9
Throughout 1921, advertising and sales for Walter Lingo’s Oorang Kennels continued to be strong. The Oorang Catalog No. 20 was making its rounds to potential buyers. But Lingo wasn’t entirely satisfied. He was thinking of something bigger. He wanted a bigger stage to advertise his famous Oorang Airedales. He put his thinking cap on. Soon he had the idea that would make, of all things, NFL history.
In December, Jim Thorpe had finished the NFL season playing with the Cleveland Indians. On December 11, the Indians lost on the road, 7–0, to the Washington Senators in front of a large crowd of 5,000 spectators. Thorpe, although past his prime at the age of 33, was still the sport’s biggest gate attraction. On that day, he showed his age, missing a 46-yard dropkick, as the Senators scored a touchdown late in the game to win. Also on that team were Pete Calac and Joe Guyon, former teammates of Thorpe at Carlisle.
Shortly after returning to Ohio, Thorpe was contacted by Lingo to see if he wanted to go hunting. He told Thorpe to come to La Rue and he would take him on a hunting trip that he’d remember for a long time. Thorpe agreed, telling Lingo he was bringing Calac with him. It had been a long season. After leaving the Canton Bulldogs and playing for a different team, Thorpe needed some relaxation, and a hunting trip with his good friend was just the right medicine.
Cleveland had finished the 1921 season losing five of their last six league games, so Lingo was excited about getting Thorpe to his hometown to cheer him up and present to him his next big promotional idea.
Thorpe’s trip to La Rue made headlines in one newspaper. On December 22, 1921, the Altoona (PA) Tribune wrote, “Jim Thorpe, Indian pilot of the Cleveland football team, and two other Indian athletes, Joe Guyon and Pete Calac, have gone to La Rue, west of Marion, O., for a hunting trip with Walter H. Lingo and his pack of coonhounds.”
Research shows that only Calac joined Thorpe on the hunting trip to La Rue.
Hunting Trip in La Rue and “the Idea”
When Thorpe arrived in La Rue, he was unaware that he was about to go on a hunting trip that would make NFL history. While hunting among the swamplands of Marion County, Lingo presented his newest promotional idea to Thorpe: He wanted to form a professional football team in the new pro league with Thorpe as player-coach. The team would travel to the cities in the league, play games, and, more importantly, help advertise his Airedales.
The team would consist entirely of Native Americans, such as Calac and Guyon. Lingo went on to tell Thorpe that he would pay him $500 a week to be player-coach, if he wanted to play, and a supervisor at the kennels. He told Thorpe that he would pay transportation costs and player salaries (because they too would help work at the kennels), and set players up with a place to live in La Rue. “I think we paid them 10 or 15 dollars a week, plus room and board,” said Bob Lingo. “In those days people were working for a dollar a day.”1
Lingo had outdone himself. Although he wasn’t a big football fan, he had combined two of his biggest passions—dogs and Native Americans—in his next big idea to help sell more Airedales and continue to advertise his dog kennel to the buying public. He wanted Thorpe’s help to accomplish this. He also truly believed in giving Native Americans a role in running his kennels. Lingo held the belief that Indians had a unique sense when it came to animals, especially dogs. “My father thought the Indians were very intuitive. That they could spot certain characteristics in dogs,” said Bob, adding,
It’s just a natural instinct with animals. I’ve been around animals all my life and never been bitten. I’ve been with animals that nobody could get close to. My dad was that way. He was never bitten. The Indians were that way. I don’t know what it is. I think animals can sense your feelings towards them.
By the end of the hunting trip Thorpe had agreed to be part of the venture. He would be player-coach and work as a kennel supervisor. Calac also agreed to be part of the team. “[Thorpe] was the first person that dad talked seriously to, and he thought it was a good idea to enhance the Indian image as not being a bunch of wild drunks,” said Bob. Lingo had done it. His latest promotional idea had been set in motion. Like his other ideas involving his dogs, he went full speed ahead.
Shortly after returning from La Rue, newspaper reports came out saying that Thorpe was going to retire from pro football. Thorpe told the press,
I’ve sung my swan song in football. I have laid aside a tidy sum and feel that it is about time I retired from active football playing.
My desire is not influenced by a desire to avoid the hard knocks of the game, for I love it above all others and am confident I could continue in the game for five years longer without appreciable letdown in my play.
