Editing Jim Thorpe (section)

===Controversy===
In 1912, [[Olympic Games#Amateurism and professionalism|strict rules]] regarding [[Amateur sports|amateurism]] were in effect for athletes participating in the Olympics. Athletes who received money prizes for competitions, were sports teachers, or had competed previously against professionals, were not considered amateurs. They were barred from competition.{{Sfn|Buford|2012|p=121}}

In late January 1913, the ''[[Worcester Telegram]]'' reported that Thorpe had played semi-professional baseball before the Olympics, and other U.S.&nbsp;newspapers followed up the story.<ref name="Flatter" /><ref>""Jim" Thorpe Admits He Is Professional, and Retires from Athletics", ''[[The Washington Post]]'', January 28, 1913, p. 8. "Charges that Thorpe had played professional baseball in Winston Salem, N.C. were first published in a Worcester (Mass.) newspaper last week."</ref> Thorpe had played semi-professional baseball in the [[Eastern Carolina League]] for [[Rocky Mount, North Carolina]], in 1909 and 1910, receiving meager pay; reportedly as little as US$2 (${{Inflation|US|2|1910|r=0|fmt=c}} today) per game and as much as US$35 (${{Inflation|US|35|1910|r=0|fmt=c}} today) per week.<ref name="Anderson" /> College players, in fact, regularly spent summers playing professionally in order to earn some money, but most used aliases, unlike Thorpe.<ref name="CNN" /> Although the public did not seem to care much about Thorpe's past,{{Sfn|Schaffer|Smith|2000|p=50}} the [[Amateur Athletic Union]] (AAU), and especially its secretary [[James Edward Sullivan]], took the case very seriously.{{Sfn|Schaffer|Smith|2000|p=40}}

Thorpe wrote a letter to Sullivan, in which he admitted playing professional baseball:<ref name="Flatter" />

{{blockquote|I hope I will be partly excused by the fact that I was simply an Indian schoolboy and did not know all about such things. In fact, I did not know that I was doing wrong, because I was doing what I knew several other college men had done, except that they did not use their own names&nbsp;...}}

His letter did not help.{{Sfn|Buford|2012|p=161}} The AAU decided to withdraw Thorpe's amateur status retroactively.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Campagna |first=Jeff |date=May 28, 2010 |title=Wishing Jim Thorpe a Happy Birthday |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/wishing-jim-thorpe-a-happy-birthday-133250524/ |access-date=May 11, 2017 |magazine=Smithsonian}}</ref> Later that year, the [[International Olympic Committee]] (IOC) unanimously decided to [[List of stripped Olympic medals|strip]] Thorpe of his Olympic titles, medals and awards, and declare him a professional.{{Sfn|Buford|2012|p=167}}<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Thomas |first=Louisa |date=July 29, 2016 |title=Doping and an Olympic Crisis of Idealism |url=http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/doping-and-an-olympic-crisis-of-idealism |access-date=May 11, 2017 |magazine=The New Yorker}}</ref>{{Sfn|Quirk|2014|p=42}}

Although Thorpe had played for money, the AAU and IOC did not follow their own rules for disqualification. The rulebook for the 1912&nbsp;Olympics stated that protests had to be made "within 30&nbsp;days from the closing ceremonies of the games."<ref name="usoc" /> The first newspaper reports did not appear until January 1913, about six months after the Stockholm Games had concluded.<ref name="usoc" /> There is also some evidence that Thorpe was known to have played semi-professional baseball before the Olympics, but the AAU had ignored the issue until being confronted with it in 1913.{{Sfn|Buford|2012|p=162}}{{Sfn|Dyreson|1998|p=171}} The only positive aspect of this affair for Thorpe was that, as soon as the news was reported that he had been declared a professional, he received offers from professional sports clubs.{{Sfn|Rendell|2004|p=60}}