The suggestion that Brundage was involved in the original 1913 disqualification — that he was, in some accounts, the person who reported Thorpe to the authorities — has been examined by Thorpe’s biographers and largely set aside.

Robert Wheeler, who wrote what is considered the most authoritative scholarly biography of Thorpe, found no credible evidence that Brundage was involved in the original complaint.

The reporter who broke the story was Roy Johnson of the Worcester Telegram.

The person most directly responsible for how the AAU responded was James E.

Sullivan, the powerful head of the AAU, described by those who studied him as a “self-righteous, vindictive sort.”

What Brundage did do, across his long tenure at the top of amateur sport, was repeatedly and curtly dismiss efforts to restore Thorpe’s Olympic recognition.