Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim

Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe

The first comprehensive biography of the legendary figure who defined excellence in American sports: Jim Thorpe, arguably the greatest all-around athlete the United States has ever seen.

With clarity and a fine eye for detail, Kate Buford traces the pivotal moments of Thorpeâ€™s incomparable career: growing up in the tumultuous Indian Territory of Oklahoma; leading the Carlisle Indian Industrial School football team, coached by the renowned â€œPopâ€ Warner, to victories against the countryâ€™s finest college teams; winning gold medals in the 1912 Olympics pentathlon and decathlon; defining the burgeoning sport of professional football and helping to create what would become the National Football League; and playing long, often successfulâ€”and previously unexaminedâ€”years in professional baseball.

But, at the same time, Buford vividly depicts the difficulties Thorpe faced as a Native Americanâ€”and a Native American celebrity at thatâ€”early in the twentieth century. We also see the infamous loss of his Olympic medals, stripped from him because he had previously played professional baseball, an event that would haunt Thorpe for the rest of his life. We see his struggles with alcoholism and personal misfortune, losing his first child and moving from one failed marriage to the next, coming to distrust many of the hands extended to him. Finally, we learn the details of his vigorous advocacy for Native American rights while he chased a Hollywood career, and the truth behind the supposed reinstatement of his Olympic record in 1982.

Here is the storyâ€”long overdue and brilliantly toldâ€”of a complex, iconoclastic, profoundly talented man whose life encompassed both tragic limitations and truly extraordinary achievements.
Country USA
Brand Knopf
Manufacturer Knopf
Binding Hardcover
ReleaseDate 2010-10-26
UnitCount 1
Format Deckle Edge
EANs 9780375413247

Country	USA
Brand	Knopf
Manufacturer	Knopf
Binding	Hardcover
ReleaseDate	2010-10-26
UnitCount	1
Format	Deckle Edge
EANs	9780375413247

Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe

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