Jim Thorpe
Additional Details:
| Few athletes have excelled in such a wide variety of sports as the legendary Jim Thorpe. His outstanding athletic ability won him fame in track and field events, football and baseball. As an athlete in the 1912 Summer Olympic Games held in Stockholm, Thorpe made sports history by becoming the first athlete to capture gold medals in both the pentathlon and the decathlon. When presenting the gold medals to him, the King of Sweden called Thorpe "the greatest athlete in the world." From 1913 to 1919, this amazing athlete played sic seasons of baseball as an outfielder on three major league teams. Thorpe began his professional football career in 1915 and was soon known as a star player. He played on seven professional teams during the next fifteen years and helped to establish football as a popular American sport. Indeed, Jim Thorpe was one of America's greatest all-around athletes. In honor of this legendary American athlete, the United States Postal Service released the stamp featured on this Maximum Card |
