Jim Thorpe -- All-American (Jim Thorpe – All-American)

Ladies and gentlemen, the honorable Roy J. Turner,

Governor of the State of Oklahoma.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here this evening

to express our pride and pay tribute to a native son of Oklahoma.

But I think it is only fitting that I forgo the honor

of making this presentation myself

and call upon a great gentleman of whom we are also very proud,

even though he is not a native son.

May I present to you one of the immortals of the world of sports,

the greatly beloved Pop Warner.

Thank you Governor Turner, Mrs. Turner, ladies and gentlemen.

I am of course highly honored to make this presentation.

But this event has special significance for me.

I feel a deep sense of personal pride and pleasure.

Fifty years is a long time.

Many exciting people and events have had their moment on the American scene.

Tonight we pay recognition to a man who had more than a brief moment,

a man who, during the past half-century,

has carved a permanent place for himself in all our hearts

and on this memorable occasion

I can't help but think back to a young Indian lad

who grew up on a reservation.

As a boy, he roamed the woods with his father, hunting and fishing.

Then one day he was faced with the prospect of school,

that frightening institution of the white man's world.

But being cooped up indoors was more than young Thorpe could stand.

His father had deposited him at the front door

and Jim left immediately by the back door.

And then, running with the wild grace of a young deer,

the boy headed home.

Oh, Grandmother.

Jim.

Well, the boy's in school, Charlotte.

I think he'll stay there this time. I took him far enough away so...

- Jim, how'd you get here? - He ran.

You ran 15 miles?

Only 12, Pa. I came through the hills.

Did you hear that, Charlotte? Twelve miles through the hills.

I hope he enjoyed it, because he goes back to school tomorrow.

I'll run away.

You're his father.

You taught him all the things he likes to do.

Now, teach him what he has to do.

Jim!

Jim!

You're going back to school.

- No! - Come here!

I ain't never took a whip to you, Jim. I ain't gonna start.

Come here.

Look out there.

What do you see?

A coyote run where I've got my traps set.

What else?

The hollow cottonwood where the owl lives.

Three buzzards circling a dead lamb.

Do you see yellow fields of grain?

Do you see fat herds grazing on young prairie grass?

- No. - That's right.

You don't see nothing but a boy's world.

That's all you'll ever see here on the reservation.

They'll give you a piece of land and you can sit around wrapped in a blanket.

Or else you can try to make something of yourself.

Be something.

Be what, Pa?

Whatever you want to be, boy.

It's all in the books, and the books are in the schools.

But I don't like school.

You must change, Jim, for your own good.

You must let the white man teach you his ways.

Before you know it, you'll be out in the world

with your head full of learning and you'll make your people proud of you.

Do you want me to go away?

No, boy. I'd rather have you here with me.

But I know it's the right thing to do and I know something else.

What, Pa?

If anybody wants something from you he ain't gonna get it by whipping you.

Twelve miles.

That was a mighty fine run, lad!

The boy obeyed his father and returned to school,

but he could never overcome his resentment

against this new way of life.

The Cumberland Valley of Pennsylvania

was the site of the government's famous Carlisle Indian School.

Here came Indian youths and maidens from every tribe in the nation.

Shawnee, Cherokee, Sioux, Blackfeet, Cheyenne, Chippewa,

some barely able to speak English.

But all eager to prepare themselves for a new life.

Jim had promised his father to finish his education,

so he found himself at Carlisle,

fulfilling that promise but confused and uncertain.

A young man torn between the prospect of discipline and confinement

and the simple outdoor life he had loved.

I was coaching at Carlisle in those days,

teaching the Indians what I knew about the white man's games.

The job was fun, but no snap.

When I wasn't coaching, I was prowling around the campus

looking for material to coach.

- Here come some more. - Oh, give them all copies.

You fellows learn these by tomorrow morning, you hear?

Hey, hey, come here. Here's one for you, too.

Hey, hey, frosh. Come over here and get one of these.

Hey, you.

Yeah, you. Come here.

Hey, just a minute.

