Jim Thorpe - Anadarko, OK - Statues of Historic Figures on Waymarking.com

Jim Thorpe is honored with a bust along the outdoor National Hall of Fame for Famous American Indians walkway. Sculptor Leonard McMurry shows Thorpe shirtless, with his right shoulder raised slightly in a common pose of an athlete. His plaque reads:

JIM THORPE (WA_THO_BUCK)
1888 – 1953
Sac & Fox & Part Potawatomi. World’s
Greatest Athlete, Winner of the
Olympic Games at Stockholm, Sweden, 1912

Born on May 28, 1888 near Prague, Oklahoma Territory, he attended Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania in 1904 at age 15. He became known as both a star football player and all-around athlete. Standing 6’1” he weighed 188 pounds.

In the 1912 Olympics, he won the pentathlon (200-meter dash, broad jump, discus throw, javelin throw and 1500-meter run) and the decathlon (100-meter dash, broad jump, 100-meter hurdles, 16-pound shot put, 400-meter dash, high jump, javelin throw, discus throw, pole vault and 1500-meter run). In 1913 it was discovered that Thorpe had played semi-professional baseball in 1911 and his medals and records were stripped from him. They were restored in 1983 and the medals were presented to the State of Oklahoma.

Thorpe died March 28, 1953 after suffering a third heart attack. He is buried at Jim Thorpe, PA, which had been renamed in his honor.

[Biographical information from the Museum’s Self-Guiding Tour pamphlet.]

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