By Taylor Eldridge Staff Writer teldridge@opubco.com

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One century ago, there stood a man so marvelous and so unprecedented that his exploits would later become indistinguishable from the fables that blossomed from them.

No television cameras were at the 1912 Olympics to capture the grace and prowess of Oklahoman Jim Thorpe as he competed. There was no footage to disseminate to the masses so they could witness the sheer domination that Thorpe operated under.

Stories spread. People gossiped. The oral legend of Thorpe swelled to the point where the first international celebrity was born.

But does Thorpe still resonate to the 140-character generation of today?

While his name may not be idolized like it once was, Thorpe's greatest of all stories has survived.

When King Gustav V of Sweden awarded Thorpe his gold medals for the pentathlon and decathlon in the 1912 Olympics, he clasped Thorpe's hand and spoke words that would carry a whole century later.

“Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.”

IN PURSUIT OF “WORLD'S GREATEST”

Truths of Thorpe This undated photo shows Jim Thorpe in a baseball uniform. AP PHOTO Of all the legends that manifested as years passed, no myth could surpass the true story of the 1912 Olympics as Jim Thorpe's greatest tale. Thorpe is renowned for his gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon in Stockholm, but his dominance is largely overlooked, considering the 10-event decathlon was tailored to fit the host country's strengths. “The people of Sweden believed the Americans were the swiftest and the Russians were the strongest,” said Robert Wheeler Sr., a Thorpe biographer, “but that their people epitomized the Greek ideal of the all-around athlete, so they came up with the concept of the decathlon.” Not only would Thorpe crush Sweden's Hugo Wieslander by 688 points, which still remains one of the largest margins of victory in Olympic history, it would take another four Olympiads until his winning score of 8,412.95 points was bested. THE MISSING SHOES As Wheeler details in his biography, Thorpe's sneakers went missing before the final event of the three-day competition. Thorpe's emergency plan led him to burrow through the trash for a shoe too small then borrow a shoe so oversized he had to stuff it for his foot to fit. What the mismatched pair produced was his magnum opus in the finale, winning the 1,500 meters in 4 minutes, 40.1 seconds – a time that a gold medalist decathlete wouldn't beat until Mykola Avilov ran a 4:22 at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. “That story always evokes the greatest response when I share it,” Wheeler said. “I think it can still inspire generations to come. I think in the case of Jim Thorpe, the true story is just as good, or better, than the mythology.” FIRST TO 2K? It is possible Thorpe was the pioneer of football's exclusive 2,000-yard rushing club, suggested by research published in Kate Buford's biography “Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe.” No official statistics were logged by the NCAA until 1937, but an NCAA archivist unearthed 1912 newspaper accounts that established Thorpe, without two games accounted for, accumulated 1,869 yards that season for Carlisle. “I think it's very reasonable to conclude that he was probably college football's first 2,000-yard rusher,” Buford said via a telephone interview. No other assumptions were required to understand the success of the rest of his time at Carlisle, an Indian industrial school in Pennsylvania. Thorpe, a two-time All-American, guided Carlisle to a 43-5-2 record in his four years, including an unofficial national championship in 1912 and victories over national titans Penn State, Harvard and Army along the way. Thorpe's football career famously began in 1907 when he bested a challenge from the school's dubious football coach, Glenn “Pop” Warner, who also doubled as the track coach. Warner, afraid of injury to his prized track and field standout, attempted to dissuade Thorpe from the sport by tossing him a football and declaring he would give his team some “tackling practice.” After not once, but twice conquering Warner's defenders with unprecedented guile and agility in his debut, Thorpe flicked the ball back to Warner with a clairvoyant message. “Nobody is going to tackle Jim.” THE 20-SPORT ATHLETE As far as his son, Bill Thorpe, can remember, there was no sport that could escape his father's mastery. Jim Thorpe competed in 20 different sports, most notably a Hall of Fame career in football, but also including figure skating, lacrosse, handball, tennis, boxing and he even won an intercollegiate ballroom dancing championship in 1912. “There just wasn't anything that he would try that he didn't conquer,” Bill said. “I can still remember watching him go to a pool hall and play 8-ball and snooker. I've seen him run a table in rotations. He sure knew how to control that ball. It was just amazing.” Born May 28, 1888, James Francis Thorpe, or Wa-Tho-Huk, noticed immediately he had a competitive spirit. “I never was content,” Thorpe is on record as saying, “unless I was trying my skill in some game against my fellow playmates or testing my endurance and wits against some member of the animal kingdom.” A largely unassuming figure (5 feet 10 inches tall, 185 pounds), Thorpe's advantage was his advanced physique, which looked something like that of a modern athlete. His skills were simply superior to his contemporaries; Thorpe could out-run, out-kick, out-throw or out-jump. Thorpe's greatest honor may have come when the Associated Press distinguished him the Most Outstanding Male Athlete of the first half of the 20th century in 1951 in a landslide vote over Babe Ruth. His name can still be found a century later on any list recognizing the greatest athletes of all-time. “He is like this legendary golden standard of the American athlete,” Buford said. “Whenever I would tell people I was writing a book about Jim Thorpe's life, there would be this silence like, ‘Oh my, you're talking about a sports god.'”

