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Great sporting articles... Jim Thorpe... Joe DiMaggio... Jackie Robinson...
Great sporting articles... Jim Thorpe... Joe DiMaggio... Jackie Robinson...
Item # 565390
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January 25, 1950
THE NEW YORK TIMES, New York, NY, January 25, 1950
* Jim Thorpe - Jackie Robinson - Joe Dimaggio
* 3 separate reports in 1 issue
This 52 page newspaper has two column headlines on page 31 that include: "Thorpe Hailed as Greatest Player On Gridiron in Past Fifty Years" and more.
On page 32 is a 6 column headline: "Yanks Sign DiMaggio; Robinson Accepts Dodgers Terms" with subheads and related photos. (see) Robinson's contract was the highest ever paid for a Dodger at that time.
Other news of the day throughout. Rag edition in very nice condition.
wikipedia notes: Jacobus Franciscus "Jim" Thorpe (Sac and Fox (Sauk): Wa-Tho-Huk) (28 May 1888 – 28 March 1953[1]) was an American athlete. Considered one of the most versatile athletes in modern sports, he won Olympic gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon, played American football at the collegiate and professional levels, and also played professional baseball and basketball. He lost his Olympic titles after it was found he was paid for playing two seasons of minor league baseball before competing in the games, thus violating the amateur status rules.
Thorpe was Native American Indian and European American. Raised in the Sac and Fox nation in Oklahoma, he was named Wa-Tho-Huk, roughly translated as "Bright Path". He played on several All-American Indian teams throughout his career, and barnstormed as a professional basketball player with a team composed entirely of Native Americans.
In 1950 Thorpe was named the greatest athlete of the first half of the twentieth century by the Associated Press (AP). In 1999 he was ranked third on the AP list of top athletes of the 20th century.
His professional sports career ended in the years of the Great Depression, and Thorpe struggled to earn a living. He worked several odd jobs, struggled with alcoholism, and lived out the last years of his life in failing health and poverty. In 1983, thirty years after his death, the International Olympic Commission (IOC) restored his Olympic medals to his name.
Category: The 20th Century
No Longer Available
