- City:
- Shawnee, OK
- Site Type:
- Stadiums, Parks and Recreation
- New Deal Agencies:
- Works Progress Administration (WPA), Work Relief Programs
- Started:
- 1936
- Completed:
- 1939
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
Between 1936 and 1939 the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the Jim Thorpe Stadium Complex at Shawnee High School in Shawnee, Oklahoma. In 2010 Shawnee voters approved a $3 million bond issue in order to renovate part of the complex. As a result the WPA-constructed rock wall and a sandstone clubhouse that had been built later were demolished.
Hamquilters Waymarking webpage for the Jim Thorpe Stadium describes it in the following way:
“…This stadium…is built with steel reinforced concrete and brick. It stands 24 tiers on the field side. All of the stadium windows have been covered with wood. The lower windows have brick sills, and the upper windows have brick sills and concrete lintels. The brick has been painted a cream color.”
Source notes
Waymarking.com: Jim Thorpe Stadium/Clubhouse - Shawnee, OK
The Shawnee News-Star: Construction Bid Awarded by Josh Burton (March 3, 2010)
Oklahoma Historic Preservation Survey: Oklahoma Landmarks Inventory Nomination
Site originally submitted by Hamquilter on August 11, 2017.
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Lila E. Faulks
J.A. McDonald
I was born in Boise, Idaho, 1940 after my parents and four older siblings lived in Missouri during the Depression. My father was born in 1902; mother in 1905 — before OK became a state. Having only recently discovered “Jim Thorpe, All American, Best Athlete in the World,” and noting this web site, I am wondering why the mascot of Shawnee is WOLVES rather than BRAVES, CHIEFS, or INDIANS, with respect to the man for whom this complex was named? I attended Boise High School, which was known as Boise Braves, until recent years because of culture cancel, it is now changed to Boise “BRAVE.” This is very disturbing to me. I would like more attention to the “good” (such as Jim Thorpe) contributions to our nation; therefore, no changing Indian names of landmarks, athletic teams, cities, etc. The American Indian is a very important part of our heritage.
p.s. I failed to mention that my parents were born in Oklahoma — also one brother. One of my great-grandmothers was Iroquois, on my father’s side; on my mother’s side, one great-grandmother was Potawatomi. I am very proud of my American Indian heritage.
The Shawnee High School sports teams were nicknamed “Wolves” long before the stadium was built which was then initially known as Athletic Stadium. It was a WPA project 1936. The name was given the stadium after Thorpe died in 1953 and the citizens planned for him to be buried at the athletic park (between the football and baseball fields) Before they could get enough money raised for a proper monument his 3rd wife “sold” him to Pennsylvania. The disappointed citizens changed the name of the football field to honor him. Actually Wolves is a