Walter Lingo, Jim Thorpe, and the Oorang Indians

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.

Chris Willis is the head of the Research Library at NFL Films. He is the author of multiple books on professional football, including The Man Who Built the National Football League: Joe F. Carr; Walter Lingo, Jim Thorpe, and the Oorang Indians: How a Dog Kennel Owner Created the NFL's Most Famous Traveling Team; and Red Grange: The Life and Legacy of the NFL's First Superstar, all published by Rowman & Littlefield. Willis was nominated for an Emmy in 2002 for his work on the HBO documentary The Game of Their Lives and won an Emmy in 2016 for his work on HBO's Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Houston Texans. He was awarded the Professional Football Researchers Association's Ralph Hay award for lifetime achievement in pro football research and historiography in 2012. He lives in Audubon, New Jersey.

Preface Acknowledgments Introduction PART I: WALTER LINGO, LA RUE, OHIO, AND THE OORANG KENNELS Chapter 1: The Lingo Family Chapter 2: Walter Lingo Chapter 3: The Oorang Kennels and the Rise of the Oorang Airedales Chapter 4: A Genius of Promotion Chapter 5: World War I Chapter 6: Putting La Rue on the Map PART II: THE FOOTBALL TEAM: THE OORANG INDIANS Chapter 7: The National Football League Chapter 8: The Great Jim Thorpe Chapter 9: "The Idea": Creating the NFL's Most Famous Traveling Team Chapter 10: The Oorang Indians PART III: THE FOOTBALL SEASONS, 1922-1923 Chapter 11: Training Camp in La Rue Chapter 12: The 1922 NFL Season Chapter 13: The 1923 NFL Season Chapter 14: A Two-Year Experiment Ends PART IV: THE AFTERMATH FOR WALTER LINGO, JIM THORPE, AND THE OORANG INDIANS Chapter 15: Athlete and Sportsman Magazine Chapter 16: The Lingorue and the Demise of the Oorang Kennels Chapter 17: Walter Lingo Rebuilds His Business and Good-bye to Jim Thorpe Chapter 18: The Passing of the King of Dogs Chapter 19: Commemorating the Oorang Indians Chapter 20: The Legacy of Walter Lingo, Jim Thorpe, and the Oorang Indians APPENDIXES: A: Oorang Indians Game Results B: Oorang Indians All-Time Roster (1922-1923) C: Oorang Indians Box Scores (1922-1923) Notes Bibliography Index About the Author