Native American Son: Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe by Kate Buford

The first comprehensive biography of the legendary figure who defined excellence in American sports: Jim Thorpe, arguably the greatest all-around athlete the United States has ever seen.\n\nWith clarity and a fine eye for detail, Kate Buford traces the pivotal moments of Thorpe\u0092s incomparable career: growing up in the tumultuous Indian Territory of Oklahoma; leading the Carlisle Indian Industrial School football team, coached by the renowned \u0093Pop\u0094 Warner, to victories against the country\u0092s finest college teams; winning gold medals in the 1912 Olympics pentathlon and decathlon; defining the burgeoning sport of professional football and helping to create what would become the National Football League; and playing long, often successful\u0097and previously unexamined\u0097years in professional baseball.\n\nBut, at the same time, Buford vividly depicts the difficulties Thorpe faced as a Native American\u0097and a Native American celebrity at that\u0097early in the twe.