 This is Jimmy Powers and happy to be coming your way with another Grantland rice story There this is Jimmy Powers once again transcribed with another story from the tumult and the shouting the autobiography of Grantland rice Today's story deals with big Jim Thorpe the American Indian and I'd like to tell you this inspiring story in first person The Indian is a great natural athlete given the same chance. He has the white man lashed to the post His heritage is all outdoors. His reflexes are sharp He takes the game in fact every form of life as it comes to him He rarely gets excited or off balance an example was chief Albert Bender a chip o' law a pal of mine The chief was a great pitcher a fine shot and enable golfer. He strong armed Connie max pitching staffs from 193 to 1914 Mac told me he was once undecided whether he should pick Matthewson or Bender to pitch a game that meant a million dollars to him When Bender pitched for the athletics against the Giants in the 1911 world series I noticed that he often quarreled with Eddie Collins at second or stuffy McGinnis at first What was the fuss all about I asked the chief? Well, he said they're young and assists to first or second. I was throwing them curves I just wanted to let him know the world series was just another ballgame. I Played a lot of golf with Bender from 1911 through 1914 Whatever game it was. He was a great competitor. Nothing ever bothered him Bender brings up another even greater Indian. His name is Jim Thorpe in many ways Thorpe was like Bender Nothing ever bothered him Both Bender and Thorpe had the philosophy of the ages at football Jim was a brilliant ball carrier a fine passer a good pass receiver a place kicker a drop kicker and a punter and Also a murderous blocker Undoubtedly the game's greatest all-around kicker. He rated camps 1911 and 1912 teams as a half-back Old-timers may tell you Thorpe couldn't hit a curve, but he was a big league ball player He was also a fine shot and in 1912 He was at a Catholic and a pentathlon winner at the Olympics in Stockholm That was long before the long grind of training improved so many others who as natural athletes couldn't fan Jim's brow Thorpe did little training Francis Albertanty who covered the 1912 games for the old evening mail Told me that going over on the old red starliner Finland Thorpe would sit alone while the rest of the track squad pounded a stretch of cork laid down on one of the decks What are you doing Jim asked Albertanty one day thinking of your uncle sitting bull? No, I'm practicing the broad jump replied Thorpe. I've just jumped 23 feet 8 inches I think that can win it. He did win at 5 inches less When King Gustav a sincere sport fan presented the gold medal following one of Thorpe's victories The King uttered the accolade which Jim never forgot sir. You are the greatest athlete in the world You had to like Jim. He was a very decent human being he rose to great fame in a hurry and then sank He was a gentleman, but there were times when firewater got the better of their long feud Years ago I went out to the ballpark in Rocky Mount North Carolina one day with a local rider on our way out He showed me a big iron can about five feet high This said the rider is where Thorpe stood our sheriff on his head one day Just picked him up and dumped him in upside down the sheriff was trying to arrest Jim The one-man Jim was leery of trying to handle. However was Warner When Carlisle played brown on Thanksgiving of 1912 Thorpe and pop got into a heated argument over a drink Jim had taken that morning to celebrate the pack between the Indians and the white men in the Massachusetts Bay Colony Pop gave Jim a hard riding late that afternoon. I ran into the referee who worked that game I've just officiated at a game in which I've seen the greatest football player ever He said Jim Thorpe defeated Brown 32 to nothing all by himself Runs of 50 and 60 yards were nothing the Indian was a tornado. He wrecked the entire Brown team The referee's name was Mike Thompson one of the best in The 1912 game against a strong army team Carlisle was on their own ten-yard line Thorpe dropped back to kick Bill Langford the well-known referee dropped back with him They think I'm going to kick both us an army Thorpe muttered to Langford But I ain't after faking a kick Thorpe ran 90 yards and the Indians broke the game open and won 27 to 6 He was a non believable competitor reflected Langford the game has never seen his like It was during Jim's junior or senior year at Carlisle that Lafayette was playing host to the Indians in a track meet It had been well publicized and a welcoming committee headed by Lafayette's coach Harold Bruce met