Oorang Indians facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Oorang Indians

Founded	1922
Folded	1923
Based in	LaRue, Ohio, United States
League	National Football League
Team history	Oorang Indians (1922–23)
Team colors	Burgundy, gold, white
Head coaches	Jim Thorpe
General managers	Jim Thorpe
Owner(s)	Walter Lingo
Mascot(s)	Walter Lingo's Airedale Dogs
Named for	Oorang Dog Kennels All-Native American Team
Home field(s)	Traveling Team

The Oorang Indians were a unique traveling team in the National Football League (NFL) during the 1920s. They came from a tiny town called LaRue, Ohio. This team was special because it was created by Walter Lingo to help advertise his Oorang dog kennels, which raised Airedale dogs.

Every player on the Oorang Indians team was Native American. The famous athlete Jim Thorpe was their main player and coach. The team played in the NFL in 1922 and 1923. Out of 20 games, they played only one "home" game in nearby Marion. LaRue, with less than a thousand people, is still the smallest town to ever host an NFL team.

How the Oorang Indians Began

A Friendship and a Big Idea

In 1919, Walter Lingo, who owned the Oorang Kennels, became friends with Jim Thorpe. Thorpe was a star player for the Canton Bulldogs and is now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Many people thought he was the greatest athlete of his time.

Lingo loved his Airedale dogs and was also very interested in Native American culture. LaRue, Ohio, where Lingo lived, was once a Wyandot village. Lingo believed there was a special connection between Native Americans and Airedales.

Thorpe once helped Lingo when farmers accused his dogs of harming sheep. Thorpe said he knew an Oorang Airedale that saved a 6-year-old girl from a bull. After this, Lingo and Thorpe became good friends and often went hunting together.

Forming a Unique NFL Team

1922–1923 Oorang Indians letterhead

In 1921, Lingo invited Thorpe and Pete Calac to his home in LaRue. Calac was Thorpe's teammate from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. During this visit, they came up with a plan. They wanted to advertise Lingo's Airedale dogs and also give Thorpe a new role in football.

Lingo decided to buy a team in the new National Football League. Thorpe would lead the team. Back then, an NFL team cost only $100. One of Lingo's Airedale dogs could sell for $150! Lingo saw the team as a way to travel and show off his dogs across the country.

He had two main rules for the team. First, all the players had to be Native American. Second, the players also had to help out at his dog kennels. Thorpe and Calac agreed to these rules. Thorpe would earn $500 a week to coach, play, and manage the kennels.

A Traveling Team from a Small Town

In June 1922, Walter Lingo bought the NFL team for $100. He named it the Oorang Indians, after his kennels and favorite dog breed. This name caught the attention of both sports fans and dog lovers.

Lingo wanted the team to play in LaRue. However, the small town didn't have a football field. This meant the team mostly played on the road as a traveling team. This way, they could play in bigger cities and advertise the dogs to more people.

The closest town with a good football field was Marion, Ohio. This became the place for the Indians' rare "home" games. The players were always traveling to major cities. This "barnstorming" was common in early professional football. Lingo said the team members were well cared for. The same people who looked after his Airedales also took care of the players.

Building the Oorang Indians Team

1922 Oorang Indians

Jim Thorpe was both a player and the coach. He found players for the team. To follow Lingo's rule, Native Americans from all over the United States came to LaRue to try out. Many players were from Thorpe's old school, the Carlisle Indian School. Some players were older, even over 40, and hadn't played in years.

While not all players were full-blooded Native Americans, every team member had some Native American heritage. The Oorang Indians had players from many tribes. These included Cherokee, Mohawk, Chippewa, Blackfeet, Winnebago, Mission, Caddo, Flathead, Sac and Fox, Seneca, and Penobscot.

The team had players with interesting names like Long Time Sleep, Woodchuck Welmas, Joe Little Twig, Big Bear, and War Eagle. The team also had four former Carlisle Indian football captains: Thorpe, Joe Guyon, Pete Calac, and Elmer Busch. Their trainer, John Morrison, was reportedly the very first Carlisle captain.

