UNC Asheville to Host Talk on Jim Thorpe;
Event Held on the Anniversary of Athlete's Death
UNC Asheville’s Multicultural Student Programs will
host a talk on “The Legacy of Jim Thorpe” by biographer R.W. Reising at
2 p.m. Monday, March 28, at UNC Asheville’s Highsmith University Union
room 222. The talk will be held on the 52nd anniversary of the athlete’s
death. The event is free and open to the public.
Thorpe (1887-1953) was born on the Sac and Fox
Indian Reservation in Oklahoma. He was rose to national fame for his
All-American feats in football and track and field. Later he gained
international attention for winning gold medals in the decathlon and the
pentathlon at the 1912 Olympics. However, just months after his Olympic
victories, Thorpe was forced to forfeit his medals when it was
discovered that he had played baseball in the Class D Eastern Carolina
League while in college and had earned $60. Thorpe went on to play six
seasons of Major League baseball while simultaneously playing
professional football. In 1920, he became the first president of the
American Professional Football Association, forerunner of the National
Football League. In 1950, the Associated Press named Thorpe the greatest
football player of the half century and the greatest athlete of the half
century. When he retired from professional sports at age 41, Thorpe
played bit parts in Hollywood, held odd jobs and joined the Merchant
Marines in late World War II. Twice divorced and troubled by heavy
drinking, Thorpe never successfully adjusted to life’s routines outside
of athletics. He died of a heart attack at age 64 on March 28, 1953.
Recast Olympic medals were awarded to his family 30 years later.
Reising is a Thorpe biographer and has been on the
faculty of UNC Pembroke’s American Indian Studies Program for more than
30 years. He is currently on leave-of-absence from UNC Pembroke and is
serving as director of the Center for European Languages and Translation
at King Suad University in Saudi Arabia. Reising, a three-year varsity
athlete at Michigan State and a former ACC coach and recruiter, is an
expert on Thorpe’s ties to North Carolina. He holds a doctorate from
Duke University.
For more information, call UNC Asheville’s
Multicultural Student Programs at 828/232-5110.
Media Contacts:
- Deirdre Wiggins, UNC Asheville Multicultural Student Programs
Director, 828/232-5110
- Jill Yarnall, UNC Asheville Public Information Assistant Director,
828/251-6526
|
