Tortured life of world's greatest athlete - CNN.com

Tortured life of world's greatest athlete

By Bob Greene, CNN Contributor

August 1, 2010 9:21 a.m. EDT

Jim Thorpe throws the discus on his way to winning both the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Jim Thorpe was an Olympic medallist, a Hall of Fame football player and a baseball player
• Bob Greene says the life of the "world's greatest athlete" was difficult
• He says towns vied to host his grave and the winner changed the name of the town to honor Thorpe
• Now Thorpe's son is seeking to return his remains to Oklahoma

Editor's note: CNN Contributor Bob Greene is a best-selling author whose books include "Late Edition: A Love Story" and "When We Get to Surf City: A Journey Through America in Pursuit of Rock and Roll, Friendship, and Dreams."

(CNN) -- The question is not just whether Jim Thorpe, in death, will ever be allowed to rest in peace.

The question is whether he ever managed to find true peace while he was alive.

Thorpe, the Native American from rural Oklahoma who in the early years of the 20th century became the greatest athlete in the world, died in 1953. He is back in the news because one of his sons, Jack Thorpe, 73, is waging a legal battle to have his body removed from where it is buried in Pennsylvania and sent back to Oklahoma.

"I want to see him put away properly," the son recently told reporter John Branch of The New York Times. "I want him put where he wanted to be."

Jim Thorpe is buried in the town of Jim Thorpe, Tortured life of world's greatest athlete - CNN.com