Today’s card of the day is a 1933 Sport Kings card of Jim Thorpe. 1933 Sport Kings is a diverse multi-sport set; it includes such “sports” as billiards and aviation. Three of the 48 cards are football cards: Thorpe, Red Grange, and Knute Rockne. All three are rookie cards.
Thorpe is another NFL player (see my previous three articles) who was also an Olympic athlete. He won gold medals in both the pentathlon and decathlon in Stockholm in 1912. In 1913, the International Olympic Committee took Thorpe’s medals away when they learned that he had played minor league baseball (and thus had been a professional athlete) before participating in the Olympics. In 1982, his family succeeded in having his medals restored.
Thorpe played twelve seasons of pro football and was a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963. He also played six seasons of Major League Baseball. You can see two of his non-football cards on the Gallery’s Cards in Multiple Sports page.
Thorpe appears on a few more football cards in the Gallery, as well.
This looks like a reprint?
No, it’s an original.