What's your name?

- Jim Thorpe. - Do you have a tribal name?

- Wa-tho-huck. - What does it mean?

- Bright Path. - Bright Path, huh?

Well, Bright Path, do you know the school song?

- No. - No, sir.

That's right. Well, here are the words.

You memorize them, be ready to sing for us tomorrow morning.

Oh, just a minute, Bright Path. Do you speak Indian?

Yes.

Let's hear you recite the Gettysburg Address in Indian.

- Why, I reckon I can't. - You can't? Good.

Because when you recite the Gettysburg Address,

you recite it in English. Indian isn't spoken here.

- Hello, Pete. - Hello.

What you got here? Football material?

From his attitude, I don't think he's even Carlisle material.

- Ever play football before? - What's football?

What's...

- You don't know what football is? - No.

Well, football, bright path, is a white man's game

and it's played with a leather skin, something like your suitcase here.

And the object of this game is to take this leather skin

and try to run past Mr. Denny and me.

Well, frosh, come on. Run past them.

I'm sorry, Bright Path, but that's football. Very rough game.

Indian boy got lot to learn.

Now you try it.

- Try what? - Run past me.

Forget it, Jim. You got plenty of chance next year.

You try it!

Say, that wasn't bad. Come on, I'd like you to meet Pop Warner.

- Hello. - They sent me up here to bunk with you.

- Sure. Come on in. I'd Ed Guyac. - Jim Thorpe.

And this untamed aborigine here is Little Boy Who Walk Like Bear.

It's kind of a mouthful so I just call him Little Boy.

Not hau. What have I been teaching you?

Hi.

He's full-blooded Chippewa. His old man's chief.

Nothing like bunking with royalty.

- Where you from? - Oklahoma. Sac and Fox.

I'm Mohawk. "Heap smart New York Injun.

"Study law, make plenty wampum, take mortgage off teepee."

- How about you? - What about me?

What are you going to prepare for?

You know, doctor, lawyer, Indian chief, rich man, poor man...

I don't know.

Well, you've come to the right place to find out.

- This is your cot, right here. - Thanks.

Matter of fact, you can take this one if you like, Little Boy never uses it.

- Bed too soft, make Little Boy soft. - Soft! Listen to him!

Two hundred and twenty pounds of steer bone.

These natives, I'll never get used to them!

You're supposed to stand when an upperclassman comes in the room.

Yes, sir.

You three will report to the quartermaster for your issue of cadet uniforms.

You will keep them cleaned and pressed for daily inspection.

You will also fill out these forms indicating your preference for industrial training.

That's a pretty sloppy bed.

You'd better learn how to keep it neat if you expect to stay here.

I'm not sure I'm going to stay here.

Studying didn't come easy to Jim.

He crammed until late hours to keep up with his class

and often fell asleep over his books,

his mind restless and troubled.

When he could stand it no longer, he began to run.

And once again he found relief in the sheer physical joy of running.

On your marks.

Get set.

Who is that?

Go!

Either I need a new watch or we've got a new runner.

You're Jim Thorpe?

- That's right. - Glad to meet you, Jim. I'm Pop Warner.

You mind if I sit down? I'd like to talk to you a minute.

No.

That's quite an exhibition you put on this morning.

- Exhibition? - Don't you know what you did?

You ran the 220 in 23 seconds flat with your clothes on.

Why haven't you come out for the team?

Well, I hadn't figured on coming out for the team.

You just run for exercise, is that it?

I don't rightly know why I run.

You don't like it here, do you?

- No, I don't. - Then why have you come?

Because I promised someone. He's dead.

You know, you're the first Sac and Fox I've met here.

- That's Oklahoma Territory, isn't it? - Yes.

Originally from Wisconsin.

- Illinois. - Oh, yes, Illinois.

Part of the Algonquins.

- Yes, that's right. - A great warrior tribe, great traditions.

What do they do now?

Oh, a little farming, little weaving.

- They sell blankets at the railway station. - Yes, I know.

That's why Carlisle was founded, Jim.