Review: Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team

Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team by Steve Sheinkin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am not a fan of football, in fact I am one of those people that think it should be outlawed due to the seriousness of the injuries sustained by so many. Don't even get me started on how I feel about football for children...
However, I wanted to read this book because of my new fascination with the Carlisle Indian School. I would have been thrilled to have even more information about the school, but my knowledge has definitely increased having read this book.

One thing I found interesting was the disparity of living standards between the athletes and the rest of the residents of the school. The school was entirely maintained by the students. Students were required to work in addition to their studies. However, the athletes did not. They had better food, better accommodations, and easier work schedules.... Interesting how some things have been the same since the beginning.
The way these athletes were treated because of their race was astounding and somewhat horrific. Sometimes it is easy to forget that the Political Correctness of our time is a relatively new thing.
The book reads like a novel, you get so involved in the characters that you can forget that these are real people who lived. Most of all this was a book about Jim Thorpe, his drive and his total athleticism that was so astounding. I was fascinated by him and this will not be the last book I read about his life in spite of my distaste for football!

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