Maggie's Farm

5^th in series on ethnic firsts in US sports

Who better to be the best US athlete of the 20^th Century than a sportsman of melting-pot heritage, child of part Native American, Irish and French parents. In 1950, the Associated Press poll of sports writers named Jim Thorpe as the best American athlete of the first half of the 20^th Century.  For the second half, the AP named him third, behind Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan.

With all respects, neither Ruth nor Jordan won the Olympic gold in pentathlon and decathlon, and starred in football, baseball and basketball. Nor did Ruth, Jordan or any other such supremely gifted athlete suffer worse  abandonment by the sports at which he excelled and the notables who’d lauded him.

Educated in assimilationist Indian Agency schools, Jim Thorpe’s native name was most appropriate: Wa-Tho-Huk or Bright Path.  Unfortunately, the trail's end wasn’t.

“Pop” Warner tried to dissuade Thorpe from injuring himself playing football, because Thorpe was already the track-and-field star of Carlisle Indian Industrial School, but the football players were unable to catch up to him.  Thorpe even excelled at ballroom dancing, winning the 1912 inter-collegiate ballroom dancing championship.  One of the football teams Thorpe almost single-handedly beat was Army’s in 1912.  An opposing player, future President Dwight Eisenhower, in 1961 recalled, “Here and there, there are some people who are supremely endowed. My memory goes back to Jim Thorpe. He never practiced in his life, and he could do anything better than any other football player I ever saw.”

At the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Thorpe won the gold at the pentathlon and decathlon.  A silver medalist observed, “He was the greatest athlete who ever lived….What he had was natural ability.  There wasn’t anything he couldn’t do.  All he had to see is someone doin’ something and he tried it…and he’d do it better.”  Czar Nicholas II presented Thorpe with a special award for the pentathlon, and King Gustav V of Sweden a special award for the decathlon, telling Thorpe, “You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world.  I would consider it an honor to shake your hand.”

Thorpe returned to the US for a ticker-tape parade down Broadway in NYC.  Thorpe said, “I couldn't realize how one fellow could have so many friends."

King Gustav and the International Olympic Committee turned out to be the “Indian-givers.”  Ignoring its own rules for when a challenge to an Olympic medal may be considered, and ignoring that other college athletes did the same but under aliases, the IOC revoked Thorpe’s medals and took back the Gustav trophy for Thorpe having participated in a few baseball games for pocket-money while in college, voiding his amateur status.

Jim Thorpe then played professional football and baseball, drawing huge crowds.  He retired at 41 from pro sports, but continued touring with exhibition teams in football, baseball and basketball.

After his sports career ended, Thorpe found it difficult to find and hold jobs during the Depression.  He worked as a laborer, security guard, bouncer, and even as a movie extra as an Indian chief.

By 1950, when diagnosed with cancer, Thorpe was broke.  On March 28, 1953, Jim Thorpe -- living in a trailer park -- died from his third heart attack.

Only after his death was the racism and unfairness publicly recognized with which Jim Thorpe was treated.  Sports Illustrated’s 2004 retrospective, “Jim Thorpe cruelly treated by authorities", for example, concluded:

Racial prejudice was undoubtedly a factor. Snobbery was another. Brundage [president of the US Olympic Committee, who rebuffed restoring Thorpe’s medals] rigidly adhered to an amateur ethic designed to keep workers in their place which was long out of date by the time of his death in 1975.

Revenge may have been a third. Brundage finished sixth in the pentathlon and 15th in the decathlon behind Thorpe at the 1912 Games.

 

 

A teammate of Thorpe’s on the New York Giants recounted Thorpe, in tears, visiting his room, telling him about the taking away of his Olympic medals.  “It broke his heart and he never really recovered.”

Hollywood made a movie about him, starring Burt Lancaster, and paid him nothing for being a consultant.  A town in Pennsylvania he’d never been in renamed itself after him, to gain tourism dollars.  His statue is in the football hall of fame.  His Olympic medals were stolen from a museum.  In my opinion, the only true honor to Jim Thorpe is the large park in central Flagstaff, Arizona where my kids played every day while we were touring and generations of other kids play for the joy of sports that too many adults forget is what they’re about.

From Wikipedia, Native Wiki, Sports Illustrated

Ann Althouse, a prominent law professor, teenager in the ‘60’s, dismisses Andy Williams as too “square” even back in the ‘60’s to be taken seriously now, when he says President Obama is “following Marxist theory.”

I tested Williams’ squareness on my sons, now 4 and 9, this morning by showing them a YouTube of Andy Williams singing the theme song from Exodus, “This Land Is Mine.”  Both loved it.  But, are they biased because we’re Jewish?  No.  Both’s favorite TV show when younger, after the usual run of kiddie shows, was reruns on PBS of Lawrence Welk’s show.  They both loved the melodious and understandable lyrics along with the lively and friendly performances.

So, are my sons square?  Or, does Ann Althouse’s comment reflect a deprived upbringing, lacking personal connection  to the emotions and tastes of an earlier generation?  I choose the latter but what is important about this minor brouhaha is what it reflects about us.

Ann Althouse is known for her scholarship on federalism and the Constitution, so she is concerned with past debates and their effect on and application to current events.  In this, she may be cognizant of philosopher George Santayana’s famous comment about “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” but may have missed his other comment, “the equality of unequals is inequality” while arguing for equality of opportunity.

Most people are not scholars of the myriad origins, forms and history of Marxism or Socialism.  These terms are usually short-hand for categorizing redistribution of results among unequals, from those who earned the results to those who haven’t.  That’s a sticky argument, as others argue unless those who haven’t are provided means to opportunities then they are less likely to obtain results commensurate with their skills and efforts.

