Did Wilt Chamberlain, hailing from Philly, emerge as the best athlete in the world despite the war era?

Did Wilt Chamberlain, hailing from Philly, emerge as the best athlete in the world despite the war era?

Only a few chosen guys have ever been named the world’s “greatest athlete” in sports history. Without a doubt, Jim Thorpe was the best athlete in the world throughout the early part of the 20th century. Thorpe, a Native American from the Sac and Fox tribe in what is now Oklahoma, has never had an athletic record surpassed. At the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden, Thorpe won both the five-event and ten-event pentathlons in track and field. “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world,” King Gustav V praised Thorpe at the prize ceremony after the 5th Modern Olympiad.

As a running back, defensive back, kicker, and punter for the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Thorpe was named a consensus All-American in football three times. In his 12-year professional career, Thorpe was a member of six teams, the first president of the American Professional Football Association (later renamed the NFL), and a member of the NFL Hall of Fame’s (1920s) All-Decade Team. Thorpe was inducted into the College Track and Field Hall of Fame, the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, the NCAA Football Hall of Fame, and the NFL Hall of Fame, in honor of his accomplishments in football and track and field.

Thorpe was inducted into the College Track and Field Hall of Fame, the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, the NCAA Football Hall of Fame, and the NFL Hall of Fame, in honor of his accomplishments in football and track and field. Apart from football and track, Thorpe participated in two professional basketball seasons (1927–1929), six seasons (1913–1919) of Major League Baseball as an outfielder with the New York Giants, Cincinnati Reds, and Boston Braves, and contemplated playing professional hockey in 1913 for the Tecumseh Hockey Club in Toronto, Canada. And lastly, a little-known detail about Thorpe: