Oorang Indians
The Oorang Indians was a professional football team in La Rue, Ohio. The team played in the National Football League. Every member of the Indians actually was of Native American heritage. The squad's most famous player was Jim Thorpe. The Indians remained a team in the National Football League for the 1922 and 1923 seasons. Walter Lingo established the squad as a promotional effort and named the team after his Oorang dog kennels. La Rue, Ohio, is the smallest community ever to have sponsored a National Football League franchise. The Indians never played a game in La Rue. All twenty of the team's games during the 1922 and 1923 seasons were away games.
In the team's first season, the Indians finished twelfth in the league, with a record of two wins, six losses, and zero ties. The next season, the team finished eighteenth, with one win, ten losses, and zero ties. The Oorang Indians ceased to exist after the 1923 season.
Oorang Tribe football team picture with Jim Thorpe, October 27, 1922. The team, a National Football League franchise, was sponsored and managed by Airedale terrier breeder Walter Lingo. All of the players were Native American. They were based in LaRue, Ohio, the location of Lingo's kennels. Thorpe served as the team coach, a celebrity spokesperson for Oorang Airedales and played a few games. The team played two disappointing seasons in the NFL, 1922 and 1923. In 1922 their record was 5 wins and 8 losses; in 1923 2 wins and 10 losses.
References and Suggested Reading
- Creative Services Division, National Football League Properties, Inc. The NFL's Official Encyclopedic History of Professional Football. New York, NY: Macmillan, 1973.
- Knepper, George. Ohio and Its People. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2003. - Available from Amazon.com
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Citation
"Oorang Indians", Ohio History Central, July 1, 2005, http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=2353
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