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Walter Lingo, Jim Thorpe, and the Oorang Indians
How a Dog Kennel Owner Created the NFL's Most Famous Traveling Team
By (author)
Chris Willis
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Synopsis
At the beginning of the Roaring Twenties the NFL was just a footnote within the landscape of American sports. The early pro game was played on dirt fields by vagabond athletes who would beat up or punch out their opponent for fifty dollars a game. But one team was different than the rest: the Oorang Indians. Comprised entirely of Native Americans and led by star athlete Jim Thorpe, the Oorang Indians were an instant hit in almost every city they visited.
In Walter Lingo, Jim Thorpe, and the Oorang Indians: How a Dog Kennel Owner Created the NFL's Most Famous Traveling Team, NFL historian Chris Willis tells the story of this unique and fascinating part of professional football history. In 1922 Walter Lingo, a dog kennel owner from tiny La Rue, Ohio, joined forces with Jim Thorpe, the country's greatest athlete, to create the Oorang Indians. Willis recounts how Lingo used the football team, the star attraction of player-coach Thorpe, and the all Native-American squad to help advertise his kennel and sell dogs, putting the small town of La Rue on the map.
With the complete cooperation of the Lingo family and unlimited access to family photos and archives, Walter Lingo, Jim Thorpe, and the Oorang Indians provides an up-close and behind-the-scenes view into the making of this little-known team. It is a remarkable story that will be enjoyed by football fans and historians alike. New & Used
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What Reviewers Are Saying
Expanding on a chapter in his first book, Old Leather: An Oral History of Early Pro Football in Ohio, 1920-1935), Willis, the head of the research library at NFL Films, thoroughly explores the life and times of a short-lived, all-Native American football team led by the legendary Jim Thorpe. Willis explores LaRue, Ohio, the town where the team was founded, and interviews a number of descendants of players and other personnel involved with this 'barnstorming' and groundbreaking team. Previously a living legend when he agreed to lead the team, Jim Thorpe was completely compliant with owner Walter Lingo's intention to use this team to promote his main business-a dog kennel that sold specially bred Airedales. Thorpe and his Native American teammates turned out to be enormously popular in the two years they played in the National Football League (1922-3), traveling all over the country to entertain and promote Lingo's dogs more than to win. They gave the budding and little-noticed NFL a publicity boost that helped propel the league into the public eye, paving the way for the future success of professional football.
Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. * CHOICE * I highly recommend buying this book and adding it to your football library. Willis's prose is detailed and informative and paints a compelling picture of the precursor to what became the National Football League. * Pro Football Journal * For anyone interested in sports history and Marion County's unique part in building the NFL into the multi-billion dollar industry it is today, it is a must-read book. * The Marion Star - USA Today * This book is an outstanding read for anyone who loves to learn about the early days of professional football and one of the most intriguing owners the NFL has ever seen. I highly recommend this book. * Gridiron Greats * With careful research and an eye for the important details, Chris Willis has written an important history of this fascinating team in the earliest years of the NFL. The Oorang Indians only lasted for two years in the 1920s but, as Willis shows, they provide a unique example of the kind of small town franchise that survives today only with another early NFL team-the Green Bay Packers. -- Kate Buford, author of Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe The NFL could be a traveling circus in the early days, and no team fit that description better than the Oorang Indians. Forty-six years after Little Big Horn, an all-Native American team owned by a renowned dog breeder, Walter Lingo, and led by an even more renowned athlete, Jim Thorpe, traveled the country selling Airedales and pro football (not necessarily in that order). Joe Little Twig, Lone Wolf, Dick Deer Slayer, Long Time Sleep-you definitely couldn't tell the Indians without a program. It's a wonderful story, an American story, and Chris Willis simply had to tell it. We should all be glad he did. -- Dan Daly, football historian and author of The National Forgotten League
Summing Up: Recommended.