It is simply that I feel that I have played long enough and mean to turn my attention to hunting and fishing, and less strenuous sports.2
Maybe Thorpe was talking about his “new job” with Lingo at the Oorang Kennels, but his playing days were not quite over.
Lingo’s Pro Football Team
Two weeks after hunting with Thorpe and Calac, Lingo made an announcement in the January 5, 1922, edition of the Marion Daily Star about his company and his newest promotional idea.
Oorang Kennels Are Known over World:
Company Plans to Organize All-Indian Team
The Oorang Kennels company of La Rue, was incorporated for $100,000, for the purpose of breeding and selling the world famous strain of Oorang Airedales, it was announced today.
W. H Lingo, who is the active head of the new organization, is well known in the “Dog Fancy,” as he has been breeding and developing this wonderful strain of Airedales for years. His Oorang Kennels are the largest and best-known dog kennels in the world today, and the demand for his dogs is from all parts of the globe. Many of his dogs are exported to foreign countries, and the domestic trade itself has developed beyond the supply. . . .
One of the advertising features planned by the company is an all-Indian football team and rodeo, which will visit the biggest cities this fall and play against the leading professional teams in the country. The aggregation will travel in its own special cars and will present a new and novel attraction.
Yes, they would present a “novel attraction.” Lingo’s pro football team and Oorang Airedales were about to give the NFL, and its fans, a unique and sometimes “strange” football experience.
Lingo contacted Joe F. Carr, NFL president, about his interest in gaining a franchise in the young league. He told Carr about his plans for a traveling team that would be led by Jim Thorpe. “My father thought that the NFL was young like him, he’d jump into it and try to get a piece of the action,” said Bob Lingo. “He sold it. Sold the idea to President Carr. He laid out his idea.” Carr liked the idea, especially with Thorpe’s name attached to it, and reassured Lingo that he would have no problem getting a franchise. Now it was time to get some players.
On January 26, Lingo hosted a special visitor, when Nick Altrock came to visit the Oorang Kennels. Altrock had been in Major League Baseball for almost 20 years with four different teams, including the Chicago White Sox and Washington Senators. He had won a World Series with the White Sox in 1906, and would go on to win a second in 1924, with the Senators. He would wear a major-league uniform for 55 years.
Altrock, accompanied by his friend F. Irvin Ray, spent a couple of days hunting in La Rue with Walter Lingo. Each day consisted of breakfast and lunch, followed by afternoon and evening hunting with Lingo’s Airedales. Lingo also showed the famous baseball player around his Oorang Kennels. One evening, the group spent a night at the Hotel Marion with members of the Marion Athletic Club. More than 100 guests ate a wonderful bear dinner provided by Lingo and heard speeches from club president Charles Klunk (toastmaster); Lingo (who spoke about enthusiasm in sports); and the guest of honor, Altrock. The famous baseball player kept the crowd entertained during his speech. “He kept the crowd in a roar of laughter during the greater part of the 20 minutes he talked,” wrote the Marion Daily Star on January 26, 1922.
Altrock was so impressed by his visit that after returning home, he commented on the trip. His quote was later used by Lingo in his promotional material:
I had the time of my life hunting coons and varmints with those wonderful Oorang dogs. The Oorang Kennels sure have the correct system and proper facilities for training sporting dogs to the highest point of efficiency. While at the kennel I dined on bear steak and other similar delicacies from the wild. I am now looking forward to another such experience the coming season.3
It was the beginning of a spring Lingo would spend mingling with baseball royalty. In early March, Lingo attended a meeting at Bausinger’s Café in Marion for the Marion Athletic Association, of which he was a member, to give an update on his football team. After dinner, he gave a short speech outlining the plan for his team to join the NFL and make trips throughout the country to play games. The association agreed to support Lingo’s idea, mainly so that Lingo could play any home games, which would be few, at Lincoln Park in Marion. The association voted unanimously to help the kennel owner and gave their blessing for his use of the park. Future historians and sportswriters would confuse this as Marion being the home base of the Oorang Indians, when, in fact, the franchise would hail from La Rue.
