Thread: Jim Thorpe
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Old 03-28-2016, 09:40 AM
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John
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Mike, great idea for a thread! Love the Shoe-Steel program - what a great piece of history.

I looked up this game in Home & Away - it was a big deal for Portsmouth to play in the “big city”. Becker documented that Creasy was looking for a tougher game (apparently they had played a soft schedule to date). The Guards offered 37% of the gate and the Steels took it and started “loading up” (common practice of signing ringers for big games). One of the players signed was Russell Hathway who had played for the Maroons and Bisons in the NFL. The Norfolk and Western ran an excursion train to Cincinnati. There is no exact attendance figure, but one newspaper estimated at 5-7 thousand which may have been a Redland stadium record. (As your article shows, the Cincinatti newspapers definitely played up Thorpe's appearance - Becker mentioned "fathers last chance to take their sons see the great Jim Thorpe.") Portsmouth lost the game 19-12, but this was one of the games Thorpe was healthy for as we know he threw a touchdown pass. No other game stats were provided in the book.

Last edited by TanksAndSpartans; 03-28-2016 at 09:54 AM.
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