Jim Thorpe - All American and Whiting, Indiana Neighbor

Anthony Borgo July 2020

Most people under a certain age probably never heard of Roby, Indiana. According to John Hmurovic’s article titled The Horse Racing and Gambling Capital of the Midwest, “Its unofficial boundaries were Lake Michigan on the north, the waters of Wolf Lake to the south, and the state line on the west. There’s some debate on its eastern boundary, but it extended at least as far as the channel of Wolf Lake, and at most just a short distance east to the Five Points intersection of Calumet Avenue and Indianapolis Boulevard.”

The city was named after Edward H. Roby who purchased 600 acres of land in the vicinity in 1873. Roby, Indiana like most of the Whiting-Robertsdale area has a unique history. The area was home to horse racing, boxing, and even auto racing. It was even, for a short time, the home to one of the greatest athlete of the Twentieth Century.

Jim Thorpe was born on May 28, 1888 in Indian Territory, which would later become Oklahoma. Thorpe's parents were both of mixed-race ancestry. His father, Hiram Thorpe, had an Irish father and a Sac and Fox Indian mother. His mother, Charlotte Vieux, had a French father and a Potawatomi mother, a descendant of Chief Louis Vieux. He was raised as a Sac and Fox, and his native name, Wa-Tho-Huk, translated as "path lit by great flash of lightning" or, more simply, "Bright Path".

Thorpe attended the Sac and Fox Indian Agency school in Stroud, Oklahoma. During this time, he ran away from school several times. As a result, Thorpe’s father was forced to send him away to the Haskell Institute, an Indian boarding school in Lawrence, Kansas. After two years in Kansas, Thorpe left school to work on a ranch. In 1904 sixteen-year-old Thorpe returned to his father and decided to attend Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. There his athletic ability was recognized and he was coached by Glenn Scobey "Pop" Warner, one of the most influential coaches of early American football history.

Thorpe’s athletic career began as a track and field star, but he also competed in football, baseball, lacrosse and even ballroom dancing, winning the 1912 intercollegiate ballroom dancing championship. Initially, Pop Warner was hesitant to allow Thorpe, his best track and field athlete, to compete in a physical game such as football. Thorpe, however, convinced Warner to let him try some rushing plays in practice against the Carlisle’s defense. Warner assumed he would be tackled easily and give up the idea. Thorpe ran up and down the field without any of the players able to tackle him and the rest was history.

Thorpe gained nationwide attention for the first time in 1911. As a running back, defensive back, placekicker and punter, Thorpe scored all of his team's four field goals in an 18–15 upset of Harvard, a top-ranked team in the early days of the NCAA. His team finished the season 11–1. In 1912 Carlisle won the national collegiate championship largely as a result of his efforts – he scored 25 touchdowns and 198 points during the season. Carlisle's 1912 record included a 27–6 victory over Army. In that game, Thorpe's 92-yard touchdown was nullified by a teammate's penalty, but on the next play Thorpe rushed for a 97-yard touchdown.

In the spring of 1912, Thorpe started training for the Olympics. During the Olympic trials held at Celtic Park in New York, his all-round ability stood out in several events earning him a place on the team that went to Sweden. For the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, two new multi-event disciplines were included, the pentathlon and the decathlon. Along with the decathlon and pentathlon, Thorpe competed in the long jump and high jump. Overall, Thorpe won eight of the 15 individual events comprising the pentathlon and decathlon earning a gold medal for each competition.

In 1912, strict rules regarding amateurism were in effect for athletes participating in the Olympics. Athletes compensated to play any sport were not considered amateurs and were barred from competition. In late January 1913, the Worcester Telegram published a story announcing that Thorpe had played professional baseball. Thorpe had indeed played professional baseball in the Eastern Carolina League for Rocky Mount, North Carolina, in 1909 and 1910, receiving meager pay; reportedly as little as $2 per game. Although the public did not seem to care much about Thorpe's past, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) unanimously decided to strip Thorpe of his Olympic titles, medals and awards.

However, this hardly meant an end to his sports career. In 1913, he signed a contract to play baseball with the New York Giants (now the San Francisco Giants), he also went on to also play for the Chicago Cardinals and Canton (Ohio) Bulldogs. While with the Bulldogs Thorpe was a household name in the Calumet Region playing games against the Hammond Pros, one of 14 teams to form the American Professional Football Association, which would become the National Football League (NFL) two years later.

Jim Thorpe was a freak of nature. While playing football for Pine Village Pros, about an hour south of Lowell, he would thrill crowds before the game even started. Thorpe was known to punt a ball 60 yards in the air and catch it before the ball hit the ground. Thorpe also played tournament-quality tennis, routinely shot 70s in golf, averaged more than 200 in bowling, knew his way around a handball court, powerful rower, nimble gymnast, and excellent billiards player.

After retiring for professional sports, Jim Thorpe found himself on hard times. Thorpe struggled to provide for his wife and eight children, finding it difficult to work a non-sports-related job. During this time, he struggled with alcoholism and found himself moving from job to job. In 1931, he sold the film rights to his life story to MGM for $1,500. After a stint in the Merchant Marines during World War II Thorpe again was down on his luck.

In the late 1940s, Fred Gillies, general superintendent of Inland Steel arranged a job for Thorpe. Gillies was a former member of the Chicago Cardinals. While Thorpe worked at Inland Steel he lived in a trailer in Roby, Indiana. While at Roby Thorpe frequented Sandrick Sundries which was located on Indianapolis Boulevard, as well as, various watering holes throughout the Whiting-Robertsdale community. By 1951 Thorpe was virtually penniless. When he needed to have surgery to remove skin cancer from his lip, fans across the country started a campaign not only to help him pay his bills but also to get his gold medals reinstated.

Two years later Jim Thorpe died of a heart attack at the age of 65. In 1982, Robert Wheeler and Florence Ridlon established the Jim Thorpe Foundation and gained support from the U.S. Congress to reinstate Thorpe’s medals. Armed with this support and evidence from 1912 proving that Thorpe's disqualification had occurred after the 30-day time period allowed by Olympics rules, they succeeded in making the case to the IOC. In October 1982, the IOC Executive Committee approved Thorpe's reinstatement. In a ceremony on January 18, 1983, the IOC presented two of Thorpe's children, Gale and Bill, with commemorative medals.