Much deserved honor for Jim Thorpe

What great news it was when the U.S. Mint announced that legendary Olympian Jim Thorpe will be honored with his image on the reverse side of a $1 coin. By doing this, the government acknowledges that Thorpe indeed deserved the designation as the greatest athlete of the first half of the 20th century, as chosen by The Associated Press sports writers.

The unlikely story of this dirt-poor Native American, who rose from obscurity to become a track and field and football star, becomes all the more amazing when it is tied in with our area communities which changed their names from Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk to Jim Thorpe in 1954.

Today, the borough of Jim Thorpe is one of the prime tourist destination spots in Pennsylvania, an incredible transformation from the down-on-its-luck Carbon County seat of the 1950s and its across-the-river cousin after old King Coal lost its crown.

When it comes to Thorpe, legend blends with fact, but this much we do know: He was immortalized by claiming two gold medals at the 1912 summer Olympic Games in Sweden as he won both the five-event pentathlon and the even more grueling 10-event decathlon.

It is said that in awarding Thorpe a special decathlon award, Sweden’s King Gustav V proclaimed him as the “greatest athlete in the world.” In his unpretentious way, Thorpe is alleged to have said, “Thanks, king.”

A year later, Thorpe was stripped of his medals because he played for money with a southern semipro baseball team. Back then, Olympians had to retain strict amateur status. It took 69 years before the medals were restored.

His accomplishments in football were equally impressive. He was named All-America first team in both 1911 and 1912 and led the Carlisle football team to a national championship in 1912 by beating Army 27-6. He went on to play pro football and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1963. He was also a pro baseball player for the New York Giants.

Thorpe was born in 1888 on an Indian reservation in the Oklahoma territory. He died at age 65 of a heart attack. His career consisted of astronomical highs and bitter lows. He and his twin brother, Charlie, were inseparable, but his brother became sick and died at the age of 9. Seven years later, Jim was sent to the south-central Pennsylvania Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Cumberland County. He wanted to study electricity and play on the track team.

It is said that although he wasn’t given a chance to try out for the team, he walked past the field one day and asked if he could try the high jump. Although he was in street clothes, he cleared the bar effortlessly, establishing an unofficial school record.

When coach Glenn “Pop” Warner heard about this, he urged Jim to join the team, after which Thorpe began winning numerous college events. Warner also coached the football team but thought Jim was too small to be effective. As he did so many times in his life, Thorpe proved his critics wrong and became a gridiron sensation.

After Thorpe died in 1953, his third wife, Patricia, became enraged when Oklahoma officials would not erect a memorial in his honor. She had heard that two small communities in Pennsylvania — Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk — were collecting nickels to help start a revitalization movement.

Mrs. Thorpe and local officials of the soon-to-be-merged communities agreed to have Thorpe’s remains interred at a mausoleum at the eastern end of town on Route 903.

The monument consists of his tomb, two statues of Thorpe in athletic poses and historical markers describing his remarkable life story. His resting place has been placed on soil from his native Oklahoma and from the Stockholm Olympic Stadium where he achieved everlasting fame.

There were several recent legal challenges by family members to return the body to his native Oklahoma, but the courts ruled in favor of local community officials who successfully fought the effort. Some believe that the newly named Jim Thorpe community had an instantaneous rebirth because of the international notoriety that it received, but this is far from the truth. It took several decades of heavy promotion of the community’s architectural and historical uniqueness, along with its being situated in remarkably beautiful natural surroundings before a surge in tourism really took hold.

The new coin, which will go on sale on Feb. 15, will still feature Lewis and Clark guide Sacagawea and her infant son, Jean Baptiste, on the front of the coin. The reverse side has three images of Thorpe, one large portrait and two showing him in track and football poses.

His name will be emblazoned at the top of the coin, with “United States of America” at the bottom. The $1 will denote the denomination, and the word “Wa-tho-huk” (meaning “Bright Path”) is shown prominently. This was Thorpe’s Native American Sac and Fox tribe name.

This coin will make a wonderful family keepsake, which can be handed down to later generations as we tell and retell the remarkable story of how Jim Thorpe’s name became entwined with our area for all time.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com