The problem lies in discerning the boundaries, and aside from legislative and court determinations each individual must choose.  I say “must” because the extent to which government decides the boundaries is inescapable upon each individual.

Most liberals tend to come down on a more expansive view of redistribution.  Hence the epithet of “Marxist” or “Socialist” from some of those more conservative.

Many investigators who have studied President Obama’s past associations, to the limited extent they have been discovered, document his closest formative influences and choices to be among those quite radical and even avowedly “socialist” or “Marxist.”  The major media has essentially ignored this pattern, or restrained coverage when they no longer could.

Does this matter?

To me, not as much as some of the investigators among my friends. I tend to be something of a behaviorist, believing that what one sees now is most important, and recognize all's ability to change.  Others whom are friends are less concerned with the observable and the now. As one I respect says, “My hope is that he will get real very soon on lots of fronts as he experiences the push back and the immovable objects….Personally, I will give it more time to see how his presidency develops.”

Fair enough.  And, while recognizing the observable and the now, incomplete when one considers the actual actions of President Obama that irremediably affect our and other nations’ inhabitants futures.

That's the sub-title of today's front-page article in the San Diego Union-Tribune by Steve Liewer "A Matter of Honor."

If you haven't yet read our exclusive reporting on the broader problem of the Defense Department not even having a list of valor honors, or seeming to care, then see our post below: "Hollywood cares more for its' vets honors than the Defense Department."  Two of the key congressmen involved are from my neck of the woods, so my piece is also picked up by the San Diego Jewish World: "Are service medals so unimportant that Pentagon can't be bothered to remember the awardees?: U.S. Rep Bob Filner supports new legislation; Susan Davis's subcommittee should hold hearing."

Hollywood cares more about its stars than the Defense Department about its own.  One can go online and find every Academy Award winner on its database.  Not only does the Defense Department not have a comprehensive or complete database of all those awarded medals of valor but the Defense Department is opposed to proposed legislation to create one.  What’s wrong with an Honor Roll for those we have honored?

The title of B.G. Burkett’s book Stolen Valor became the title of the Congressional billsigned in 2006 that provided civil penalties for falsely claiming military medals. Congress officially found: “Fraudulent claims surrounding the receipt of the [medals]…damage the reputation and meaning of such decorations and medals…. Legislative action is necessary to permit law enforcement officers to protect the reputation and meaning of military decorations and medals.”  It’s not just a matter of honor involved, however, as many frauds involve claims of government benefits or of status to advance careers or political positions.

Enforcement has been spotty, depending largely upon private individuals to investigate and then US Attorneys to decide whether to prosecute. In late 2007, The US Attorney in Washington state concluded a year-long investigation resulting in eight prosecutions of frauds that cost taxpayers $1.4-million.  One of the defendants had been widely touted by anti-war groups, and accepted at face value by some in the major media, as being an elite Ranger who witnessed commission of atrocities upon Iraqis, and claimed veterans PTSD benefits, but had actually been discharged from the Army about a month after joining the Army. In 2008, there were more than 40 prosecutions in the US, which barely scratches the surface.  Other well-documented cases of fraud were not prosecuted by US Attorneys.

The private citizen whose diligent work led to the Stolen Valor Act, Doug Sterner (website HomeOfHeroes.com), tells me that, “I can show you literally hundreds of slam-dunk/open-and-shut cases of individuals we have photos of wearing unearned awards who have never been touched. The FBI is swamped, and the problem is further generated by a lack of understanding.”

To appreciate the scope of fraud, a Chicago Tribune reporter found that a third of those in Who’s Who who claimed medals of valor had falsely declared themselves recipients of medals for bravery, including prominent lawyers, clergy, businessmen.  The publication has now tightened its rules for citation.

4^th in a series

Kristi Yamaguchi has shared her early lesson in life, to overcome physical limitations through hard work and the spirit to “Always Dream.”

Yamaguchi was born with club feet.  Watching her older sister ice skate, she was determined to try, her mother physically supporting her on the ice.  Yamaguchi recalls, “I just remember that feeling of freedom.”  Ice skating, also, provided an enjoyable exercise to strengthen her feet and ankles.  By junior high school, she began competing, her parents agreeing “as long as you keep your grades up and you’re giving it 100 percent.”

She excelled at both singles and pairs, a rare achievement, winning multiple world junior and national championships with partner Rudy Galindo. She followed with individual victories at the 1991 and 1992 World Figure Skating Championships and the 1992 U.S. Nationals. Her 1992 Olympic gold-medal performance—in which she became the first Asian American woman to win a gold medal in any sport—crowned her amateur career.

Following Albertville, Yamaguchi took the professional skating world by storm, winning the World Professional Figure Skating Championship four times between 1992 and 1997, and toured with Stars on Ice for over a decade.

Yamaguchi’s sport and financial successes were not enough to satisfy her childhood dream.  In 1996, inspired by the Make-A-Wish foundation, she founded the Always Dream foundation.  “All the athletic glory and honors are wonderful but sometimes I come face to face with a disadvantaged child or with a struggling mother or father and I am grateful for my gifts.  And I rededicate myself to doing whatever I can to help someone in need.  The good feeling I get from contributing rivals anything I felt on the Olympic stand in Albertsville.”  Always Dream has focused on building playgrounds which can be accessed and enjoyed by children of all abilities.

To borrow a phrase, the British Empire was built on the playing fields of Eton.  This site better explains the central importance of participation in sports to a child’s development as an energetic, constructive citizen. Kristi Yamaguchi says, “Through my Always Dream Foundation, I simply hope to help children fulfill their dreams.”  Her example and giving exemplifies more than she gives herself credit.  

From Ability, American History (Smithsonian), Always Dream foundation