On November 20th, Bob Reising and Doug Noverr will present a talk entitled “Balancing, Straightening and Refocusing the Picture of Jim Thorpe.”

Jim Thorpe was a Native American athlete who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics, winning both the pentathlon and the decathlon. King Gustav of Sweden, the Olympic host country, called Thorpe "the greatest athlete in the world." Thorpe's gold medals were taken away, however, on the charge that two summers of minor league baseball play made him a professional athlete and therefore ineligible to compete. Thorpe went on to play Major League Baseball and in the National Football League, becoming the NFL's first president. Thirty years after his death, his Olympic medals were reinstated.

The lecture will take place at 7 pm on Michigan State University's campus, in Spartan Rooms B & C of the International Center.