the train All were stunned when a party of two elided at Easton Warner and Thorpe What's this demanded Bruce we expected the Carlisle track team Here it is replied Warner casually pointing to Thorpe Jim racked up practically every blue ribbon on the field in a route for Carlisle In street dress Thorpe like Dempsey wasn't particularly imposing Both were so perfectly proportioned that nothing seemed unusual about either man. Both scaled around 183 pounds at their respective peaks In addition to having every needed physical asset Thorpe had a rare spirit Reflected Warner in later years Nothing bothered Jim when he was right the sheer joy of playing carried him through when he wasn't he showed it For that reason I used to call him a lazy Indian to his face I'll admit though it didn't bother him, but when he was right. He was the best The reason I picked Ernie Nevers over Thorpe as my all-time football player was because Ernie gave 100% of himself Always in that respect. He was a coach's ideal Thorpe gave it only on certain occasions. It was difficult to know if Jim was laughing with you or at you Down the last 15 years when Thorpe was up But mostly down the circus Saints and sinners in New York took an interest in him Fred Benham a New York publicist who handled the fall guy at those luncheons was close to Jim We were talking one night said Benham and I asked Jim if there was any material about him that hadn't been done to death in the papers Yes, one thing grunted Thorpe. I'm a twin. My twin brother died when we were five or six How did it happen? I asked We were raised on can condensed milk replied Jim seriously and we ran out of cans No matter what the sport Thorpe was the complete natural he could play tennis He was a whiz at billiards or pool and he was adept at those games long after his professional football days Thorpe was a cornerstone badly used but nevertheless a cornerstone a professional football from 1920 through 1926 His pro-day started nearly eight years after he finished at Carlisle the Canton Bulldogs in 1920 the Cleveland Indians in 23 with Rock Island in 24 and 25 The year he came to the New York Giants and back to Canton for the 26th season his last With the exception of the Giants those names may strike a weird note with neophytes But pro football was built around those early franchises in this respect Thorpe was born at least 30 years too soon In 1920 when the league was formed Jim was already a veteran an old man in the strict competitive sense Slowing down for that last painful grind through the home stretch of his career By 26 he was barely getting by on a pair of scarred and weary legs legs That had carried him through more competitive miles than all the campaigns of the French and Indian wars. I Sell them go out on limbs to crusade for individuals much less a sport My attitude towards public projects of this sort being with the sink or swim school However If ever an individual was pilloried by the shabby treatment He received from most of the press and the public Jim Thorpe was that man as a symbol of the greatest athlete of his day If not all time Thorpe should have been utilized by the department of the interior or he could have helped his own people Not after he had become a broken down caricature But while he was a young man Instead he was allowed to live on the five dollars a day He received as a movie extra when and if The act that barred Thorpe could never be justified What right did the AAU have to Thorpe's private gifts fairly won in those 1912 Olympics? They merely robbed the Indian in a cold-blooded fashion They have never known where those trophies were sent and have never offered to help retrieve them I wrote several letters in later years to Avery Brundage the Chicago contractor and keystone of our Olympic Organization stating the case for Thorpe Brundage's replies were weak and implied a so what it's dead and forgotten attitude The treatment accorded Thorpe in my opinion is one of the cruel turns of all American sport Since his death Thorpe's body has been more in demand than it ever was during the last 20 years of his life Civic do-gooders and chambers of commerce both in Oklahoma and Pennsylvania want his burial mound for a tourist shrine It would be fitting that an effigy of the American Indian should stand prominently in the entry of the Indian wing at the Museum of Natural History in New York That effigy should be a red copper life-size detail likeness of Jim Thorpe This country's if not the world's greatest all-around natural athlete Well, I found that story very inspiring and I hope you did too now until next we meet This is Jimmy Powers transcribe saying the mostest of the bestest