A little over a century ago, Jim Thorpe was the most famous professional football player in America and one of the greatest athletes in the world. As a member of the professional Canton Bulldogs starting in 1915, Thorpe won several unofficial football championships and helped increase the popularity of the sport. An Oklahoma native who was of Native American descent, the 6-foot-1, 202-pound Thorpe was fast, strong, and versatile – excellent at passing, catching, tackling, kicking, and punting. He was named the first president of the NFL when it was established in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association. Thorpe, who was elected into the Hall of Fame’s inaugural class in 1963, 10 years after his death, also won gold medals at the 1912 Olympics and played Major League Baseball for 6 seasons. In 1950, Thorpe was voted by sportswriters as both the greatest athlete and the greatest American football player of the first half of the 20th century.