All American: the Rise and Fall of Jim Thorpe.

All American: The Rise And Fall Of Jim Thorpe 

Bill Crawford

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5773

0471557323 $24.95 1-800-225-5945 www.wiley.com

All American: The Rise And Fall Of Jim Thorpe is the biography of one of the greatest athletes of the twentieth century--who was also at the center of one of the greatest scandals. Jim Thorpe was a grand football running back, a proud Native American, a college player who led his Carlisle Indian Industrial School team to victory, and the winner of gold medals for the decathlon and the pentathlon at the 1912 Olympic Games. Yet a scandal ensued over whether he was truly worthy of "amateur" sports status, whether playing in certain professional ball games required that he be stripped of his titles. The scandal dragged his reputation through the mud and left a black mark on his life, even though he would go on to play professional baseball and become president of what would one day be the National Football League. All American is the candid portrayal of a courageous and dedicated athlete, and one who was essentially used as a guinea pig to determine the rules--who is an amateur, and who is a pro, and what amateurs and pros are allowed to do or not do. Enjoyable in its own right, All American is a welcome addition to prominent Native American biography collections, and highly recommended for American sports history shelves.