James Francis Thorpe was widely recognized as the greatest American athlete of the twentieth century and was born on May 28, 1887, near Prague, Indian Territory, in what is now the state of Oklahoma.
His impoverished parents, Hiram, and Charlotte Thorpe were members of the Sauk and Fox Indian Nation.
They gave their son the Native American name Wa-Tho-Huk, or Bright Path. To this day, Thorpe remains the only American athlete to perform at the world-class level in three major sports: track and field, baseball, and football.
Jim Thorpe dabbled in track at the boarding school in Kansas, but his athletic career didn’t take off until he returned to Carlisle three years later, in 1907.
Why was Mauch Chunk renamed, Jim Thorpe?
Before the rename of Mauch Chunk, Thorpe’s widow agreed that he would be buried and honored by the town of Mauch Chunk—and the town would even change its name to Jim Thorpe in recognition of the famous American, who had never even been to the town.
The idea was to draw tourists to the town by using Thorpe’s fame and popularity. Not everyone was enamored with the idea, and to this day some residents refer to themselves as “Chunkers”—a nod to the town’s previous name.
Even though the arrangement received a lot of national attention, it didn’t serve to draw tourists to the former coal town. It took decades of promotion and hard work to bring tourism to Jim Thorpe.
The most compelling draw to the area came not from the name of Jim Thorpe, but from the natural beauty of the surrounding area and from the unique mix of historic architecture within the town itself.
Many visitors come to enjoy the many 19th-century styles on display, including Federalist, Greek Revival, Second Empire, Romanesque Revival, Queen Anne, and Romanesque.
Source: nflfaqs.com
