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Doing Thorpe's Legacy Proud
Published: 9/29/2009 4:08 PM
Last Modified: 9/29/2009 4:08 PM

I always wanted to do this story: How many current athletes are descendants of Oklahoma-born Jim Thorpe, reputed to be the greatest athlete who ever lived.
The master plan was to visit with Grace Thorpe, Jim’s daughter, and have her help me trace the family tree to see if there are a bunch of Thorpe kinfolk who score touchdowns, make baskets and hit home runs for their high school or college teams.
I talked with Grace Thorpe on a couple of occasions (visited her once in the hospital), but we never got around to the big project and she passed away in 2008.
Just recently, I stumbled onto a Thorpe descendant without intending to do so. Former Pawnee basketball player Caleb Tiger is a cancer survivor. He was presented the Larry Brummett Courage Award at a Tulsa Sports Charities dinner Monday night.
Tiger belongs to seven tribes, but he usually just says he is Pawnee and Sac & Fox. Thorpe was Sac & Fox. Tiger said he is related to Thorpe and said they are both from the Sac & Fox’s Thunder clan.
George Thurman, principal chief of the Sac and Fox Nation, was among dignitaries seated at a table purchased by the tribe. Tiger’s father, Randall, was seated at the table as well.
Tiger’s mother, father and tribes should be proud of how the kid handled himself when he accepted the courage award. He told a story about how he checked into a state tournament game and had no fear because the score was lopsided and the outcome had been decided. He pointed to the parallels between his life and that game.
“No matter what life brings, I’ve already won,” he said. “That’s the best way to live.”
Three Baseball Hall of Famers -- Goose Gossage, Lou Brock and Rollie Fingers -- signed autographs at the banquet where Tiger received his award. Tiger's father called to tell me the Hall of Famers asked for Caleb's autograph.


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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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