(1888–1953), US athlete; full name James Francis Thorpe. After starring as an All-American football player at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School 1911–12, he won Olympic gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon 1912 and played baseball 1913–19 and football 1917–29 professionally. Although he was required to return his Olympic medals because he had played semi-professional baseball in 1909, they were returned to his family in 1984.