Remembering Jim Thorpe

Jim Thorpe, seen here swinging a bat in 1914 – a year before he plays baseball on City Island in the minors for the Harrisburg Senators and four years after becoming an international sensation at the Olympics – dies 73 years ago today in Lomita, Calif.

Thorpe, who is only 65 when he passes away, hits .303 in 96 games for Harrisburg and Newark in 1915.

He punctuates his first game for Harrisburg in 1915 with a long home run that some of the 5,822 fans in attendance whimsically claim carries over the Susquehanna River and lands in nearby Lemoyne.

Thorpe spends six seasons in the majors, batting .252 over 289 games with the Giants, Cincinnati Reds and Boston Braves before becoming a full-time football player in 1920.

Thorpe does well in that gig, too, as he becomes the headline performer for the fledgling American Professional Football Association that later morphs into the National Football League.

Fittingly, Thorpe is part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s inaugural Class of 1963.

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