One hundred years after Thorpe's mastery of the decathlon, the event would see its world record fall to another American.

Ashton Eaton, a 24-year-old marvel from Oregon, knew little of Thorpe when he scored 9,039 points — the new record — at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials in June.

It wasn't until he was lauded as the new “world's greatest athlete” that Eaton discovered the story of Thorpe.

“You understand the gravity of what you're doing when you realize it's not all about you, but what someone has done before you,” said Eaton, who will be the odds-on favorite when the decathlon begins in London on Wednesday. “Then, you are able to respect what you're doing.”

Ashton Eaton reacts after the 1500m during the decathlon competition at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in June. Eaton finished the decathlon with a new world record. Matt Slocum - AP

What Thorpe accomplished in 1912 took decades to match. Twenty years passed before a decathlete bested his point total, and Bob Mathias, in 1952, is the only decathlete with a higher margin of victory than Thorpe.

A side note often unremembered is Thorpe also qualified in the individual high jump (tied for fourth place) and long jump (seventh), which was remarkable for an athlete that won the 5-event pentathlon and 10-event decathlon all in a two-week span.

Thorpe's performance is immortalized among decathletes.

“You can't really measure his performance because athletes that came later had better equipment and better training and more professional diets and things like that,” leading Olympic historian Bill Mallon said. “You can really only measure on how dominant he was by how he did against athletes of his own era. I'm not sure if anybody was better.”

Few modern athletes ever hear of Thorpe at an early age. They don't grow up wanting to be the next Jim Thorpe. Often, it isn't until they become serious in their training for the decathlon when they come across Thorpe's name.

“Carrying the title is a huge honor, but what you find out when you read about him is the title is just the title,” said Bryan Clay, the gold medalist from the 2008 Beijing Games. “Life goes on after you accept the title. You have a family to take care of and responsibilities that you have to continue to do. While the title is great, and it's a huge honor to have it, it's not completely life-altering.”

Some are afraid Thorpe's relevance is evaporating, being left behind for more modern athletes. Thorpe isn't who this generation considers the world's greatest athlete, rather it's the latest winner, like Clay or Eaton.

“It's just so hard to relate to because it was so long ago,” said Justin Lenhart, director of the Jim Thorpe Museum in Oklahoma City. “I think his story is lost on a lot of the younger generation. Hopefully, the 2012 Olympics, since it's the 100th year anniversary, can remedy that a little bit.”

