Salt Lake Telegram | 1939-08-24 | Page 20 | Jim Thorpe Says Track is Greatest

Jim Thorpe Says Track Is Greatest By GEORGE KIRKSEY United Press Iress Sports Writer rIter NEW YORK Aug 24 A 24 A big skinned copper-skinned fellow with a bull bun neck and broad shoulders wandered I Into nto the Polo Grounds yesterday and It was a cinch he I wasn't a sports writer Gus the custodian of the press coop usually tosses interlopers right up the little circular iron stairway leading to the entrance but he didn't lay a hand on this guy The stranger was Jim Thorpe now 51 but still a pretty good package of man He weighs about now as compared to the he scaled when he was the greatest football ll player in th the land He looks healthy and says he feels good Feeling Fine I I eat good and I sleep good and there aint a thing the matter with m me that I know of said old Jim In New York to appear oil ori a aradio aradio aradio radio program Thorpe couldn't re resIst resist resist re- re tho the temptation to visit the Polo Grounds It was sort of old home week Thorpe played his first football game In New York at the Polo Grounds with the old Carlisle Indians then he played there with the New York Giants' Giants pro team and he was one of John McGraws McGraw's noble experiments as a baseball player McGraw tried for seven years from 1913 through 1919 to make to-make make a major league ballplayer ball ballplayer ballplayer player out of ot Thorpe but old Jim just couldn't hit that curve ball In rebuttal Thorpe asked And who dont don't have trouble hitting that curve on the outside Played 16 Years Thorpe played pro football for 16 years and pro baseball just one year less His last appearance on the gridiron was in 1929 with the Chicago Cardinals against the Bears He played end and all he remembers about the game is that his hili side lost In all an his football career Thorpe was never badly Injured I always kept myself In pretty good shape good shape he said About the worst Injuries I ever had were cracked ribs and a shoulder thrown out Asked how long it would take him to get in good shape now Thorpe looked away from the ball baIl game right quick and laughed Oh about six weeks Thorpe rates Eddie Mahan of Harvard as the greatest football player he ever ever played against or saw in action and Bill Hollenbeck of Penn as the roughest toughest man he ever ran up against He played against both while he W was s with the Carlisle Indians For the last few years Thorpe has been playing bits in pictures and last year he made a lecture tour In schools In the far west The Indian ranks track as the greatest sport of ot all aH especially for youngsters