Shannon Harrigan and Eli Ong
21 minutes ago
CHICAGO — President Joe Biden is scheduled to present the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the recipient this Friday, but Jim Thorpe's family will be in Chicago Wednesday to accept the award on his behalf, more than 70 years after his death. He said he would visit Washington, DC. death.
The name Thorpe has become synonymous with many things. Once hailed as the world's greatest athlete, he now has a new title to his name – Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient – but first he was just grandpa to Gail Lynn Hannon. .
“He was my grandfather when we knew him as my grandfather. When we were growing up, he was in Chicago during World War II,” Hannon said. “When we were kids, we didn't know how famous he was or how talented he was.”
Thorpe was both a professional baseball and football player, and was a founding father of the latter in the National Football League.
“He and George Halas started dating,” Hannon said. “I have a picture of them planning the American Football League, now the NFL. My grandfather was the first president in 1920.”
It hasn't always been an easy road for the legendary athlete. In the 1912 Olympics, Thorpe competed in shoes he dug out of a trash can.
“So when he got there, he was getting ready for his first event and he went to get his shoes and they were gone,” Hannon said. “Someone stole the shoes, and if you look closely at the picture, he pulled out two strange pairs of shoes and was running around like that.”
Thorpe went on to win both the decathlon and pentathlon, becoming the first and only athlete to win both in the same Olympic year.
The King of Sweden called him the greatest athlete in the world because he was the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal, but at the time it was an additional hurdle for him to overcome.
“Sometimes he felt he was prejudiced because of his Indian blood,” Hannon said. “When you look back at history, it's sad that we were treated so badly.”
Thorpe, who died on March 28, 1953, at the age of 65, will now take his granddaughter on a trip to Washington, D.C., to receive another reward on the NFL Hall of Fame's long list of storied accomplishments.
“I don't know how he got nominated for this award, but he deserves it, and we're excited,” Hannon said. “We are very proud and very pleased and happy to receive it.”
