State Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-122nd District, on March 13 introduced what has become an annual resolution to designate May 17 as Jim Thorpe Day in Pennsylvania.

The resolution, supported unanimously, has been done each year since the days of Heffley's predecessor, former House Rep. Keith McCall."It's something I do every year that I've been in office," he said.The special day ties in with Jim Thorpe Borough's annual birthday celebration in honor of the great athlete."The town of Jim Thorpe has done so much to honor the legacy of Jim Thorpe, the athlete and the man," Heffley said. "He was a tremendous athlete, who came from humble beginnings, had the odds stacked against him, but who was very successful."Heffley cited Thorpe's stellar athletic history in a March 4 memo to colleagues seeking their support for the resolution. Local state representatives who signed on to the bill are Jerry Knowles, R-124th; Julie Harhart, R-183; and Neal P. Goodman, D-123.Thorpe, born James Francis Thorpe on May 28, 1888, in Oklahoma, was a member of the Sac and Fox nation. He played football at the Carlisle Indian Industrial school, where he earned All-American honors in 1911 and 1912.Thorpe in 1912 participated in the Olympic Games in Stockholm, where he was the first American athlete to win the pentathlon and decathlon in one year.He went on to play baseball for the New York Giants, Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Braves. Thorpe coached and played football for the CantonBulldogs, serving as the American Professional football Association's first president. After retiring from football, he played professional basketball for two years.Thorpe's final resting place is in the borough which was named for him in 1954.He was posthumously inducted into the Football Hall of Fame, voted America's Greatest All-Around Athlete, and named ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Century.The Jim Thorpe Award was createdin 1986 for the bestdefensive back in college football.