Jim Thorpe: All-American, Native American (And The Carlisle Indian Football Team)

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In 2000, a poll was conducted by ABC Sports recognizing the Greatest Athlete of the Twentieth Century. The winner was not Muhammad Ali, Babe Ruth, Jesse Owens, Wayne Gretzky, Jack Nicklaus, and Michael Jordan—but a man today many have never heard of: an Indian from Oklahoma named Jim Thorpe.

Here to tell the story is Sally Jenkins, author of the national bestseller, The Real All Americans, and Steve Sheinkin, author of, Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team.

[Photo: Thorpe tackling a dummy that is made of weights and pulley on wire, with Coach Warner, 1912]