEN,
PESCI, TRAVAGLIO, GIGLIOTTI, FICHTER, HALUSKA, MUNDY, BARRAR,
JOSEPHS, SURRA, SEYFERT, STABACK, NAILOR, ROBERTS, GRUCELA,
SHANER, HERSHEY, LESCOVITZ, BATTISTO, BUNT, LYNCH, HARHART,
HERMAN, SEMMEL, LAUGHLIN, WALKO, MYERS, CLARK, DALLY, CLYMER,
FORCIER AND COSTA, APRIL 13, 1999
INTRODUCED AS NONCONTROVERSIAL RESOLUTION UNDER RULE 35,
APRIL 13, 1999
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
1 Supporting the proclaiming of Jim Thorpe as the Athlete of the
2 Century.
3 WHEREAS, As an amateur in tract and field, Jim Thorpe won the
4 pentathlon and the decathlon at the Amateur Athletic Union's
5 National Championship Trials held in Boston in May 1912, prior
6 to the Olympics; and
7 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe represented the Sac and Fox Nation and
8 the United States at the 1912 Olympic Games held in Stockholm,
9 Sweden, and became a citizen of the United States in 1917; and
10 WHEREAS, King Gustav V of Sweden, presenting Jim Thorpe with
11 two gold medals after winning the pentathlon and the decathlon
12 in the grueling track and field events, said, "You, sir, are the
13 greatest athlete in the world"; and
1 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe was the first United States athlete to
2 win the decathlon and the only athlete in the world to win both
3 the decathlon and the pentathlon during one Olympic year, which
4 athletic feats and the subsequent world-wide publicity helped
5 establish the viability of the Olympics that were just getting
6 started in 1912; and
7 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe was stripped of his Olympic medals and
8 awards in 1913 on the grounds that he was a professional, since
9 he had played semiprofessional baseball in the summers of 1909
10 and 1910; however, in 1983 he was exonerated, his status was
11 returned as an amateur, his honors were restored and his family
12 received his gold medals; and
13 WHEREAS, For his extraordinary accomplishments Jim Thorpe
14 received, as gifts, a life-size bust of King Gustav V of Sweden
15 and a Viking Ship encrusted with semiprecious jewels from
16 Nicholas II, the last Czar of Russia, priceless trophies which
17 have yet to be returned to the Thorpe family and which are
18 currently at the International Olympic Committee Museum, a
19 private museum in Lausanne, Switzerland; and
20 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe's amateur football record was established
21 when he was a student at the Carlisle Indian School in
22 Pennsylvania and was chosen as half-back to Walter Camp's First
23 All-American Team in 1911 and 1912; and
24 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe was a founding father of professional
25 football, being the first elected president of the American
26 Professional Football Association, now the National Football
27 League, and was a drawing card in the growth and development of
28 professional football in its infancy who gave the sport
29 credibility; and
30 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe played major league baseball with the New
19990H0113R1372 - 2 -
1 York Giants, the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Braves, ending
2 the 1919 season with a .327 average; and
3 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe is the only American athlete, to date, to
4 excel as an amateur and as a professional in three major sports,
5 track and field, football and baseball; and
6 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe was voted America's Greatest All-Around
7 Male Athlete and was chosen as the greatest football player of
8 the half-century in 1950 by an Associated Press poll of sports-
9 writers; and
10 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe was named the Greatest American Football
11 Player in history in a 1977 national poll conducted by Sport
12 Magazine; and
13 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe was enshrined in the National Indian Hall
14 of Fame, the Helms Professional Football Hall of Fame, the
15 Professional Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, the National
16 Track and Field Hall of Fame and the Pennsylvania and Oklahoma
17 Halls of Fame; and
18 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe, because of his unsurpassed sports
19 achievements, has long been an inspiration to America's youth
20 and America's sports-conscious people; therefore be it
21 RESOLVED (the Senate concurring), That the General Assembly
22 of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania support the proclaiming of
23 Jim Thorpe as the Athlete of the Century; and be it further
24 RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be sent to ESPN,
25 Inc., ESPN Plaza, Bristol, CT 06010.
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