Wa-Tho-Huk

 The Associated Press named him the "greatest athlete" from the first 50 years of the 20th century,

Thorpe's parents were both of mixed-race ancestry. His father, Hiram Thorpe, had an Irish father and a Sac and Fox Indian mother.

 His mother, Charlotte Vieux, had a French father and a Potawatomi mother, a descendant of Chief Louis Vieux. He was raised as a Sac and Fox,  and his native name, Wa-Tho-Huk, translated as "path lit by great flash of lightning" or, more simply, "Bright Path".

 As was the custom for Sac and Fox, he was named for something occurring around the time of his birth, in this case the light brightening the path to the cabin where he was born.



 King Gustav said, "You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world", to which Thorpe replied, "Thanks, King".
________

Future President Dwight Eisenhower, who played against him that season, recalled of Thorpe in a 1961 speech:


"Here and there, there are some people who are supremely endowed. My memory goes back to Jim Thorpe. 

He never practiced in his life, and he could do anything better than any other football player I ever saw."

_______

 Considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports, he won Olympic gold medals in the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon, and played American football (collegiate and professional), professional baseball, and basketball. 

He lost his Olympic titles after it was found he had been paid for playing two seasons of semi-professional baseball before competing in the Olympics, thus violating the amateurism rules that were then in place. 

In 1983, 30 years after his death, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) restored his Olympic medals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Thorpe