15 greatest Olympians to appear on a Wheaties box

6. Jim Thorpe, Track & Field

Multi-sport great Jim Thorpe possesses one of the most unique legacies that the sports world has ever seen.

Thorpe was an all-american collegiate football player before embarking on a historic professional career in the NFL. He is a member of both the College and Pro Football Hall of Fames, and also tried his hand at baseball and basketball on the professional level.

Thorpe’s spot in athletics lore, however, was created largely by myth and legend due to the lack of official records from his Olympic career.

In his first and only Olympic appearance at the 1912 Summer Games in Stockholm Sweeden, Thorpe won gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon, setting a world record in latter. He returned from the games having added an Olympic championship to his prolific list of accolades, but a controversy put a damper on the achievement.

The Amateur Athletic Union filed a protest following the games after it was discovered that Thorpe had accepted money while playing minor league baseball prior to competing in the Olympics. Due to strict amateurism rules being in place at the time, this action caused Thorpe to forego his amateur eligibility status.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) elected to strip his medals and disqualify his world record as a result.

Although Thorpe’s forfeited amateur status drove the decision to take away his Olympic medals, it is widely-believed that his Native American heritage played a role as well. The IOC restored his Olympic records in 1983, long after he had passed away.

Thorpe was also posthumously given the honor of appearing on a Wheaties box cover in 2001.

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