Jim Thorpe Cards

I was just thinking about Jim Thorpe and the cards he has from his playing days and after and thought I would post a little about them.

There are several cards of Jim from the early years but many may not be well known.  Here are some of his more common cards.

This is Jim's 1933 Goudey Sport Kings card featuring Jim as a football player. 

On the back of this card it talks about Jim being born in Oklahoma in 1888 as part of the Sac and Fox Tribe.  He attended the Carlisle Indian School and excelled at all sports.

He was especially known for his prowess at football scoring 198 points in 1912. 

He also played baseball, basketball and track and won the decathlon and pentathlon in the Olympics. 

It's easy to see why Jim was considered a Sport King in this set. 

Another very common card for Jim is his 1955 Topps All American Football card.  This is one of my favorites of his just because of the image on the card.  It's a very powerful card.

 

This card features Jim in his Carlisle uniform suited up and ready for battle on the field.

 

There are a couple of cards of Jim during his playing days that command a decent premium these days.  One of these cards is his 1916 M101-5 Sporting News.  This is a wonderful card.

 

This card features Jim during his stint with the NY Giants in the National League.  There is another card showing Jim on the Giants that is very rarely seen.  It is the 1915 W-Unc strip card featured here.

 

 

This is one of my favorite Thorpe cards and I like the other cards from this obscure set as well. 

 

Another card that is very rare from his playing days is his Colgan's Chips Tin Tops card.  This is a very hard to find card that doesn't show up for sale very often at all.  The odd thing about this card is the fact that Jim's portrait is hand drawn instead of a photo like most of the other cards in the set. 

Are there any more cards from Jim's playing days?  Actually, yes, there is one more that depicts Jim in the Pacific Coast League after his career with the NY Giants.  Not everyone knows he played in the PCL but he did.

 

This card is Jim's 1922 Zeenut card when he was playing for Portland.

 

 

 

There are some other really cool cards of Jim out there as well.  Of course, Jim was an America Indian and he embraced his heritage.  So it isn't a surprise to see him on some cards in his Indian attire.

 

Here are three examples of some 1930's Exhibits in three different colors of Jim in his ceremonial head dress. 

 

 

While these aren't the easiest of exhibits to find, they also produced smaller strip cards of the same pose that are even harder to find. 

 

 

 

There is another variation of this strip card with the dotted lines on the bottom as well.

There is also a really cool post card that issued of Jim in the 1912 Olympics that can be found with a little searching.

And for good measure, I'll mention the card that was issued in 1959 in the Fleer Ted Williams set that pictures Jim along with Ted.

 

Then, although they aren't cards, how can you talk about Jim Thorpe cards without mentioning the stamps that were made in his honor as well.  Here are two beautiful postage stamps commemorating the greatest overall athlete.



Does that football pose look familiar?  It's the same image as on his 1955 Topps All American football card.

 

If you don't know much about Jim Thorpe, you should read a little about him.  He was an amazing athlete who was treated wrongly (in my opinion) after proving his amazing skills in the Olympics. 

 

Enjoy the hobby all...it's a great one.