Arguably the greatest athlete of all time, Jim Thorpe's ties to Rocky Mount still run deep

Jim Thorpe died 71 years ago of heart failure. His time in Rocky Mount, though brief, is a cemented part of his legacy as an American athlete. How great he was is still a hot topic in local sports bars, with some claiming the Olympic gold medalist is the best this area has ever seen. It has remained a hot topic for years.

When the historical marker for Thorpe was erected in Rocky Mount in 1960, the Telegram asked its readers to submit articles or sit for interviews about Thorpe and his days in the city.

Here are excerpts from a variety of Rocky Mount residents who spent time with time Thorpe, often referred to as the “greatest athlete of all time.”

BIG CHIEF COMING

By FRANK JAMES

It’s been a long time since I saw Jim Thorpe, I was about 12 years old when he played baseball here, but I still remember him. He was the kind of man who left a lasting impression — big and powerful, heavy-jawed and square-faced. He was muscular, a giant of a man.

I remember him as a pitcher for the Rocky Mount team. He could really throw a baseball, and nobody dared to dig in too close to the plate against him. His pitching and his running are the things I remember most vividly about him. He could run like a deer. And when he was on base, it wasn’t safe to get in front of him. He didn’t just run over infielders — he ran through them if they were between him and the base be wanted to reach.

The old hall park where Thorpe played was located down behind Park View Hospital. I can still recall these wooden grandstands and the crowds that used to come out and see Thorpe play. A lot of kids used to hang around the ball park, and I was among them. The kids used to call Jim “Big Chief.” I don’t remember whether we got it from him or he picked it up from us, but sometimes when he was stealing a base he would yell out, “Big Chief coming!”

Editor’s note: Frank James grew up in Rocky Mount in the early 1900s, and he recalled Thorpe’s playing days.

DRAWING CAPACITY CROWDS

By BLAKE MALLISON

I remember Thorpe as quite a character and a big drawing card for the Rocky Mount team. He was not a truly great all around baseball player, at least not when he was here, but no one can question his abilities as a tremendous all-around athlete.

As a pitcher, Thorpe was pretty good, but not really outstanding. His primary attributes while a member of the Rocky Mount team was his base running ability and his hitting. But even his hitting fell off rapidly when the opposition learned that he could not hit a wide breaking curve.

Capacity crowds came out to see Thorpe and the Rocky Mount team play. In those days, there was no radio, no TV and few of the many sources of recreation that we now have.

I recall something of an amusing nature in relation to baseball here in those days. When visiting teams came to town, they would be transported to the old ball park on a wagon drawn by mules.

Jim Thorpe, in the way he lived and the way he played, was also an amusing character. He was popular with everybody and we called him “Big Chief.” He left many of us with some fond memories.

Editor’s note: Blake Mallison is Sam Mallison’s brother, and he also covered Thorpe’s time in Rocky Mount for the newspaper.

PRICE OF ADMISSION

By THOMAS McMILLAN

In Rocky Mount in those days, there were no taxis, much less buses. Only a few old horse-drawn hacks at the ACI depot.

But we did have baseball. Good baseball. And the ball players walked to the park from their hotel every afternoon. They dressed in their hotel, the old Cambridge, after the mid-day meal, and started the walk to the ball park, carrying their spiked shoes, gloves and favorite bats.

That is, they started from the hotel with those items. But there was always a crowd of small boys eager to carry those shoes and gloves for them because carrying them meant free entry into the baseball game. The boys and gloves and shoes went right along with the players.

I was one of those boys in 1909, one of the most favored, for “Big Chief” always gave me his glove and shoes to carry.

And I never failed to be on hand when he came down the steps of the Cambridge on those hot summer afternoons. He was kind to little boys, never pushing them aside.

THORPE’S FIERCE SLIDE

By STAFF REPORTS

(M. P. J.) Williams recalls the keen rivalry between all clubs in the league, and of a close game with Wilson when Bunn Hearn, a Wilson resident and for years baseball coach at Carolina, was Wilson’s pride and joy and a pitcher of unusual ability as a youngster. Opposing him on the mound was Phil Griffin of Red Oak, a member of a baseball playing family and a pitcher of whom Rocky Mount folks thought there was none better.

As Mr. Williams tells the story. “The Wilson catcher was named Westlake. The game had gone into extra innings without a decision, when Jim Thorpe reached third base with one out. A long fly to the outfield would have spelled victory for Rocky Mount and the big Indian was ready to score on a ground ball to the infield, so great was his speed. But instead, the batter hit a pop fly that reached just beyond the grass at shortstop. Up went one of Big Chief’s war whoops that could have been heard a mile. As the shortstop caught the bail, Thorpe tagged up and started for home yelling ‘Big Chief’s coming home!’ The ball was in Westlake’s hands on a perfect throw from the shortstop, but the Indian hit the dirt, sliding with one foot high in the air, and hooked the plate. Umpire McLaughlin called him safe and the game was over.

Westlake had not wanted to get in the way of Thorpe’s fierce slide.”

