Oorang Indians

We jump back in time about a century ago to review one of the most interesting NFL teams in early football. Not because of their play on the field but for the owner, star players and why the team was assembled. The Oorang Indians are our team of the week.

What is the smallest community to have ever hosted an NFL team? If you guessed La Rue, Ohio then you are absolutely correct according to the Ohio History Central Website. The Oorang Indians franchise played in the 1922 and 1923 seasons and called La Rue their home. They were made up entirely of Native Americans on the roster and had some very interesting players of note. Before we get into that let's look into the reason that the odd name of Oorang was chosen and not La Rue.

The story starts with a guy by the name of Walter Lingo. Lingo was one of the most interesting business men and promoters of the early twentieth century. He took a boyhood love of animals and turned it into a thriving business. Walter raised dogs and sold them. specializing in the breed of airedales. In fact it is said that his airedales were the best int he world. People from your average American families, hunters, to Cuban Dictator Fulgencio Batista, President Warren G. Harding as well as top athletes Jack Dempsey and Ty Cobb all visited the exceptional canines from Walter Lingo. Walter used his marketing genius and made up a name of Oorang Kennels as the buisness.  His sone Bob Lingo once commented that the Oorang kennels sold 15,000 dogs one year, they were big time in the dog world. You see Lingo had always deeply admired the hunting prowess of Native Americans and felt that the association people would have with the Native sounding name would instantly connect his champion breed of hunting pups. The word sounds like and native American word or a tribe name but in fact it is not and came from the imagination of Mr. Lingo. As his kennels were at their height of popularity an opportunity arose in a unique way to market his wares.

 Jim Thorpe, the world champion athlete, had hunted with Lingo in LaRue on a couple of occassions. on one of these expeditions, Walter Lingo, always looking for new ways to publicize his airedales, hatched his best promotional brainstorm. He found out that the newly formed professional football organization, the NFL was selling franchises for about $100. What a good way to market his dogs to the demographic of sporting outdorrsmen men.

In his plan he hatched, Jim Thorpe would assemble and coach a football team comprised of Native Americans and call them the Oorang Indians. The team would practice and play a schedule and do all of the things football players do but they would also have a task that no other gridiron team has ad then or since. They would also very publicly help train and “show” the dogs. Little LaRue, Ohio with a population of about 700 and no football field, would become a franchise of the National Football League. This may take the cake as far as marketing in pro football history. Pigskin and Pooches who would ever connect such a promotional idea?

Jim Thorpe in 1922 was getting a little long in the tooth. Remember he won the Olympic Gold medals all the way back in 1912, played football for teams such as the Canton Bulldogs, baseball and even was the president of the League in its first year of what then was called the American Professional Football Association, 2 years later to be deemed the NFL. Thorpe still had the desire to compete though.

Thorpe used his connections and assembled a roster that included players from all walks of native backgrounds. Nick Lassa, who many townspeople labeled "Long Time Sleep" due to his tendency of sleeping in, was a big guy with plenty of power and athleticism. Quarterback Leon Boutwell, Joe Little Twig, Big Bear, Ted St. Germaine, War Eagle and a couple of former teammates form Canton of Thorpe; Pete Calac and Joe Guyon also joined the roster.

Lingo wanted the team to travel around the country to give awareness of the dog kennels as described on the NFL Football Journal Blog. They played just one home contest in the local L Rue area at Lincoln Park in Marion, Ohio on October 8, 1922, against the Columbus Panhandlers and the fantastic Nesser brothers. The locals enjoyed an Indians victory for their $1.25 admission too as Oorang won 20-6 over the visitors. Unfortunately for the home crowd, Jim Thorpe sat out because of injury, but Joe Guyon showed what he could do, as he scored two touchdowns on runs of 10 and 55 yards and also picked off a Panhandle a pass. Eagle Feather, a newcomer to the team, scored the other touchdown on an eight-yard plunge into the endzone. There were a couple of other "home" games against some semi-pro teams promoted as exhibitions that did not count int he NFL standings.

The balance of the Oorang games in their two years of existance were on the road. In the team's first season, the Indians finished with a record of two wins and six losses. The next season, the team finished with a 1-10 record. The team was only around for a short period of time but they did make some memories.

Walter Lingo and the team may have been the first to provide halftime entertainment to the crowds. Thorpe would put on a drop-kicking and punting demonstration while other players would parade airedales from Lingo's kennels. There was shooting of launched targets and the dogs would retrieve them all to applause of the crowd.

The pre-game and halftime activities of dog promotion evidently took a higher precedence than the onfield product.  Alas it all came to an end, the Oorang Indians ceased to exist after the 1923 season.  

The picture in the banner above is from the Wikipedia Commons photo collection of the Public Domain of a cropped installment of 1922 photo of St. Germaine on the Oorang Indians football team. This marked St. Germaine's only year playing in the NFL and only the first of two years for the Indians team.

Special thanks to Pro-Football-Reference.com, Pro Football Journal, Ohio History Central website and the Pro Football Hall of Fame