Jim Thorpe: Death of an All-American
Mobituaries with Mo Rocca
iHeartPodcasts and CBS News
4.8 • 20.6K Ratings
🗓️ 18 October 2023
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When gold medalist Jim Thorpe was dubbed "the world's greatest athlete" at the 1912 Olympics, it wasn't hype. Football, baseball, lacrosse, even ballroom dancing ... Thorpe was the world's first multi-sport superstar. But when the Native American icon had his Olympic medals unjustly stripped from him, he faced his toughest hurdle yet. Mo talks to biographer David Maraniss about Thorpe's meteoric rise from Oklahoma Indian territory to global celebrity, and his surprising third act in Hollywood. Plus an interview with granddaughter Anita Thorpe. And Mo visits Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, a town with a history as startling as the man himself.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | For two decades FBI agent Robert Hansen sold secrets to the Kremlin. |
| 0:04.1 | He violated everything that my FBI stood for. |
| 0:07.5 | People died because of him. |
| 0:08.8 | Hansen was the most damaging spy in FBI history and his betrayals didn't end there. |
| 0:13.6 | Do I hate him? No, I don't hate anyone. |
| 0:16.0 | But his motive. I would love to know what his true motive so I can get that out of me. |
| 0:21.4 | How did he do it? Why? |
| 0:23.6 | Listen to agent of betrayal the double life of Robert Hansen wherever you get your podcast. |
| 0:30.0 | There are so many ways we can memorialize the greats. |
| 0:39.2 | Welcome to the Jim Thorntoy tour. Certainly a special tour today. |
| 0:44.9 | All right, we're going to roll over the Lehigh now. |
| 0:47.3 | Beautiful. There are murals, TV specials, parades, even podcasts. |
| 0:53.6 | Up that incline is where they would drag the empty call cars and the leaves this time. |
| 0:58.0 | Naming a town after someone? That's next level. |
| 1:02.8 | Well, there's the Jim Thorntoy neighborhood bank. There's the Jim Thorntoy. |
| 1:05.8 | There's the Jim Thorntan. And we're standing in front of a field for which high school? |
| 1:10.7 | Jim Thorntoy, Barry High School. And the name of the team is... |
| 1:13.2 | The Jim Thorntoy Olympians. |
| 1:14.8 | That's Michael J. Cifranco. He's the mayor of Jim Thorntoy Pennsylvania. |
| 1:20.9 | Yes, the town is named for the legendary Native American athlete |
| 1:25.9 | and hero of the 1912 Stockholm Sweden Olympics, Jim Thorntoy. |
| 1:31.6 | And yes, I know that Pennsylvania's call their towns boroughs |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from iHeartPodcasts and CBS News, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of iHeartPodcasts and CBS News and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.