Editor’s note: M. P. J. Williams, vice president and Carolina representative of the Graham Williams Co., building material suppliers of Atlanta, lived on Sycamore Street.

A SIZEABLE ROW

By STAFF REPORTS

“The incident stands out in my mind about Jim Thorpe,” said E.G. Johnston Sr., “was an incident entirely personal when I was quaking in my boots one minute and entirely confident a moment later.”

He explained that the Rocky Mount club was playing in Goldsboro, there was a large crowd from Rocky Mount down for the game including the late Mr. H.L. Holden and his two daughters, Genevieve and Kewpie (now Mrs. Doug Hackney of Wilson and Mrs. William L. Thorpe of this city). Mr. Holden came up to Mr. Johnston, in excitement, to explain that somebody needed to come quickly to the sample room of the Kennon Hotel as “Thorpe was about to whip the Goldsboro police force, and somebody that knew him needed to intervene before blows were struck and real trouble started.”

Mr. Johnston recounted what he witnessed next.

“You could imagine a fellow of my build taking on that giant, and I shook in my boots and wondered what I could do as I hurried to the hotel,” said Mr. Johnston. “I found a sizeable row going on, with the Goldsboro police insisting he was under arrest for some minor offense, and Thorpe saying he was’t going, and they couldn’t take him. That ended it for the Indian and despite the called up police reinforcements not one of them laid hands on him.”

Next came the confidence.

“When I entered, I explained that I was secretary of the club and I wanted to know the trouble. When Thorpe recognized me, the fury in his face disappeared. He quieted down and explained that he thought they were trying to keep him out of the afternoon ball game, and he wasn’t going to let them do that, and that he would take orders from me and not from them,” explained Mr. Johnston.

Questioned on the matter of salary paid to Thorpe, Mr. Johnston explained that he did not recall the figure, but he was sure that it included his board and lodging and that he was under the impression that it was something like $12.50 or perhaps $15 a week, certainly during his first season, although there might have been a raise his second year.

In recounting this, Mr. Johnston said it illustrated Thorpe’s determination in matters that be thought his duty and the spirit to give his best endeavor in anything that he undertook.

“It was that spirit that helped in winning the pennant that year,” he concluded.

Editor’s note: E. G. Johnston Sr., retired tobacconist, was secretary of the team on which Thorpe played.

A CAPTIVATING STORY-TELLER

By MRS. THOMAS A. COOPER

I remember Jim Thorpe well, because he was one of four ball players who roomed at my house, 332 Western Ave., where I still live. I recall that he paid five dollars a month for his room.

I don’t remember much about him as a ball player because I wasn’t a fan. But I can tell you other things about him that most people probably never heard about.

He liked to sit out on my porch in the evenings with other ball players. They would talk and tell stories, and Jim would sort of take over the conversation.

Neighbors would stop by to listen. Often, there would be as many as 15 people on the porch listening to his stories.

Maybe half of those stories were made up, but they were certainly interesting.

He was big and strong; a powerful man. During those nights on the porch, he liked to participate in friendly tests of strength. I remember he could grab a man by the wrist with just two fingers and force him to his knees.

Jim was a quiet man, except maybe when he had a few drinks. Once when the team was in Raleigh, he had been drinking a little, and he met a policeman trying to take a big woman to jail. She didn’t want to go. She wouldn’t walk and they couldn’t drag her. Jim offered to lend a hand, and he picked up the woman in his arms and carried her to jail.

He was popular with all the ball fans, but everybody liked him. He was so friendly and easy going. He had a wonderful heart in him, too. When anybody needed help, he would give them anything he had. He wasn’t a well-to-do man, but he would share what he had with you. I remember seeing him give money to street beggars when he had to wear ragged clothes himself.

My husband, Tom Cooper, was a real baseball fan. He never missed a game, and he was crazy about Jim Thorpe. Everybody was. Jim Thorpe was a good man, and he couldn’t have deserved some of the unfortunate things that happened to him later.

Editor’s note: Belle Cooper was Jim Thorpe’s landlady when he played baseball in Rocky Mount.

RECEIVING WORLD ACCLAIM

By JOSH L. HORNE

The incident in Jim Thorpe’s life that impressed me most during his stay with the Rocky Mount baseball club in 1909 and a part of 1910 in the then Eastern Carolina league, was the earnestness of purpose in anything that was assigned him.

I am confident that it was this trait that led to his acclaim in late years as one of the greatest athletes to ever participate in the Olympics, and to have won national acclaim as an All-American from a college football team that has never before or since won recognition, as happens to be the case with the Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, Penn.

Thorpe arrived in Rocky Mount looking for a place to play baseball, and his companion was a fellow Indian student of Carlisle by the name of Youngdeer who played left field. There was a third student who was given a tryout but was found without baseball ability, and he soon left the club.

The mission by Thorpe was truly that of “wanting to play baseball” and I have heard that he was signed for $50 a month and his board. That in so doing he was earning a status of “a professional” probably never occurred to the fellow, and even had it been the case he had no way of knowing as to his ability at that time or that he would ever receive world acclaim.

Editor’s note: Josh Horne was the Telegram’s longtime publisher.