Jim Thorpe Photo Provided

If the U.S. Olympic Trials were any indicator, Thorpe still remains dear to many in the track and field community. During a ceremony for all past American decathlete gold medalists, Thorpe's only two living sons, 84-year-old Bill Thorpe and 80-year-old Richard Thorpe, represented their father in the parade around the track.

“We were the last ones in the line, and they had signs printed up that read: Jim Thorpe,” Bill recalled. “And we got an ovation that just wouldn't quit. It gave me chills up and down my spine and arms. It was just amazing. That gives you an example of what happens when people hear dad's name.”

Jim Thorpe is shown in his Carlisle football uniform. The Oklahoman Archive - Provided

A NATIVE HOPE

Myths of Thorpe Before the 1912 Olympic decathlon, Jim Thorpe rarely competed in events such as the pole vault, shot put and javelin. But Thorpe was incredibly perceptive, a technique he sharpened watching horses gallop as a child. He would study their movements and attempt to mimic their strides, Kate Buford wrote in the biography “Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe.” His observational skills would later pay dividends. “Going into the events that he didn't really do much of, he would watch the better athletes and watched how they did it,” Buford said. “Just like watching those horses, he memorized those movements and would practice them in his head.” Along with Jim Thorpe's fame and legacy, misinformation still persists about his Olympic accomplishments. OLYMPIC RECORDS STILL NOT RECOGNIZED? While it is clear the International Olympic Committee agreed in their 1982 decision to reinstate Thorpe as a contender in the 1912 Olympics and cast duplicate gold medals to give to his family, what happened to his records is muddled. Thorpe exists as a “co-gold medalist” in the eyes of the IOC, as they have refused to demote Hugo Wieslander back to his original runner-up status. But his times, marks and final score in the decathlon are officially recognized by the IOC, according to Bill Mallon, the leading authority on Olympic history. “They're in the records books,” Mallon confirmed through email. On the official Olympic website, Thorpe's picture along with his gold medals and decathlon score can be viewed from the 1912 Olympics page. The debacle continues to resonate 30 years after the decision. It was dubbed the “greatest scandal in sports history” in the 2011 edition of the World Almanac. “The editors of the World Almanac were unanimous in considering Jim Thorpe's virtual banishment one of the greatest sports scandals in sports history,” said Sarah Janssen, senior editor of the publication. “His singular achievements were so remarkable that to refuse to acknowledge them retroactively seemed both unjust and petty.” COULDN'T HIT A CURVE? Of all the sports Thorpe tried professionally, baseball presented the largest obstacle. While his pure athleticism lent itself to other sports, it could only carry Thorpe so far in Major League Baseball. After carrying a lousy .231 batting average in his five years with the New York Giants, manager John McGraw sold Thorpe to the Boston Braves and wasn't shy in explaining why. “Baseball was the one sport that didn't come easy to him,” Buford said. “He had been plagued with this tagline that he couldn't hit a curveball and he was a failure in Major League Baseball.” After a month with the Braves in 1919, Thorpe was batting .411 and leading the National League that also featured Ty Cobb and Joe Jackson. Although a leg injury robbed Thorpe of enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title, he finished the 1919 season with a .327 average. When reflecting upon this season, Thorpe said at the time, “I must have a hit a few curves.”

One hundred years after Thorpe paved the way for American Indians with his 1912 Olympic performance, former Oklahoman Mary Killman will be one of three natives competing in the London Olympics.

Normally Killman, a 21-year-old born in Ada, doesn't deal with many press inquiries as a synchronized swimmer, but that changed in anticipation of the Olympics. Looking for a connection to Thorpe's centennial anniversary, Killman's Potawatomi heritage was soon identified.

“It's funny, because it used to just be a little blurb on my bio,” Killman said. “Now, it's the story.”

Killman didn't have a traditional Indian upbringing. But she was born in an American Indian hospital and is a card-carrying member of the Potawatomi Nation. She is proud of her ancestry.

