[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 91 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 91

Expressing the sense of the Senate that Jim Thorpe should be recognized 
                   as the ``Athlete of the Century''.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 3, 1999

Mr. Santorum submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
         the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of the Senate that Jim Thorpe should be recognized 
                   as the ``Athlete of the Century''.

SECTION 1. SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT JIM THORPE SHOULD BE RECOGNIZED AS 
              THE ``ATHLETE OF THE CENTURY''.

    (a) Findings.--The Senate finds the following:
            (1) Jim Thorpe is the only athlete ever to excel as an 
        amateur and a professional in 3 major sports--track and field, 
        football, and baseball.
            (2) Prior to the 1912 Olympic Games, Jim Thorpe won the 
        pentathlon and the decathlon at the Amateur Athletic Union 
        National Championship Trials in Boston, Massachusetts.
            (3) Jim Thorpe represented the United States and the Sac 
        and Fox Nation in the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden, 
        where he won a gold medal in the pentathlon, became the first 
        American athlete to win a gold medal in the decathlon, in which 
        he set a world record, and became the only athlete in Olympic 
        history to win both the pentathlon and the decathlon during the 
        same year.
            (4) The athletic feats of Jim Thorpe resulted in worldwide 
        publicity that helped to ensure the viability of the Olympic 
        Games.
            (5) During his major league baseball career, Jim Thorpe 
        played with the New York Giants, the Cincinnati Reds, and the 
        Boston Braves, and ended the 1919 baseball season with a .327 
        batting average.
            (6) Jim Thorpe established his amateur football record 
        playing halfback, defender, punter, and place-kicker while he 
        was a student at the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, 
        and was chosen as Walter Camp's First Team All-American Half-
        Back in 1911 and 1912.
            (7) Jim Thorpe was a founding father of professional 
        football, playing with the Canton Bulldogs, which was the team 
        recognized as world champion in 1916, 1917, and 1919, the 
        Cleveland Indians, the Oorang Indians, the Rock Island 
        Independent, the New York Giants, and the Chicago Cardinals.
            (8) In 1920, Jim Thorpe was named the first president of 
        the American Professional Football Association, now known as 
        the National Football League.
            (9) Jim Thorpe was voted America's Greatest All-Around Male 
        Athlete and chosen as the greatest football player of the half-
        century in 1950 by an Associated Press poll of sportswriters.
            (10) Jim Thorpe was named the Greatest American Football 
        Player in History in a 1977 national poll conducted by Sport 
        Magazine.
            (11) Because of his outstanding achievements, Jim Thorpe 
        was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame, 
        the Professional Football Hall of Fame, the Helms Professional 
        Football Hall of Fame, the National Indian Hall of Fame, the 
        Pennsylvania Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.
            (12) The immeasurable sports achievements of Jim Thorpe 
        have long been an inspiration to the youth in Pennsylvania and 
        throughout the United States.
    (b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate that Jim 
Thorpe should be recognized as the ``Athlete of the Century''.
                                 <all>