Wake up call in Harrisburg

After reportedly carousing all night at the city’s old Warner Hotel, outfielder Jim Thorpe – yes, that Jim Thorpe – makes his Harrisburg debut 109 years ago today on City Island.

The onetime Olympic legend marks his debut with a long home run that some of the 5,822 fans in attendance claim lands in nearby Lemoyne.

Of course, the 28-year-old Thorpe is no stranger to Harrisburg’s City Island, having played football there years earlier for the Carlisle Indian School.

Thorpe splits the 1915 season between Jersey City, Newark and Harrisburg, batting .303 in 96 games with 22 stolen bases and a pair of home runs.

He returns to the major leagues in 1915 with the New York Giants, with whom he previously spends parts of the 1913 and ’14 seasons.

Thorpe then returns to the minors in 1916 with Milwaukee before spending the next three seasons in the majors with the Giants, Cincinnati Reds and Boston Braves.

Thorpe spends his final three seasons in pro baseball from 1920-22 playing in such exotic minor league pitstops as Akron, Toledo, Portland, Hartford and Worchester.

At the same time, Thorpe is returning to one of his earliest sports – football – as he joins the fledgling American Professional Football Association for its inaugural season in 1920.

Thorpe is the league’s star player, its main gate attraction and also the coach of the Canton Bulldogs.

Thorpe plays for another seven seasons of pro football while also coaching in three of them as he watches the nascent APFA eventually morph into what becomes the behemoth known today as the National Football League.