Mary Killman competes as a synchronized swimmer in this year's Olympics. Photo Provided

“I'm not only representing my country, but I'm representing my sport and my heritage,” Killman said. “That's what athletes do, right? We go to work as hard as we can, and then we represent who we are.”

But Killman is distanced from many of the troubling statistics that face some American Indians.

Indian poverty rates are high. They also struggle with high rates of type 2 diabetes, alcoholism, tuberculosis and suicide, according to the Indian Health Service.

American Indian leaders are turning to sports in search of at least part of the solution. Their campaign revolves around Thorpe, a member of the Sac and Fox Nation.

“He is like our Michael Jordan,” said Sandra Massey, a Sac and Fox spokeswoman. “He did extraordinary things, and he always retained his heritage. I think for a kid who maybe feels like they don't have a lot of options, something like that can inspire him to do better.”

This past summer, the first Jim Thorpe Games were hosted in Oklahoma City and brought together thousands of American Indian athletes. It didn't take long for Sam McCracken, Nike N7's general manager, to sign on as a sponsor. N7 is McCracken's self-made program, committed to bringing sport specifically to American Indians.

“Ultimately, we just want to get them active,” said McCracken, who is a member of the Sioux and Assiniboine tribes. “If something bigger and better comes from that, then that's just a bonus. Whether it's Jim Thorpe or Sam Bradford or Jacoby Ellsbury, if any of those athletes can help inspire, then we deem it a success.”

The importance of increasing availability for American Indian children to continue athletics is apparent.

“As long as you keep kids busy on the field or on the court, they ain't got time to get in trouble,” said Wildcat Jumper, who brought his under-18 softball team from the Brighton Seminole Indian Reservation in Florida. “It gives them so many other options, instead of doing drugs or getting into trouble.”

Sometimes kids are ill-equipped to transition into life, relapsing into self-destructive tendencies involving alcohol, drugs and crime.

“I don't think the kids that get in trouble have anything to look forward to. They're just bored,” said Erena Billie, a 17-year-old softball player on Jumper's Seminole softball team. “It makes a big difference if you play sports because then you have your mind set on something. You have hope.”

As the inaugural Jim Thorpe Games drew to a close, R. Kelly's song “The World's Greatest” blared over loud speakers to the campers and provided a fitting final ceremony.

I'm that little bit of hope / When my back's against the ropes / I can feel it / I'm the world's greatest

The children sang along with the final line of the chorus, and in that moment, a century removed from his greatness, Jim Thorpe still had an audience, perhaps aspiring to be like him.

