Top 100 Pro Football Books of All-Time By Chris Willis, NFL Films

[Bored5000]

I have read No. 20 on the list, "Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe." I am surprised to see this book on this list because it is not really a "pro football book." Only a small portion of the book deals with Thorpe's pro football endeavors.

The book is the most detailed Thorpe bio I have read, however. Most Thorpe bios deal simply with the 1912 Olympics, losing his medals and his time at Carlisle. Kate Buford's book is different, however, in that she also deals extensively with Thorpe's Indian genealogy, his baseball career with the New York Giants, his time as a B-movie actor in Hollywood and his sad descent into alcoholism/being unable to hold a job over the last two decades of his life.

For me, the most revealing fact I learned in the book is that the famous "Thanks, King" reply that Thorpe supposedly uttered to King Gustav V during the medal presentation at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics never actually happened.

The book is meticulously sourced and provides a fair portrayal of both Thorpe's positives and negatives. His generosity and kindness to people he didn't even know is thoroughly detailed. On the other hand, his inability to hold a job, drinking problems and lousy job as a father are also detailed. A couple items that really stood out to me in the book were Thorpe's son Bill calling him "...one mean son of a gun" and son Jack also saying, "As a father, he wasn't worth a ****."

The impact of Thorpe being stripped of his 1912 Olympic medals is emphasized throughout the book. It was hard not to feel sad when reading Thorpe's somber wishes that he wanted his Olympic medals brought to Carlisle if they were ever returned to him posthumously, "I was happy there, for a little while" he sadly lamented.