American LEVELED BOOK • W Sports Legends a Reading A–Z Level W Leveled Book American Word Count: 2,361 Sports Legends
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American LEVELED BOOK • W Sports Legends A Reading A–Z Level W Leveled Book American Word Count: 2,361 Sports legends Written by Jeffrey B. Fuerst Visit www.readinga-z.com www.readinga-z.com for thousands of books and materials. Photo Credits: Front cover, back cover, title page, page 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 13, 16: © Bettmann/ Corbis; pages 3, 17: © AP Images; page 7: © Underwood & Underwood/ Bettmann/Corbis; page 10: courtesy of Library of Congress (LOC)/New York World Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Collection [LC-USZ62-113277]; American page 11: courtesy of LOC/New York World Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Collection [LC-USZ62-113281]; page 14: © REUTERS; page 15: courtesy of LOC/National Photo Company Collection [LC-USZ62-102418]; page 18: © The Sports legends Granger Collection, NYC; page 19: © Rob Schumacher/The Arizona Republic/ AP Images; page 21: © INTERFOTO/Alamy; page 22: © Rue des Archives/ The Granger Collection, NYC Front cover: Jackie Robinson Back cover: Jesse Owens set the long jump record at the Berlin Olympic Games in1936. His record held for twenty-five years. American Sports Legends Level W Leveled Book Mildred Didrikson Zaharias © Learning A–Z Correlation ISBN 1-59827-871-1 LEVEL W Written by Jeffrey B. Fuerst Written by Jeffrey B. Fuerst Fountas & Pinnell S All rights reserved. Reading Recovery 40 www.readinga-z.com www.readinga-z.com DRA 40 Jim Thorpe Jesse Owens The Greatest Athlete of the 20th Century: Jim Thorpe (1887–1953) Table of Contents Who would you say was the greatest athlete The Greatest Athlete of the 20th Century: from the last century? Soccer’s Pele? Basketball’s Jim Thorpe . 4 Michael Jordan? Hockey’s Wayne Gretzky? Jim Turns Pro . 8 Good choices . These record-setting superstars The Other Babe: revolutionized their sports and deserve to be in Mildred Didrikson Zaharias . 10 the running for that No . 1 spot . But the athlete No Game She Can’t Play . 12 named the greatest of the great was Jim Thorpe, Baseball’s Most Daring Player: a Native American born in Oklahoma in 1887 . Jackie Robinson . 14 He played professional baseball, was the biggest The Fastest Man: Jesse Owens . 20 football star of his day, and performed legendary An Olympian for Eternity . 21 feats in track and field . Glossary . 24 Let’s go back to 1912, to Stockholm, Sweden, Index . 24 during the Summer Olympic Games . American Sports Legends • Level W 3 4 The Native American runner from the Sac and Before he Fox tribes crouches at the starting line for the Olympic appeared at 200-meter dash. It’s the third event of five in the the Summer grueling pentathlon. “On your mark,” calls the starter. Olympics “Get set . .” of 1912, Jim Thorpe was Jim Thorpe bursts out of the blocks. He had already already a scored an easy victory in the long jump, but had placed well-known a disappointing fourth in the javelin throw. I need college football this race, he thinks as he sprints down the track. star . As an But, running his hardest, it seems he just can’t pull All-American ahead of the other runners—until the last moment. At halfback from the finish line, Jim Thorpe wins by a hair! Carlisle Indian College in Pennsylvania, Jim Thorpe poses in football uniform. he thrilled crowds with his blinding speed and strength . He could just as easily run over would-be tacklers as run past them . He was also his team’s punter and place kicker . Thorpe starred on the school’s baseball and basketball teams, too . He excelled in golf, tennis, swimming, and just about any sport he tried . At the 1912 Olympics, Thorpe represented the United States in the two toughest track-and-field events: the pentathlon (five events) and the decathlon (ten events) . Jim Thorpe throws the shot put. American Sports Legends • Level W 5 6 Jim Turns Pro Do You Know? After the Olympics, Jim was famous the world The difficult Olympic over . He received a letter of congratulations from athletics pentathlon and decathlon required a variety the White House . Professional sports teams offered of skills. The combination of him rich contracts . He turned them down to return events tested an athlete’s to Carlisle to play one more season of college all-around ability. football . He scored twenty-five touchdowns and Pentathlon events: long jump, made a total of 198 points . He married his college javelin, discus, 200-meter girlfriend, too . What a year! run, 1,500-meter run Decathlon events: 100-meter Then, in 1913, run, long jump, high jump, he became a shot put, 400-meter run, 110- professional meter