Jim Thorpe/ football at the Polo Grounds

One hundred years ago today … Football was played at the Polo Grounds: the Cleveland Tigers, coached by and featuring former Olympian and multi-sport star Jim Thorpe, played a local team calling itself the Giants. (This was of course the US version of football.)

The match was pitched as a contest of the “All-American players,” of the Giants against the “famous Indian Backfield” of the visiting team. The labeling was spurred by Thorpe’s heritage as member of the Sac and Fox Nation, plus the presence of at least one other Native American, Joe Guyon of the Chippewa Nation.

Previewing the game, the Herald admitted that New York was “not strong at football” (New York Herald, 3 December 1921, p. 15).

The Tigers, who seem to have also been known as the Indians, were part of the American Football Association, formed in 1920 with Thorpe as its president. It would evolve into the National Football League in 1922. Against the Giants, the Tigers/Indians won 17-0, in front of a crowd estimated at 3,000 (“Thorpe's Team Is Easy Victor In ‘Pro' Contest,” New York Tribune, 4 December 1921, p. 21). 

The afternoon featured a drop-kicking contest pitting Thorpe against the Giants player/coach Charlie Brickley, held between halves of the game. 

As the clipping above shows, Thorpe was soon to announce his retirement from football.

The day after that, sportswriter Grantland Rice named Thorpe “the greatest all-around athlete the world has ever known.”

– Jonathan Goldman, Dec. 3, 2021

TAGS: Native Americans, indigenous people, race, ethnicity, sport, athletes, sportswriting, journalism