Best college football players of all time from every state

Oklahoma – Jim Thorpe

Jim Thorpe, an absolute legend of the sporting world, was one of the best all-around athletes in the world of early popular sport in the United States. A baseball player, football player and track-and-field athlete, Thorpe’s career started in his home state of Oklahoma.

A native of Oklahoma and tailback at Carlisle Indian School, Thorpe put on a show in college football early on in the sports’ history, against all the odds in the world, Thorpe rose from his situation and into the record books in just about every sport he played, including college football.

Thorpe was an All-American in both 1911 and 1912, putting on one impressive performance after another. In his most famed game, Thorpe would go on to lead Carlisle to an 18-15 upset of Harvard, scoring every single point in the competition for a Carlisle team that would finish 11-1 behind Thorpe’s athleticism and skill.

The Carlisle Indian school would go on to win the national championship, basically for the sole reason that no one was able to stop the speedy, strong Thorpe, who would become synonymous for athleticism. Over the course of his career, he proved there was nothing he couldn’t do on a football field, baseball diamond or Olympic track (including coach!).