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Throwback Tulsa: Gold medals won by Jim Thorpe given to family on this day in 1983

Posted: Jan 18th 2021 By: Www.tulsaworld.com

An inaugural member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame; there is no debate that Jim Thorpe was one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century.

However, he was forced to give up his 1912 Olympic gold medals seven months after winning them after admitting that he played for a baseball team in 1910 (he had accepted $25 a game to play).

38 years ago today, the two gold medals won by Thorpe in the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden, were restored to his family by the International Olympic Committee.

Thorpe was called the greatest athlete in the world by Swedish King Gustav V.

While his final resting place was in a Pennsylvania town named Jim Thorpe, he has multiple Oklahoma ties. He attended the Sac and Fox Indian Agency school in Stroud; and the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame annually awards the Jim Thorpe Award to college football's top defensive back.