Portal:United States Merchant Marine/Selected biography/7
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jacobus Franciscus "Jim" Thorpe (Sac and Fox (Sauk) from Oklahoma: Wa-Tho-Huk) (May 28, 1888 – March 28, 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 collegiately and professionally, and also played professional baseball and basketball. He subsequently lost his Olympic titles when 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).
He found it difficult to work outside sports and never kept a job for an extended period of time. During the Great Depression in particular, Thorpe held various jobs, among others as an extra in several movies, usually playing an Indian chief in Westerns. But he also worked as a construction worker, a bouncer, a security guard, and a ditch digger, and he briefly joined the United States Merchant Marine in 1945.
