Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team

When Jim Thorpe walks on to the Carlisle Indian School football field in a borrowed, grass-stained uniform, head coach Pop Warner tells him to get off the field because he doesn’t want Thorpe to get hurt. Thorpe is not quite six feet tall. He’s muscular, but much smaller than the other players on the varsity team. He insists that he wants to play, and Warner laughingly tosses Thorpe the first store-bought football he’s ever held telling him to “give [the] varsity boys a little tackling practice” (2). Thorpe starts on the goal line and runs through every defender twice. Warner is enraged with his team but intrigued by Thorpe’s success. Thorpe isn’t surprised with himself. He tosses the ball back to Coach Warner and says, “Sorry, Pop. Nobody’s going to tackle Jim” (3).

Charlotte and Hiram Thorpe marry in 1882 and live on Sac and Fox land in the “Indian Territory” (present day Oklahoma). In 1887, the United States government opens the land to new white settlers, and the land is quickly taken from Indigenous control. Charlotte Thorpe gives birth to twins, James (Jim) and Charles (Charlie), in 1888. In addition to their English names, the boys receive Indigenous names: Jim’s is Wathohuck, which means “Bright Path.