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All American: The Rise and Fall of Jim Thorpe | 
 enlarge | Author: Bill Crawford
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $32.50
Buy New: $4.95
You Save: $27.55 (85%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 272090
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 6.1 x 1
ISBN: 0471557323
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.092
EAN: 9780471557326
ASIN: 0471557323
Publication Date: October 18, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
"All American is riveting and grand-that rare pairing of exquisite writing and unassailable research. Crawford delivers you to an age when iconic titans like Jim Thorpe and Pop Warner marched across the planet, and he is the perfect guide to their enormous triumphs and tragedies. This is epic American history at its page-turning finest."
-Bill Minutaglio, author of City on Fire and First Son: George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty
He was the greatest football running back of his era, leading his Carlisle Indian Industrial School team to victory over all the great college powerhouses. King Gustav of Sweden called him "the greatest athlete in the world" after he won gold medals for the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Olympic Games. Yet Jim Thorpe was also at the center of the greatest sports scandal of the twentieth century-a scandal that took away his Olympic medals and banned him forever from intercollegiate sports.
Now, in this revealing new biography, Bill Crawford captures Jim Thorpe's remarkable rise and fall. From his youth on Oklahoma's Sac and Fox Indian reservation to his astounding feats on the gridiron, from his Olympic triumphs to his complex relationship with coach "Pop" Warner, who mentored, exploited, and ultimately betrayed him, All American brings you up close and personal with the greatest athlete of the twentieth century.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Inaccurate Detail January 29, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Bill Crawford has written a fairly thorough and detailed account of Jim Thorpe, without a doubt the greatest athlete of the 20th Century. Mr. Crawford, however, fell short when relating, on pages 231-232, Thorpe's passing and eventual burial. At his death he was brought back to Shawnee, Oklahoma, by his family. He was NOT BURIED, as Mr. Crawford states, but his body lay in the mausoleum at Fairview Cemetery. Many local people visited the site in respect, myself included. During the months his body rested there several prominent citizens began work on a project to build a permanent monument for him. Designs for a burial place and a museum were developed and funds began to be raised. Preliminary plans were to put it between the football and baseball field on the west side of town. However, before the total could be raised and the plans finalized Thorpe's body disappeared, literally, in the middle of the night - much to the surprise of his family and to Shawnee citizens. It was a terrible disappointment. In 1949, on one of his trips back to Oklahoma, he had stated that he was born May 28, 1888 "near and south of Bellemont - Pottawatomie County - along the banks of North Fork River . . hope this will clear up the inquiries as to my birthplace", signed Jim Thorpe. (Bellemont was on the county line between Pottawatomie and Lincoln counties, 8 miles off Hwy 18 - Shawnee is the county seat of Pottawatomie County and about 11 miles from the site). Thus, Shawnee citizens were very proud to be known as the home of the greatest athlete of all time. When the town didn't get to be the resting place of Thorpe's body it was decided to name the football stadium in his honor anyway, and it's known as Jim Thorpe Stadium to this day. It was surprising to read in Mr. Crawford's book that "Shawnee refused to erect a memorial for her husband". It just wasn't so and a little further research on his part, maybe perusing copies of the Shawnee News-Star in the local library. Also, just a few years ago (haven't been out there in a while), there was a marker on the vault at Fairview describing that was where Jim Thorpe's body had lain.
A Must Read Book for Many February 17, 2005
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
This book provides the most detailed history yet of America's greatest athlete. In an era where athletes could not enhance their performance with drugs, Jim Thorpe was clearly, naturally the best. Bill Crawford's detailed account of Thorpe's life leaves no doubt in my mind. I am amazed by the amount of information Crawford provides on Thorpe as well as other athletes of the time. The history he provides of Carlisle and the Indian school system in general illustrates how poorly the BIA and the US government treated Indians. "All American: The Rise and Fall of Jim Thorpe" should be required reading for all BIA officials as well as strongly recommended reading for others in government. Certainly student athletes and athletic officials would enjoy and learn from it.
The candid portrayal of a courageous and dedicated athlete January 11, 2005
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
All American: The Rise And Fall Of Jim Thorpe is the biography of one of the greatest athletes of the twentieth century - who was also at the center of one of the greatest scandals. Jim Thorpe was a grand football running back, a proud Native American, a college player who led his Carlisle Indian Industrial School team to victory, and the winner of gold medals for the decathlon and the pentathlon at the 1912 Olympic Games. Yet a scandal ensued over whether he was truly worthy of "amateur" sports status, whether playing in certain professional ball games required that he be stripped of his titles. The scandal dragged his reputation through the mud and left a black mark on his life, even though he would go on to play professional baseball and become president of what would one day be the National Football League. All American is the candid portrayal of a courageous and dedicated athlete, and one who was essentially used as a guinea pig to determine the rules - who is an amateur, and who is a pro, and what amateurs and pros are allowed to do or not do. Enjoyable in its own right, All American is a welcome addition to prominent Native American biography collections, and highly recommended for American sports history shelves.
A Book for Our Times December 24, 2004
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Bill Crawford's "All American: The Rise and Fall of Jim Thorpe" is a well crafted, insightful and poignant portrait of one of the 20th century's greatest athletes. That alone would be sufficient to give it all-star status among the scores of sports books published in recent years. "All American," however, is far more than that because paints a unique and compelling picture of "amateur" intercollegiate athletics in its infancy and thereby helps us to understand behemoth that it has become today.
Jim Thorpe's story has been told in other biographies as well as in a grade B movie. Crawford's contribution is its investigation of the complex relationship between Thorpe and his legendary coach, Glenn "Pop" Warner - the same Pop Warner who is the namesake of the youth football leagues that are supposed to instill in young men the spirit and ideals of honest and fair competition. Yet, as early as the first decade of the century, Warner, the football coach at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, was earning more than his school's president, was recruiting "student athletes" who were far more athlete than student and was disbursing under the table cash. Although Warner won the trust and loyalty of Thorpe, he ultimately betrayed him by denying that he knew that he had played semi-pro baseball for petty cash. As a consequence, the Amateur Athletic Union and the American Olympic Committee ruled that Thorpe had compromised his amateur status and stripped him of his 1912 Olympic medals. In fact, Crawford makes clear, Warner not only was aware of what Thorpe had been doing in football's off-season, he most likely made the arrangements.
"All American: The Rise and Fall of Jim Thorpe" should be required reading for anyone wishing to gain a perspective on the sports scandals du jour. It's an important book and a great compliment to the daily sports section.
All American The Rise and Fall of Jim Thorpe December 16, 2004
19 out of 19 found this review helpful
As the youngest son of Jim Thorpe, I want to thank Bill Crawford for finally bringing out the truth in writing as to what happened to our father. For years our family and others have tried to clear his name. Much still needs to be done. Although his Gold Medals from the 1912 Olympics have been returned, dad is only named co-winner. His trophys from the games are still held by the IOC.
Mr. Crawford writes a wonderfull book. But,there is still a lack of understanding of the Indian culture,and what took place in the Indian School System during the early years of the last century, the Indian were not citizens of the United States and held on legal status. Dad did what he was told to do and suffered for his lack of knowledge and having no legal support.
As a family, we still want his name fully cleared and his full honors returned. Then the day would come when he can be put to rest.
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