Walter Lingo's son, Bob, later said the team practiced every day. But their main job was working at the dog kennel. They trained dogs and built crates for shipping them. This work kept them in good shape, which was more important than formal football practice. Bob Lingo also said that many of the team's plays were made up during the game, like in a casual "sandlot" football game.

The 1922 Season: Halftime Shows and Challenges

The Indians had two future Hall of Fame players, Jim Thorpe and Joe Guyon. However, they didn't play much. Thorpe mostly coached from the sidelines in the first half of the 1922 season. He never played more than a half in any game after that. Guyon joined the team later in the season. Pete Calac was still recovering from injuries he got fighting in World War I.

The Indians started their season with 3 wins and 2 losses in their first five games. Both losses were against other NFL teams. They beat independent teams and one NFL team, the Columbus Panhandles. One game was played in a snowstorm, where they won 33–0. They even recruited a new player, Chief Johnson, at halftime of that game!

Later, the team lost several games, including a big 62–0 loss to the Akron Pros. They did manage to upset the Buffalo All-Americans 19–7. They finished the season with 3 wins and 6 losses in the NFL (5 wins and 8 losses overall).

Unique Halftime Shows

The Oorang Indians were famous for their halftime shows. Instead of going to the locker room, they showed off Lingo's Airedale dogs to the crowd. Some people even wondered if the team was there more for the dog shows than for football!

The Indians, including Thorpe, helped the Oorang Airedales perform tricks. These shows were a huge attraction in the early 1920s. There were shooting demonstrations where the dogs would retrieve targets. The players also performed Native American dances and showed off their tomahawk and knife-throwing skills. Jim Thorpe was known for kicking footballs through the goalposts from the middle of the field. One player, Nick Lassa, even wrestled a bear sometimes!

Team Behavior and Challenges

A December 6, 1923 cartoon in the Baltimore News showing how the media saw the team.

The players knew that Walter Lingo's main goal was to advertise his dogs, not necessarily to win football games. This meant that winning wasn't the most important thing to them.

According to Ed Healey, a Hall of Fame player for the Chicago Bears, Thorpe wasn't a strict coach. However, Healey said the players were "tough, but good guys off the field."

The 1923 Season and Decline

The Oorang Indians played in the NFL again for the 1923 season. However, this team was not as strong as the year before. While some players had good moments, Thorpe, Guyon, and Calac were often injured and missed games. Guyon didn't play until the eighth game. Thorpe got a season-ending injury in the ninth game. Even though Thorpe was still a good player, he had lost some of his earlier speed.

The team lost their first nine games, all against NFL opponents. They were outscored 235 to 12 in these games. They finally won their first game against the independent Marion Athletics, 33–0. They then lost to the Chicago Cardinals and won their last game against the Louisville Brecks.

The End of the Team

At first, the Oorang Indians were very popular. But fans soon realized the team wasn't winning much, and they had already seen the halftime show. So, fewer people came to watch. The newness wore off, and Walter Lingo stopped funding the team.

At the end of the 1923 season, the Oorang Indians team broke up. Lingo did not renew the team's NFL franchise, and it officially closed in 1924.

Legacy of the Oorang Indians

In 1997, which was 75 years after the team started, the Marion County Historical Society placed an Ohio Historic Marker. It stands on the spot where the Oorang Indians used to practice in LaRue, Ohio. Today, LaRue is still known as the smallest community to ever have an NFL team.

Two players from the Oorang Indians, Jim Thorpe and Joe Guyon, were among the first members chosen for the National Football League Hall of Fame. Walter Lingo's dog kennels, which were the reason the team existed, did very well until 1929. The Oorang Kennel Company continued until Lingo passed away in 1969.

The Oorang Indians team is also thought to have had more players from Oklahoma than any other NFL team before or since. Finally, this club was also the first NFL team to have a regular training camp during its short time in the league.

Lingo later brought back the Oorang Indians as a basketball team in the late 1920s, again with Jim Thorpe as the star. However, not much is known about the basketball version of the team.

Pro Football Hall of Famers

Season-by-season Records

Tribes Represented by Players

See also

In Spanish: Oorang Indians para niños

• World Famous Indians, a basketball team also led by Jim Thorpe