Editor's note: Leading up to Oklahoma's centennial, The
Oklahoman will profile Oklahomans who have made a significant contribution to the success of our state.
The Oklahoma native has been immortalized on postage stamps, with statues and by several halls of fame, including those for the Olympic Games, track and field and professional football.
"There wasn't any sport he couldn't play," said Alice Cussner, manager of the Jim Thorpe Home in Yale. "He had good eye-hand coordination, so he could just about do it all."
James Francis"Jim" Thorpe was born May 28, 1887, in a log cabin in Keokuk Falls, Indian Territory, near present-day Prague. His twin, Charles, died of pneumonia at age 8.
Thorpe was of Sac and Fox, Potawatomi, French and Irish heritage. His parents, Hiram and Charlotte, gave him the Indian name Wa-tho-huck, or "bright path."
He attended school at the Sac and Fox Agency near Stroud and then at Haskell Indian Institute in Lawrence, Kan. In 1904, he started at Carlisle (Pa.) Indian Industrial School, where he participated in track and field, baseball, lacrosse and even ballroom dancing.
He joined the football team, which was coached by the legendary Glenn "Pop" Warner, in 1907. Thorpe started out on the bench but got in the game after a knee injury ended the starting halfback's career, according to accounts in
