[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 70 (Thursday, April 22, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S2175]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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  SENATE RESOLUTION 171--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT THE 
INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE SHOULD CORRECT THE OLYMPIC RECORDS FOR 
   JIM THORPE FOR HIS UNPRECEDENTED ACCOMPLISHMENTS DURING THE 1912 
                             OLYMPIC GAMES

  Mr. INHOFE (for himself and Mr. Lankford) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, 
and Transportation:

                              S. Res. 171

       Whereas Wa-Tho-Huk or ``Bright Path'', known as James 
     Francis Thorpe or ``Jim Thorpe'' of the Thunder Clan of the 
     Sac and Fox Nation, was born May 22, 1887 on the Reservation 
     of the Sac and Fox Nation in Prague, Oklahoma, and died March 
     28, 1953 in Lomita, California;
       Whereas Jim Thorpe attended the Carlisle Indian School in 
     Pennsylvania and established his amateur football record 
     playing halfback, defender, punter, and place-kicker while a 
     student and was subsequently chosen as Walter Camp's First 
     Team All-American Half-Back in 1911 and 1912;
       Whereas prior to the 1912 Olympic Games, Jim Thorpe placed 
     second in the pentathlon at the Amateur Athletic Union 
     National Championship Trials in Boston, Massachusetts;
       Whereas Jim Thorpe represented the United States as an 
     enrolled member of the Sac and Fox Nation, the largest of 3 
     federally recognized Tribes of Sauk and Meskwaki (Fox), in 
     the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden;
       Whereas at the 1912 Olympic Games, he won a Gold Medal in 
     the pentathlon, became the first athlete from the United 
     States 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;
       Whereas at the time Jim Thorpe won 2 Gold Medals in the 
     1912 Olympic Games, and not until 1924 under the Indian 
     Citizenship Act, Native Americans were not recognized as 
     citizens of the United States;
       Whereas Native Americans were not granted the right to vote 
     in every State until 1957;
       Whereas 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;
       Whereas, in 1920, Jim Thorpe was named the first president 
     of the American Professional Football Association, now known 
     as the National Football League;
       Whereas 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;
       Whereas Jim Thorpe was named the Greatest American Football 
     Player in history in a 1977 national poll conducted by Sport 
     Magazine;
       Whereas because of his outstanding athletic achievements, 
     Jim Thorpe was the first Native American 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 Native American Hall of Fame, the 
     Pennsylvania Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma Hall of Fame;
       Whereas the Amateur Athletic Union of 1973 restored the 
     amateur status of Jim Thorpe for the years 1909 through 1912;
       Whereas the International Olympic Committee returned 
     duplicates of gold medals won by Jim Thorpe to his family in 
     1982, but did not list him as the sole gold medal winner for 
     his achievements during the 1912 Olympic Games; and
       Whereas the failure of the International Olympic Committee 
     to update the records regarding Jim Thorpe disregards the 
     unprecedented achievements of one of the best athletes in the 
     history of the United States, the only athlete in Olympic 
     history to win both the pentathlon and the decathlon during 
     the same year, the first Native American athlete to win 
     Olympic gold medals for the United States, and the 
     contributions of the Sac and Fox Nation in the history of the 
     United States: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that the 
     International Olympic Committee, through the president of the 
     Committee, should officially recognize the unprecedented 
     athletic achievements of Jim Thorpe as the sole gold medalist 
     in the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon events and correct these 
     inaccuracies in the official Olympic books.

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