Speaker 1: Something you should go Something you should know is brought
Speaker 1: to you by Genesisgoldira dot com. That's also something you
Speaker 1: should know. You can put your retirement plan. I'm the
Speaker 1: gold Standard. Learn more and get a free Gold and
Speaker 1: Silver guide at Genesis gooldr dot com. Excited to have
Speaker 1: Chris Air join us today and we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about Jim Thorpe, lit by Lightning. This premiered on the
Speaker 1: History Channel earlier this week. It's available online right now,
Speaker 1: and let's talk about this. How in the world did
Speaker 1: you get interested in this topic? To start with, Chris.
Speaker 2: Well, I think as far back as I can remember,
Speaker 2: I heard the name Jim Thorpe, and I'll never forget
Speaker 2: my grandfather, who was born in the eighteen nineties, and
Speaker 2: I remember growing up in the seventies it was just
Speaker 2: one of those known things that when we talked about sports,
Speaker 2: we regarded Jim Thorpe as the greatest athlete ever. And
Speaker 2: I'll never forget in grade school hearing the story about
Speaker 2: the guy who found shoes in a trash can that
Speaker 2: he used because his shoes had been stolen at the Olympics,
Speaker 2: and he took this mismatched two shoes and put them
Speaker 2: on from the trash can and he runs in the
Speaker 2: race and he wins the gold medal in the decathlon.
Speaker 2: And that was kind of one of those indelible stories
Speaker 2: that I was told in grade school where I said,
Speaker 2: who is this guy? And years later, you know, as
Speaker 2: an adult, I'd find that, you know, he was Sakam
Speaker 2: Fox Indian, that his name was Jim Thorpe, and he
Speaker 2: was regarded as the greatest athlete ever.
Speaker 1: It's an amazing story. And there's an image that is
Speaker 1: just a famous image of him standing there with two
Speaker 1: different colored shoes. What a crazy story, that's right.
Speaker 2: One of the shoes was the different size. Not only
Speaker 2: were they mismatched shoes, but he used extra socks to
Speaker 2: actually make the shoe fit properly. And you know, if
Speaker 2: that's not a story of creativity and perseverance to win,
Speaker 2: then I don't know what is.
Speaker 1: So how long did it take to put this together?
Speaker 1: And where do you even get started on a project
Speaker 1: like this?
Speaker 2: Well, it probably took, like most projects like this, a
Speaker 2: year and a half or so. You know, from the
Speaker 2: time that we started talking about it. Lebron James who
Speaker 2: the Goat, and Maverick Carter and History Channel approached me
Speaker 2: and said, hey, would I be interested? And as a
Speaker 2: Native American I'm Southern Cheyenne and a rappa hooe filmmaker,
Speaker 2: I said, where do I sign up? You know, Jim
Speaker 2: Thorpe is somebody that I'd always known about, and then
Speaker 2: when I started to look into you know, the specificity
Speaker 2: of the stories and the history with our team and
Speaker 2: archives and historians and interviewees, you know, it just became
Speaker 2: a whole different dynamic for me, which is who was
Speaker 2: the man behind all these great achievements. His achievements stand
Speaker 2: in the record books and you can compare him and
Speaker 2: I think most of the time, including the Associated Press
Speaker 2: in two thousand, people come up with he was the
Speaker 2: greatest athlete ever.
Speaker 1: Again, Jim Thorpe lit by Lightning. It premiered on the
Speaker 1: History Channel on Monday, and if folks missed it Monday,
Speaker 1: they can catch it in streaming as well.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, it's be streaming on History in the future.
Speaker 2: I'm sure it'll be available wider and more places as
Speaker 2: time goes on.
Speaker 1: Here, So, as you're doing a project like this, what
Speaker 1: is a process like Are there people around today who
Speaker 1: knew Jim Thorpe or what does it even look like
Speaker 1: to do a project like this.
Speaker 2: I think the easier part was getting the factual elements together,
Speaker 2: getting the antidotes together, the people recall that are part
Speaker 2: of the public persona, and then the harder part is
Speaker 2: diving into who this person might have been, who they were.
Speaker 2: And that's really where I get turned on by a story,
Speaker 2: which is, you know, what made him run, what made
Speaker 2: him win? And as I look back on his story,
Speaker 2: you know, people can relate to where he grew up
Speaker 2: in his circumstance. He was born in eighteen eighty seven
Speaker 2: in Oklahoma. He was raised on the Sack of Fox
Speaker 2: Indian Reservation. By age nine, his twin brother had died
Speaker 2: of pneumonia. He didn't have an easy easy time as
Speaker 2: a young person. Both of his parents passed away by
Speaker 2: the time he was eleven, and he was carted off
Speaker 2: to Indian boarding school, first Haskell in Kansas, and he
Speaker 2: ran away multiple times back home to Oklahoma, and then
Speaker 2: eventually he was taken to Carlisle, Pennsylvania because he couldn't
Speaker 2: run away, and he stayed there until he found athletics.
Speaker 2: And that was really that changing point in his life
Speaker 2: where I think he found something that he could put
Speaker 2: himself into, potentially that anger. There was bias and racism
Speaker 2: certainly the time, and he needed something and I think
Speaker 2: sports probably saved him when he got to Haskell at
Speaker 2: age eleven.
Speaker 1: Chris, thank you so much for taking the time to chat.
Speaker 1: We appreciate it, sir, Thank you, and I hope people
Speaker 1: enjoy the show absolutely. Jim Thorpe lit by Lightning. It
Speaker 1: premiered on the History Channel Monday, and you can watch
Speaker 1: it now online on History dot com. Something you Should Know.
Speaker 1: Something you Should Know is brought to you by Genesisgoldra
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