From “Jim Thorpe: Lit by Lightning.”
“You know, we’ve advanced so far that we sometimes forget who our underdog heroes were, and he was one of the greatest Americans that ever lived because of what he embodied and what he did for Native people and for all Americans.”
This is Chris Eyre, speaking about the documentary Jim Thorpe: Lit by Lightning.
Considered to be one of the greatest and most versatile athletes of modern sports, Thorpe was the United States’ first Native American Olympic gold medalist.
Born on the Sac and Fox Nation reservation in central Oklahoma, Thorpe grew up during a time when Native people were seen as threats to Western expansion.
Despite great odds and in opposition to anti-indigenous rhetoric, Thorpe developed an affinity for athletic endeavors, which would ultimately evolve him into a multisport powerhouse and symbol of the strength and perseverance of his Native peoples. In addition to his Olympic success, Thorpe became an invaluable athlete across baseball, football, basketball, and track-and-field.
Featuring narrated excerpts from Thorpe’s unpublished autobiography alongside thoughtful interviews from scholars and sports commentators, and innovative recreations, Jim Thorpe: Lit by Lightning offers an all-encompassing look into one of the most impressive athletes of the 20th century.
Eyre, who directed the piece says that, “The baseline for this documentary is a 101 course on Jim Thorpe, but then it goes further to really explain his amazing accomplishments amid the adversity he felt his whole life.”
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What makes his journey so unique, says Eyre, is that people admired Thorpe even though at the time he wasn’t a U.S. Citizen. “Native Americans weren’t even U.S. citizens until 1924 yet he was in the Olympics and was celebrated after the Olympics in Stockholm in 1912 with ticker tape parades where he bowed his head because he was embarrassed at the extremity of his popularity.”
He adds, “And so it was a different time because he wasn’t doing it for the money. He wasn’t doing it for the social media. He was doing it for the passion he had for competitive winning.”
Eyre points out that now, “we really need to look at our past heroes through a different lens. That’s what I think is new about this documentary that features someone who’s accomplishments occurred nearly a century ago. For me, it’s about the underdog who does these things for the right reasons. This is a person who made America great because of what he overcame.”
Pointing out just a small portion of Thorpe’s struggle, Eyre reveals that, “He lost both of his parents young. He lost his twin brother at nine years of age. He was taken to boarding school forcibly. He was disenfranchised from his tribe, and he channeled that, with no money and very little support, into a passion for sports.”
As a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, Eyre says that it’s privilege to tell Thorpe’s story.
“One of the reasons that I was attracted to this project was because I read an article that said, ‘Jim Thorpe had a tragic life,’ and that’s not the story. This is a telling about what I remember as a kid, which is that he ran with two mismatch shoes, and stuffed socks into one of the shoes to make it fit better, and that he won gold medals. And as a Native person, my lens is, ‘let’s talk about the good things and why we should know who this American is.’ That’s why I was excited to tell this story, so I do feel a certain obligation to tell stories from a Native lens, and that lens is just a little bit different from the regular lens, but the themes are still the same.”
With this film Eyre wants the public to know that, “Native people are alive and vibrant and complicated.”
He says that he’s always thought to himself, ‘Why aren’t there more television shows about Native American people?’
“So, I’ve been trying to make them for 20 years or so, and I just think that it’s important that these stories get out there.”
In addition to this, Eyre feels that,“It’s a great time for this to come out. I was reading a quote recently and it said, ‘we’re in the battle for the soul of our nation.’ You hear that and you start to realize we have always been about in a battle for the soul of our nation. So, it feels like it’s very important to look at where we’ve come from and not repeat the same mistakes. I think that that message is so important today, especially for young people.”
Summing up his thoughts, Eyre concludes, “What I really want people to recognize is that the greatness of this country comes from a myriad of people — Native American, African-American, White, Latino, just everyone. People worked really, really hard to build this country. People are always striving to get ahead, like Jim Thorpe, and he just never gave up. If everyone can be inspired by his perseverance, then all of his work and all of the work that went into making this documentary is all worth it.”
‘Jim Thorpe: Lit by Lightning’ airs on Monday, July 7th at 8/7c on the History Channel, and will be available for streaming the next day.