hurdles, discus, javelin, baseball player pole vault, 1,500-meter run Jim Thorpe in the long jump with the famous New York Giants . Over the span of a few days, Jim Thorpe He was great at achieved the unimaginable . He won four of the swinging a bat, five events in the pentathlon, set a world record and his superior for the decathlon, and won the gold medal strength and in both events—amazing! No one in Olympic speed also made him great at covering the outfield . history had done this before Jim, and no one has done it since . Although Jim was good at baseball, he preferred football . In 1915, when professional When King Gustav V of Sweden called Jim football was just getting started, Jim joined the to the awards stand to get his medals, he said, Canton (Ohio) Bulldogs . He led his team to three “You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world .” championships: in 1916, 1917, and 1919—while Always a man of few words, Jim replied, also playing baseball in the summer months . “Thanks, King .” American Sports Legends • Level W 7 8 The Other Babe: Do You Know? Mildred Didrikson Zaharias (1911–1956) James Francis Thorpe’s Indian name, Wa-Tho-Huk, Jim Thorpe may have been named the means “bright path.” Jim greatest athlete of the 20th century . But sports- certainly lit up playing loving female fans might also consider another fields wherever he went. all-around candidate . Mildred “Babe” Didrikson His all-around athletic ability is said to have was an all-around athlete who dominated come from his mastery women’s basketball, track and field, and golf of traditional Native in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s . Her nickname was American skills as a boy. borrowed from baseball’s famous Babe Ruth . She In his later years, Thorpe was a serious, rough-and-tumble competitor at a championed the portrayal time when women, even athletes, were expected of Native American roles Jim Thorpe in 1932, dressed in in films. traditional ceremonial regalia to be modest and ladylike . Babe Didrikson was born in Texas in 1911, the In 1920, Jim became the first president of the sixth of seven children . In high school, she was American Football Association, which later a standout in volleyball, became the National Football League . One of his baseball, swimming, goals was to make the game more popular . To tennis, and especially excite the fans at halftime, Jim would stand at basketball, the most the fifty-yard line and drop-kick a ball over the popular women’s sport of goalposts . Then he would face the other direction the time . Her high-school and do it again! team never lost a game . Never . She often scored Today, a statue of Jim Thorpe greets visitors thirty points by herself to the Football Hall of Fame . It is a tribute to when twenty was the founding father of professional football and considered a respectable its first true star, the greatest athlete of the total—for the whole team! 20th century . Babe shoots freethrows. American Sports Legends • Level W 9 10 No Game She Can’t Play Babe’s real fame was yet to come, and in a different sport: golf . Although Babe didn’t pick up a club until age twenty-three, she practiced her swing with focus and determination . She would hit one thousand balls a day, taping over blisters that formed on her hands . Just a year later, in 1935, she won her first championship . In the next twenty years, Babe won eighty-two Babe Didrikson, right, smashed another world record when she sprinted the 80-meter hurdles in 11.7 seconds. tournaments, including an astonishing seventeen in a row in 1946 and 1947 . She helped found the Babe’s interests shifted to track and field . LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Association) A firm believer in strength training, Babe lifted in 1950 . weights, which few women did at that time . In 1953, while at the top of her game, Babe was Babe’s serious workouts and natural abilities diagnosed with cancer . Following an operation, paid off at a national track meet in July 1932 . She her doctors thought she would never play again . entered eight events and won five . What’s even Only a few weeks later, she was back on the more astonishing is that she single-handedly pro tour . won the meet, competing against teams with twenty members . It is the 18th hole of the Servin Women’s Open Tournament in Miami Beach. Babe Didrikson’s A few weeks later at the Summer Olympics, booming first shot lies in the center of the fairway. Babe won gold medals and set world records She takes out a 5-iron and smacks the ball. It soars in the 80-meter hurdles, javelin, and high jump . high and straight before landing on the green. Babe Now a celebrity, Babe drew attention to women’s pulls back her putter and sinks the ball.