Written by Bill Crawford

Reviewed by Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

James Francis Thorpe (1887-1953) was a member of the Sac and Fox Nation who became labeled as “The Best Athlete in the World” By King Gustav of Sweden after winning both the pentathlon and decathlon in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm. He was also a college and professional football player, first President of the NFL (1920) and if that weren’t enough, also played Major League Baseball, among many athletic achievements.

As a lifetime sports fan, the name of Jim Thorpe evoked victory, nostalgia, athletic triumph and unfair treatment by the powerful institutions of sports of the earlier parts of the 20th Century.

As an early fan of sports history, Thorpe caught my attention at a young age mainly because of his Olympic triumphs, and because he also played Major League Baseball, of which I was a big fan at the time. The more I read about this mysterious character, the more the legend of “the best athlete in the world” grew for me. Then, as an adult, you get your hands on a serious biographical text like this one and you get to delve into so much more. I knew he was involved in other sports activities but wasn’t aware of the extent of it. Well, now I am.

The book covers in detail the birth of amateur sports and how the entire concept became established. It was a way for the snobby British of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries to keep the working class from competing against them. To keep the riffraff away. It was not about being paid to compete or win, it was about having to work to make a living instead of dedicating your life to leisure and sports. This forces the question: who was the amateur and who was the pro? I have read other books where this is explained the same fashion, so I tend to believe the theory.

Jim Thorpe at the 1912 Olympics

Bill Crawford’s book should be a bonanza for football fans. Even though it was not his favorite sport, Thorpe was one of the great football players from the early days when the game was just getting established. It goes into plenty of detail on the evolution of the game, its main characters at the college and professional levels, both on and off the field. If you couldn’t care less about football, about sixty percent of this book may not be of your interest. I fall in that category but was able to make the best out of it just because I had so much interest on getting to know more about Mr. Thorpe.

His Olympic prowess and details of his participation at the Stockholm 1912 Olympics are covered in just one chapter. His participation in Major League Baseball is no more than anecdotal. His spectacular riise and fall are explained in detail, which is an important aspect of why his name became the historic figure we all know, today.

In summary, All American is a good book and if you are interested in learning about the man behind the myth, it will be money and time well spent. But if you are looking for a book about running, Olympic triumph and competition, this is not it.