PRINTER'S NO. 1305
No. 189 Session of 2003
INTRODUCED BY McCALL, ADOLPH, ARGALL, BEBKO-JONES, BELARDI,
BROWNE, BUNT, CAWLEY, CIVERA, CLYMER, COLEMAN, COSTA, COY,
CRAHALLA, CREIGHTON, CURRY, DALEY, DeLUCA, DERMODY, DeWEESE,
DONATUCCI, EACHUS, D. EVANS, J. EVANS, FABRIZIO, FAIRCHILD,
FICHTER, FLEAGLE, FORCIER, FRANKEL, FREEMAN, GABIG, GEIST,
GILLESPIE, GERGELY, GOODMAN, GRUCELA, HARHAI, HARPER,
HENNESSEY, HERMAN, HERSHEY, HESS, HUTCHINSON, JAMES, JOSEPHS,
KELLER, LAUGHLIN, LEDERER, LEH, LEWIS, MAJOR, MANDERINO,
MARSICO, McGILL, MUNDY, NAILOR, O'NEILL, PAYNE, PETRARCA,
PHILLIPS, PISTELLA, PRESTON, READSHAW, REICHLEY, ROBERTS,
ROHRER, ROSS, RUBLEY, SAINATO, SANTONI, SATHER, SAYLOR,
SCAVELLO, SCHRODER, SEMMEL, SHANER, B. SMITH, STABACK, SURRA,
TANGRETTI, E. Z. TAYLOR, THOMAS, TIGUE, TURZAI, WALKO,
WANSACZ, WASHINGTON, WATSON, WILT AND YOUNGBLOOD,
APRIL 9, 2003
INTRODUCED AS NONCONTROVERSIAL RESOLUTION UNDER RULE 35,
APRIL 9, 2003
A RESOLUTION
1 Designating May 17, 2003, as "James Francis Thorpe Day" in
2 Pennsylvania.
3 WHEREAS, As an amateur in track 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 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
1 in the grueling track and field events, said "You, sir, are the
2 greatest athlete in the world"; and
3 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe was the first United States athlete to
4 win the decathlon and the pentathlon during one Olympic year,
5 which athletic feats and subsequent worldwide publicity helped
6 establish the viability of the modern Olympic Games; and
7 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe was stripped of his Olympic medals and
8 awards in 1913 on the grounds that he was a professional, having
9 played semiprofessional baseball in the summers of 1909 and
10 1910, but in 1983 he was exonerated, his amateur status was
11 returned, his honors were restored and his family received his
12 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 are currently at the International Olympic Committee Museum, a
18 private museum in Lausanne, Switzerland; and
19 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe's amateur football record was established
20 when he was a student at the Carlisle Indian School in
21 Pennsylvania and was chosen as halfback to Walter Camp's first
22 All-America Team in 1911 and 1912; and
23 WHEREAS, A founding father of professional football, Jim
24 Thorpe was the first elected president of the American
25 Professional Football Association, now the National Football
26 League, was a drawing card in the growth and development of
27 professional football in its infancy and gave the sport
28 credibility; and
29 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe played major league baseball with the New
30 York Giants, the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Braves, ending
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1 the 1919 season with a .327 average; and
2 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe is the only American athlete to date to
3 have excelled as an amateur and a professional in three major
4 sports: track and field, football and baseball; and
5 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe was voted America's Greatest All-Around
6 Male Athlete, was chosen as the greatest football player of the
7 half-century in 1950 by an Associated Press poll of
8 sportswriters and was named American Broadcasting Company's Wide
9 World of Sports Athlete of the Century; 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 inspired young Americans and sports-
20 conscious Americans; therefore be it
21 RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives designate May 17,
22 2003, the anniversary of Jim Thorpe's birth as "James Francis
23 Thorpe Day" in Pennsylvania.
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