PRINTER'S NO. 884
No. 59 Session of 1999
INTRODUCED BY RHOADES, APRIL 14, 1999
INTRODUCED AND ADOPTED, APRIL 14, 1999
A 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
14 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe was the first United States athlete to
15 win the decathlon and the only athlete in the world to win both
16 the decathlon and the pentathlon during one Olympic year, which
17 athletic feats and the subsequent world-wide publicity helped
1 establish the viability of the Olympics that were just getting
2 started in 1912; and
3 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe was stripped of his Olympic medals and
4 awards in 1913 on the grounds that he was a professional, since
5 he had played semiprofessional baseball in the summers of 1909
6 and 1910; however, in 1983 he was exonerated, his status was
7 returned as an amateur, his honors were restored and his family
8 received his gold medals; and
9 WHEREAS, For his extraordinary accomplishments Jim Thorpe
10 received, as gifts, a life-size bust of King Gustav V of Sweden
11 and a Viking Ship encrusted with semiprecious jewels from
12 Nicholas II, the last Czar of Russia, priceless trophies which
13 have yet to be returned to the Thorpe family and which are
14 currently at the International Olympic Committee Museum, a
15 private museum in Lausanne, Switzerland; and
16 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe's amateur football record was established
17 when he was a student at the Carlisle Indian School in
18 Pennsylvania and was chosen as half-back to Walter Camp's First
19 All-American Team in 1911 and 1912; and
20 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe was a founding father of professional
21 football, being the first elected president of the American
22 Professional Football Association, now the National Football
23 League, and was a drawing card in the growth and development of
24 professional football in its infancy who gave the sport
25 credibility; and
26 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe played major league baseball with the New
27 York Giants, the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Braves, ending
28 the 1919 season with a .327 average; and
29 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe is the only American athlete, to date, to
30 excel as an amateur and as a professional in three major sports,
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1 track and field, football and baseball; and
2 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe was voted America's Greatest All-Around
3 Male Athlete and was chosen as the greatest football player of
4 the half-century in 1950 by an Associated Press poll of sports-
5 writers; and
6 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe was named the Greatest American Football
7 Player in history in a 1977 national poll conducted by Sport
8 Magazine; and
9 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe was enshrined in the National Indian Hall
10 of Fame, the Helms Professional Football Hall of Fame, the
11 Professional Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, the National
12 Track and Field Hall of Fame and the Pennsylvania and Oklahoma
13 Halls of Fame; and
14 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe, because of his unsurpassed sports
15 achievements, has long been an inspiration to America's youth
16 and America's sports-conscious people; therefore be it
17 RESOLVED, That the Senate of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
18 support the proclaiming of Jim Thorpe as the Athlete of the
19 Century.
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