Looking at today's sports it would be hard to guess that Native Americans had any type of influence on sports and recreation. The famous sports today make it hard to notice any type of culture mix other than a large debate about mascots. The larger and better known sports (football, baseball, basketball) all have hardly been influenced by Native Americans. Although, there are many ways the Native Americans have influenced recreaction we participate in and spectate today.
The little effect has usually come from elite athletes with a strong Native American background. Jim Thorpe was naturally athletic and excelled in every sport he participated in. His credentials are a perfect example; he was a 2 time college football All American for Carlisle
Pennsylvania. He also won many gold medals in the 1912 Olympics in the decathlon and pentathlon (Sports Experience, 1999)."Jim's contemporaries, including George Halas, give full credit to Jim
Thorpe for the great success, the early success, in the formative years of the NFL." once said by
Robert Wheeler. Another example is coach Phil Jackson (former Chicago Bulls head coach and present L.A. Lakers head coach), who used Native American superstition to improve the attitude of his players, including Michael Jordan (hall of famer), Kobe Bryant, and Shaq O’Neil. Coach Jackson used similar techniques used by the Lakota Sioux, such as burning sage because he believed it cleansed the team of negative energy (Sport Experience, 1999) The NHL is known for having players with
Native American Heritage, but players from Canada have a rough road making it to the NHL due to stereotyping and racism.(Sport Experience, 1999). Stereotyping does not only affect the NHL, it also creates a large debate about Native American mascots. People with Native American
