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OU quarterback brings memories of Jim Thorpe
For Indian athletes, Sam stirs a sense of pride
To understand how Sam Bradford has gone beyond Oklahoma Sooner star to American Indian icon, meet Anthony Beaver.
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Beaver, 17, is a senior at the state's premier Indian school, Sequoyah-Tahlequah. He plays football, he draws Indian-inspired art, and he loves University of Oklahoma football. He wears a crimson-and-white beaded necklace made by one of the school's staff members. He's been a Sooner fan as long as he can remember, maybe longer.
"I was an OU fan when I didn't even know I was,” he said.
Safe to say, Beaver would've been a Bradford fan regardless. What's not to love about a freshman quarterback who's amassed 20 touchdowns and 1,689 yards passing and launched the Sooners into the national championship hunt? But when Beaver looks at Bradford, he sees something more.
He sees himself.
Bradford is Cherokee, the great-, great-grandson of Susie Walkingstick, a full-blood. Both Bradford and his father, Kent, are registered members of the Cherokee Nation. In a state with "Native America” on its license plates and the second-largest American Indian population in the nation, Bradford is among the 400,000 Indians living in Oklahoma.
Then again, as an Indian playing the highest-profile position in this sport-crazed state, Bradford is like no one else.
He is a living, breathing Jim Thorpe.
Bradford shrugs off the attention, but he also knows he holds a unique place in American Indian hearts. Regardless of their tribe, they are proclaiming Bradford as one of their own. His performances are celebrated by Indians young and old, even chronicled on Indian Web sites. It wasn't so long ago people doubted he'd still be the starter after seven games. Now, his stardom is skyrocketing.
Bradford's success is a people's pride.
"I'm glad he's Native American,” said Beaver, who is Choctaw and Creek. "I really hadn't ever seen any high-profile Native American athletes since, like, Jim Thorpe.”
He shook his head.
"It's pretty amazing to me.”
Beaver is hardly alone.
"There's a huge buzz,” said Chad Smith, principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, "and it's a great buzz.
"He's done a great service for us.”
‘Part of your identity'
Sam Bradford has been a well-known athlete since his sophomore year at Putnam City North.
Yet his Cherokee blood was largely unknown until this year. Oklahoma's sports information office asks all Sooner athletes if they have any Indian heritage, and Bradford acknowledged his.
"But I don't know much about it,” he told them, "so call my dad.”
Kent Bradford provided as much information as possible. The Cherokee heritage was passed down through Sam's great, great-grandmother, then his great-grandfather, his grandfather, then finally his father.
"We actually have never been active in Indian affairs or culture,” Kent Bradford said. "Not that we aren't proud of the Cherokee heritage, but we were simply raised as middle-class, Oklahoma City people.”
Several other high-profile American Indian athletes are more steeped in their heritage. New York Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain is Winnebago while Boston Red Sox outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury is Navajo.
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