I became aware of this postcard years ago from Dan Hitt while he was at Beckett. It pre-dates the Sport Kings rookie by 11 years. I've only seen an image of the other one.
It's postally used and the back has some historical significance. It confirms the Oorang Indians franchise story as the guy wrote about buying a dog (Airedale) from Jim Thorpe. Jim split his duties as player coach and managing the kennel.
It appears that Thorpe signed (its in fountain pen) the front and personalized a message on the back. Unfortunately, the "authority" wouldn't authenticate the signature. But I think since signatures vary you have to look at more than slant, pressure,etc. The post card came from central Ohio pick (near Larue, Ohio) from an 70+ year antique dealer who had 5700 positive Feedbacks. So, I believe the provenance of coming from a box of postcards that he found in Marion, Ohio. If you look at the back the M is a dead ringer for the capital M's on the 1920s Thorpe love letters that were auctioned years ago. Also, the 1950s book Fabulous Redman that has a signature that was authenticated has a similar phrase that's on the postcard. Steinbeck offered best wishes to a person on the inside cover and Thorpe countersigned it "Me too Jim Thorpe". The person who bought the dog sent it to a person in the hospital and Jim Thorpe put a personal message "Me Too Sick, J. T." The dog cost $2050 in today's dollars( an NFL franchise cost $100). I don't believe someone else would have signed it if they dropped $2k on a dog and they certainly wouldn't have written on the back. Anyway I'm extremely happy with the postcard. And one could argue it's his NFL rookie. The only thing that could top this is a Canton Bulldog Thorpe card/postcard. Well here is an image of the front and back.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0...WRsNmJaT2ctbEU
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0...TlGbzlMS0hDaWs
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk