On this day in sports history

On January 26, 1913, Jim Thorpe relinquished his 1912 Olympic medals for being a professional athlete. He'd won gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon. Unfortunately, prior to that, he'd received something on the order of $35 a week to play baseball in the Eastern Carolina League in 1909 and 1910. He did all right for himself after that, becoming one of football's first superstars, even after playing some major-league baseball. He was the Bo Jackson of his day, I suppose. Regardless, there wasn't nearly as much money in baseball OR football in those days as there is today, and he died broke in 1953.

For the record, Thorpe played one season (1921) with the Cleveland Tigers of the American Professional Football Association, which now goes by the name National Football League. He also played for the Canton Bulldogs, in the days when football was pretty much confined to western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio.

In any case, it's amazing how much things have changed in less than a century. Anyone remember how the "Dream Team" breezed through the Barcelona Olympics in 1992? That team actually had one player (Christian Laettner) who hadn't played professionally. I haven't taken the time to check this, but I'm pretty sure no U.S. Olympic basketball team has had a single amateur since then.

Thorpe's medals were reinstated in 1982, nearly three decades after he was alive enough to enjoy it. Why anybody ever gave a crap if an Olympic athlete had received a few bucks to play sports beforehand is beyond me.