One final injustice? This 1953 photo shows Qua-qua-na-pe-quat, also known as Thomas Brown, kneeling before a camp fire and praying in the ancient language of the Ah-tha-Koe-wah, or Sac and Fox, for the spirit of Wah-tha-huk, the person also called Jim Thorpe. The Oklahoman Archive, Gilbert Hill - The Oklahoma City Times Staff Photographer Nearly a half-century ago, Patricia Thorpe, Jim Thorpe's third wife, interrupted her husband's in-progress Indian burial ritual, arriving with a hearse. Angered that the state had not followed through to fund a promised memorial for her husband, she took his body from the family ceremony. She then agreed to send Thorpe's body to two Pennsylvania boroughs, Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk, as long as they honored her husband by merging and changing their name to Jim Thorpe, PA. His body is still in a mausoleum that was built to increase attendance, although it never did. Thorpe's four sons, now spearheaded by Bill Thorpe, and the Sac and Fox Nation have fought for years in court to return the elder Thorpe's body to Oklahoma. But neither side is backing down, and chances for a resolution soon are fleeting. “The removal of Jim Thorpe's body is well-remembered by a lot of elders in the Sac and Fox Nation as a great injustice,” said Stephen Ward, the Tulsa attorney representing Thorpe's sons. “This is a case that involves deeply held human rights, the rights of Indian people to decide how and where to bury their ancestors and elders.” But a family of Thorpe's most resilient supporters has nothing in common with the legend. Robert Wheeler, wife Florence Ridlon and their son, Robert Jr., are not American Indian. They have never faced racial injustices. They did not have to overcome childhood poverty. Yet, Thorpe's life has inspired the family to dedicate their lives to his cause. “Jim Thorpe's life, to me, crystallizes every value that I stand for. It transcends age, race, gender, all barriers,” said Wheeler Sr., who as a student at Syracuse University in 1974 hitchhiked across the country to conduct more than 200 interviews for his Master's thesis on Thorpe, intrigued by Thorpe's success in a variety of sports. What started as a thesis paper turned into seven years of research that went into publishing a 1981 biography, “Jim Thorpe: World's Greatest Athlete.” Wheeler Sr. and Ridlon devoted themselves after they read about how Thorpe's Olympic gold medals were revoked by the International Olympic Committee six months after the 1912 Games because he received a measly $2 a game to play semiprofessional baseball the summer before. Then, in July 1982, Ridlon happened across the rules for the 1912 Olympics, long believed lost, tucked away in a manila pamphlet in the depths of the Library of Congress. She discovered Rule 13, which stated challenges to an athlete's amateur status must be filed no later than 30 days after the closing ceremony. When she realized the breakthrough, she sat on the ground and wept. And 70 years later, Thorpe's medals were restored. “Now, what's fascinating and what's wonderful and beautiful is there is this evolution of it turning into Rob's quest,” Wheeler Sr. said of his son. “Mine was to tell the true story of Jim and return the medals, and now he's taken it upon himself to try to bring the body home.” The inspiration was passed down in the family last Thanksgiving, when Wheeler Sr. invited longtime family friend Bill Thorpe for dinner. After cutting into turkey, Thorpe unloaded his feelings to the Wheelers about the injustice of the situation concerning his father's body. Wheeler Jr. remembered the inspirational Thorpe tales his father would share with him. After hearing what Thorpe persevered through, Wheeler Jr. didn't see another option. He created a website, jimthorperestinpeace.com, in an attempt to publicize and bring closure to the case. More than 100 Indian tribes have given their support, and thousands of people have signed an online petition to return the body to Oklahoma. “I could see how much it pained him to believe his father's spirit wasn't at rest,” Wheeler Jr. recalled. “I was fortunate enough to play college tennis, so I've had trials and challenges, but none of that even compares to anything Jim Thorpe had to go through. I can't imagine being faced with a challenge and then just walking away from it after hearing a story like Jim Thorpe's.” There is no promise Wheeler Jr., a 23-year-old recent graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will ever experience a reward. Rather than be excited for graduate school, Wheeler Jr. is consumed with the case. Thorpe's name is sure to be mentioned heavily at the 2012 Olympics in London, since it marks the 100th year anniversary of Thorpe's greatness. The Wheelers hope it introduces a new audience to Thorpe's legacy and they, too, will be motivated by it in their own way. Wheeler Jr. is optimistic a conclusion to the saga is nearing. But even if it isn't, he is able to reflect upon what Thorpe's story has taught him. “It's driven me to not accept no for an answer,” Wheeler Jr. said. “When I see something that I think is unjust, I have to take it in my own hands and try to do something about it.” Sometimes Wheeler Jr. allows his mind to drift off, wandering to a day when Thorpe's body is returned to his family. He can see in his head Bill Thorpe and the Sac and Fox Nation dance and celebrate and finish the burial that has been in the making for the last half-century. The image is inspiring. “If the body ever does come back,” Wheeler Jr. said, taking a moment to ponder, “I'm not sure how I'll feel. I think I'll be able to just ... breathe easier.” In this 2010 photo, a sign in the town of Jim Thorpe, Pa., is shown. Matt Rourke - Associated Press

Gallery: Bright Path: Jim Thorpe Still Inspiring A Century Later

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