New $1 coin honors sports legend Jim Thorpe

The United States Mint announced the reverse design of the 2018 Native American $1 Coin. The coin’s theme pays homage to sports legend Jim Thorpe.

The 2018 reverse design depicts Jim Thorpe, with the foreground elements highlighting his football and Olympic achievements. Inscriptions are “JIM THORPE,” “WA-THO-HUK” (Thorpe’s Sac and Fox tribe name), “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” and “$1.” United States Mint Sculptor-Engraver Michael Gaudioso created the design.

Products containing the 2018 Native American $1 Coin are scheduled to go on sale on Feb. 15, 2018.

Authorized by the Public Law 110-82, the Native American $1 Coin Program celebrates the important contributions made by Native American tribes and individual Native Americans to the history and development of the United States. The public law mandates that a reverse design, with an image emblematic of one important Native American or Native American contribution, be issued at a rate of once a year.

The obverse design of the Native American $1 Coin continues to feature the central figure “Sacagawea” carrying her infant son, Jean Baptiste. Inscriptions are “LIBERTY” and “IN GOD WE TRUST,” while the year, mint mark and “E PLURIBUS UNUM” are incused on the coin’s edge.

James Francis “Jim” Thorpe (1888-1953), was born near Prague, Oklahoma, in what was then Indian Territory. Raised in the Sac and Fox tribe, he was given the native name Wa-Tho-Huk, meaning “Bright Path.” Jim Thorpe became possibly the most versatile, natural athlete of the early 20th century.

After a difficult youth, running away from school after several family crises, Thorpe came into his own at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Although the residential Indian school had a mixed reputation, Carlisle had the services of one of the great early football coaches, Glenn Scobey “Pop” Warner and it fielded a national championship football team, led by Thorpe. At the time Thorpe was the core of the school’s track and field team, also coached by Warner, who is said to have been reluctant to let his track star run the risk of playing football.

Thorpe was named to the All-American first team in 1911 and 1912. In 1911, Carlisle upset Harvard 18-15, as Thorpe scored all its points, four field goals and a touchdown. In 1912, Carlisle won the national collegiate championship. It beat Army 27-6; a cadet named Dwight D. Eisenhower injured his knee trying to tackle Thorpe.

Thorpe went on to represent the U.S. in 1912 at the Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, competing in the new pentathlon and decathlon as well as two field events. He easily won both multi-event medals, finishing first in eight of the combined 15 events. His point record stood for two decades.

In an often-told story, King Gustav V of Sweden, presenting Thorpe a special decathlon award, told him, “You are the greatest athlete in the world,” and Thorpe replied, “Thanks, king.”

Thorpe then went on to an incredible career in football, baseball and basketball. He played for six teams in what later became the National Football League. In 1922, he became the first president of the American Professional Football Association, precursor of the NFL.

In baseball, he played for the New York Giants, the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Braves. He also organized an all-Indian football team, reuniting some Carlisle players.

Today, sports writers rank him at the top of their lists of greatest athletes of the 20th century.