PRINTER'S NO. 1788
No. 196 Session of 2001
INTRODUCED BY McCALL, GEORGE, MELIO, LEDERER, ADOLPH, ARGALL,
ARMSTRONG, BARD, BASTIAN, BEBKO-JONES, BELARDI, BELFANTI,
BROWNE, BUNT, CALTAGIRONE, CAPPABIANCA, CAPPELLI, CLYMER,
L. I. COHEN, CORRIGAN, COSTA, COY, DALEY, DALLY, DeLUCA,
DeWEESE, DONATUCCI, D. EVANS, J. EVANS, FAIRCHILD, FICHTER,
FLICK, FORCIER, FREEMAN, GABIG, GEIST, GRUCELA, HARHAI,
HASAY, HENNESSEY, HERMAN, HERSHEY, HESS, HORSEY, JAMES,
JOSEPHS, LAUGHLIN, MAJOR, MANDERINO, MANN, MARSICO, MUNDY,
NAILOR, PALLONE, PIPPY, PISTELLA, PRESTON, READSHAW, ROBERTS,
ROHRER, ROSS, RUBLEY, SAMUELSON, SATHER, SAYLOR, SCHRODER,
SCHULER, SEMMEL, SHANER, B. SMITH, SOLOBAY, STABACK, STURLA,
SURRA, THOMAS, TIGUE, TRAVAGLIO, WALKO, WANSACZ, WATERS,
WATSON, WOJNAROSKI, YOUNGBLOOD, YUDICHAK AND S. MILLER,
MAY 2, 2001
INTRODUCED AS NONCONTROVERSIAL RESOLUTION UNDER RULE 35,
MAY 2, 2001
A RESOLUTION
1 Designating May 19, 2001, as "James Francis Thorpe Day" in
2 Pennsylvania.
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
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 only athlete in the world to win both
5 the decathlon and the pentathlon during one Olympic year, which
6 athletic feats and the subsequent world-wide publicity helped
7 establish the viability of the Olympics that were just getting
8 started in 1912; and
9 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe was stripped of his Olympic medals and
10 awards in 1913 on the grounds that he was a professional, since
11 he had played semiprofessional baseball in the summers of 1909
12 and 1910; however, in 1983 he was exonerated, his status was
13 returned as an amateur, his honors were restored and his family
14 received his gold medals; and
15 WHEREAS, For his extraordinary accomplishments Jim Thorpe
16 received, as gifts, a life-size bust of King Gustav V of Sweden
17 and a Viking Ship encrusted with semiprecious jewels from
18 Nicholas II, the last Czar of Russia, priceless trophies which
19 have yet to be returned to the Thorpe family and which are
20 currently at the International Olympic Committee Museum, a
21 private museum in Lausanne, Switzerland; and
22 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe's amateur football record was established
23 when he was a student at the Carlisle Indian School in
24 Pennsylvania and was chosen as half-back to Walter Camp's First
25 All-American Team in 1911 and 1912; and
26 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe was a founding father of professional
27 football, being the first elected president of the American
28 Professional Football Association, now the National Football
29 League, and was a drawing card in the growth and development of
30 professional football in its infancy who gave the sport
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1 credibility; and
2 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe played major league baseball with the New
3 York Giants, the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Braves, ending
4 the 1919 season with a .327 average; and
5 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe is the only American athlete, to date, to
6 excel as an amateur and as a professional in three major sports,
7 track and field, football and baseball; and
8 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe was voted America's Greatest All-Around
9 Male Athlete, was chosen as the greatest football player of the
10 half-century in 1950 by an Associated Press poll of sports-
11 writers and was named American Broadcasting Company's Wide World
12 of Sports Athlete of the Century; and
13 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe was named the Greatest American Football
14 Player in history in a 1977 national poll conducted by Sport
15 Magazine; and
16 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe was enshrined in the National Indian Hall
17 of Fame, the Helms Professional Football Hall of Fame, the
18 Professional Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, the National
19 Track and Field Hall of Fame and the Pennsylvania and Oklahoma
20 Halls of Fame; and
21 WHEREAS, Jim Thorpe, because of his unsurpassed sports
22 achievements, has long been an inspiration to America's youth
23 and America's sports-conscious people; therefore be it
24 RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives designate May 19,
25 2001, the birthday anniversary of Jim Thorpe, as "James Francis
26 Thorpe Day" in Pennsylvania.
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