THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 25, 1994 TAG: 9409250217
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CARLISLE, PA. LENGTH: Long : 122 lines
He was born ``Wathohuck,'' or ``Bright Path.''
Within an hour of his birth in 1888, his mother peered through her bedroom window. She saw the path that led to the house, bathed in the dawn light, and was inspired.
Years later, Jim Thorpe would wonder aloud whether he had been misnamed. But that certainly wasn't the case on Sept. 20, 1920.
At noon, Thorpe stood in the Canton, Ohio, automobile showroom of Ralph Hay, owner of the pro football Canton Bulldogs, the team on which Thorpe starred.
Across the showroom, feet propped on the running board of one of Hay's cars, was George Halas. There also were representatives from Akron, Cleveland, Dayton, Decatur, Hammond, Massillon, Muncie, Rochester, and Rock Island.
They had two intentions in mind, and it took them just 10 minutes to accomplish them - to start the American Professional Football Association, shortly to be renamed the National Football League.
Each also wanted Jim Thorpe to be the first president. His name would be a stamp of credibility.
They didn't care one whit for the controversy of seven years before.
In 1912, King Gustav of Sweden proclaimed, ``Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world,'' after watching Thorpe capture the pentathlon and decathlon at the Stockholm Olympics.
Later, though, Thorpe's medals were stripped away after it was discovered he had played professional baseball in North Carolina prior to leaving for Stockholm.
That decision was finally overturned in 1982-83, when Thorpe's medals were returned.
He gladly accepted the position, which was unsalaried. When the league felt it would be good publicity to play a charity football game in conjunction with Ohio State University, Thorpe participated. When compensation for his travel expenses was offered, he refused the invitation.
He spent two seasons as president, while continuing to play for Canton, then Cleveland, then Toledo, then Canton again in 1922.
Before the year was over, Thorpe undertook another project - the formation of an all-Indian team.
Walter Lingo, owner of the Oorang Airedale Kennels in LaRue, Ohio, agreed to serve as sponsor. The Jim Thorpe Oorang Indians were born.
Indians came from all over the country to try out for a venture prearranged to last just one year. It turned out to be so popular - the top draw in professional football - that a second season was added.
Thorpe, then 35, played and coached, though experts began writing that he was over the hill.
They were wrong. When the all-Indian team ceased, Thorpe returned to the American League he'd helped found.
He played for Rock Island in 1924; the New York Giants and Rock Island again in '25. Stops in St. Petersburg, Canton, Portsmouth (Ohio), Hammond and Chicago were still to come. Thorpe finally retired after playing with the Chicago Cardinals in 1929. He was 41.
In 1950, he was named the greatest football player of the half-century and greatest athlete of the half-century by the Associated Press.
He died of a heart attack in 1953. When the Pro Football Hall of Fame was dedicated 10 years later, he was among the charter members inducted.
The NFL recently released photographs of the men who started the game that now is America's favorite, including Jim Thorpe and the barnstorming Oorang Indians.
Somehow, someway, that photo will soon appear on the walls of Wardecker's men's store, Hanover Street in Carlisle, along with the dozens of other items that conjure a history of the Indian School and the sports teams that made it famous.
That's where you go if you're looking for information and memorabilia from Thorpe's days at the Carlisle Indian School. A year ago, when NFL Films wanted to revisit Thorpe's days as the world's greatest athlete, they set up shop at Wardecker's.
When Thorpe arrived at Carlisle Indian School in 1911, Wardecker's was known as Blumenthal's. Moe Blumenthal was close friends and a poker-playing buddy with Carlisle coach Glenn ``Pop'' Warner.
The two had an understanding. Indian School athletes were to be given a line of credit at the shop. The ledger of those transactions is dutifully preserved today by James Wardecker, a former clerk at the shop who bought ii in 1962.
Wardecker's son, Fred, took over the store a few years ago. He continues to keep the ledger two steps from the cash register, as though he expected Thorpe and his Indian School pals to walk in any moment.
Contrary to popular opinion, there are still many remembrances of Thorpe in Carlisle. One just has to search a little harder than, say, 40 years ago.
At the corner of High and Hanover streets, there's a plaque commemorating Thorpe.
The Historical Society of Carlisle devotes part of its second floor to a Carlisle Indian exhibit. Thorpe, of course, is its centerpiece.
The most fertile repository of Thorpe memorabilia is the old campus of the Carlisle Indian School. It is now the campus for the U.S. Army War College, but a determined attempt to keep Thorpe's memory alive has been successful.
There's Indian Field, the stadium where Thorpe and other of Warner's Indian teams defeated what was then the finest college competition in the land.
The complex looks the same as it when built in 1901. Eighteen rows of graying, weather-beaten wooden bleachers, encased in stone, with 25 steel reinforcement girders obscuring some sight lines.
A piece of the soil from the stadium field was cut out in 1953 and sent to the town of Jim Thorpe, Pa., where Thorpe is buried.
Not far from the stadium is Thorpe Hall, a gymnasium built by the Indian students in 1887, renovated in 1976, and still used today by students at the War College.
Across the street from Indian Field, in the foyer of the Jim Thorpe Physical Fitness Center, on the north side of campus, is by far the most impressive monument.
It is a statue of Thorpe standing at attention, wearing a white AAU uniform, his strong right hand cupping a discus. It's the pose he made famous in the 1912 Olympics.
The inscription at the base of the statue is a gift from part of the War College class of 1983. It reads:
``Thorpe's perserverance, courage and moral strength exemplifies the best of American values. His exploits on the fields of friendly strife serve as a lasting reminder of what man is capable of attaining and provide a guiding light beckoning peaceful cooperation to all mankind.''
The statue is constructed from Carrara marble. Fittingly, it is also known as Noble Stone. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
The NFL's Oorang Indians were organized by the legendary Jim Thorpe
in the center of the second row.
by CNB