Birthsite of Jim Thorpe

The two gold medals this stone credits were taken from Thorpe within a year. In January 1913, after a Massachusetts newspaper revealed that he had played semiprofessional baseball in North Carolina, the Amateur Athletic Union stripped him, and the International Olympic Committee struck his titles. In 1982 the committee declared him co-champion, and in January 1983 it presented commemorative medals to two of his children, the originals having been stolen from museums. In July 2022 it restored him as the sole winner of both events. The Sac and Fox Nation added the Olympic rings to its flag.

What the plaque says

Birthsite of Jim Thorpe Sac & Fox Indian Watha Huck - Bright Path James Francis Thorpe and twin Charles born here May 22, 1887 to Hiram and Charlotte Thorpe on Sac & Fox reservation land. Charles died in 1896. As an amateur, at Carlisle, Pa. Indian School, Jim excelled in track, football, baseball and won two gold medals in decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm. As a professional, he played major league baseball 1913-19, football 1915-29, was the first president of the National Football League, was inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame, Oklahoma Hall of Fame, Track and Field Hall of Fame, and National Indian Hall of Fame. Associated Press voted Jim Thorpe America's greatest all-around athlete plus greatest football player first half of 20th century. May 18, 1996 Olympic torch carried from Sac & Fox Nation through Prague here to Thorpe's birthsite. Atlanta Committee of the Olympic Games chose route to honor Thorpe's memory and contributions to the Olympics. Marker set 1996 on David and Rosalie Perkins' farm Contributed by BancFirst of Prague Oklahoma Historical Society 1996

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center — 13 mi
  The Citizen Potawatomi Nation's national museum and archive in Shawnee, telling a Great Lakes people's road through Kansas to Indian Territory in the Nation's own words and objects.
• Boley Historic District — 16 mi
  The downtown of the largest of Oklahoma's All-Black towns, praised by Booker T. Washington, squeezed by Jim Crow and white land oaths, bankrupt in 1939 and still living today.
• Seminole Nation Museum — 24 mi
  A community museum in Wewoka, capital of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, telling the Seminole story from Florida to Indian Territory and the town that John Horse's people founded in 1849.

More markers nearby

• Birthplace of Jim Thorpe — 5.9 mi
• Home on the Range — 10 mi
• Shawnee Mission — 13 mi
• Boley, Oklahoma — 16 mi