Shortly after meeting with the Marion Athletic Association, Lingo was hired to write a series of short newspaper articles about handling dogs to help promote the Capital City Kennel Club dog show in Columbus. The seven articles appeared in the Columbus Citizen the week and a half before the dog show, which was set to take place on March 18 and 19. The series included the following articles:
“How to Train and Care for Dogs” (March 1)
“Feeding Your Puppy” (March 2)
“Teaching Dogs Not to Molest Poultry” (March 3)
“House Breaking Dogs” (March 4)
“Training Dogs to Hunt” (March 6)”
“Work on the Farm” (March 7)
“Showing Your Dogs” (March 8)
The articles were a hit with readers in Columbus, as 5,000 dog lovers attended the show at Memorial Hall. Lingo enjoyed his trips to the capital city so much that he eventually rented out homes in Columbus, mainly on North Fourth Street, on the outskirts of the downtown area. He rented out rooms at 1376 North Fourth, 1373 North Fourth, and 2475 North Fourth.
At about this time, Lingo sold an Airedale to another national celebrity. The Marion Daily Star made the announcement on March 10:
Actress Buys Airedale
Walter Lingo of the Oorang Kennels at La Rue has sold an Oorang Airedale to Miss Louise Fazenda, actress well known to movie fans in the city.
Known for appearing in musicals and comedies, Louise Fazenda worked for Keystone Studios in Hollywood and would eventually have more than 300 movie credits to her name, including the hits The Beautiful and Damned, Hogan’s Alley, and Rain or Shine, directed by Frank Capra. In 1922, she became the proud owner of an Oorang Airedale.
As Lingo was beginning to organize his football team, he continued to advertise his dog kennels. He poured thousands of dollars into his ads. The magazine ads were joined heavily by newspaper ads in early 1922. He placed a small, one-quarter page ad featuring a drawing of an Oorang Airedale in several major newspapers throughout the country, including the Chicago Daily Tribune, Cincinnati Enquirer, New York Times, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The small caption Lingo wrote under the drawing said,
Oorang Airedales are loyal pals for man, woman, and child; faithful watchdogs for automobile, camp, and home; ideal dogs for farm and ranch; careful drivers of cattle and sheep; excellent rattlers, water dogs, retrievers, and hunters. Pedigreed stock for sale. Illustrated descriptive booklet mailed for 10 cents.
Shortly after attending the Capital City Kennel Club show in Columbus, Lingo traveled to Yale, Oklahoma, to visit with Thorpe and talk about the team. On March 30, the Tomahawk, an Indian newspaper published in White Earth, Minnesota, wrote about Lingo’s visit to Oklahoma.
Jim Thorpe, far-famed Indian athlete, will put on the field this fall an all-Indian football 11. This announcement was made following a conference here between Thorpe and Walter Lingo of La Rue, Ohio, who are partners in the venture.
While in Oklahoma, Lingo visited the Pawnee Indian Reservation and is also going to Minnesota to look over a bunch of Chippewas. He hints that he is planning on some unique innovations and special entertainment for football fans this fall when Thorpe’s own team of Red Men take the field in some of the foremost gridiron battles scheduled for the coming season. It is understood that a pack of Oorang Airedales will be seen in these specialties.
While in Minnesota, Lingo met with a few former Carlisle students, Xavier Downwind (Red Fang) and John Baptiste Thunder. Although neither had played much football at Carlisle, they both became interested in playing for Thorpe’s team. Throughout the spring, Lingo continued to express his idea that Thorpe field an entire team of Native Americans. It would be a challenge to field a competitive squad to match up against the likes of the Chicago Bears or Thorpe’s old team, the Canton Bulldogs. But the two would give it a try. Thorpe already knew he would have Pete Calac (age 29 in the fall of 1922) and Joe Guyon (age 30 in the fall of 1922), the two greatest Native American players in the country, aside from himself, on the team.
Thorpe would use his connections to complete the rest of the squad, despite being occupied with another sport. Both he and Guyon would spend the summer playing minor league baseball. Thorpe played the outfield in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Hartford, Connecticut, in the Eastern League, while Guyon played outfield for the Atlanta Crackers of the Southern Association. Guyon hit .299, with a .433 slugging percentage, scored 89 runs, and stole 19 bases in the summer of 1922.
After returning from his trips to Oklahoma and Minnesota, Lingo took a break from football and traveled north to Cleveland to attend Opening Day for the Cleveland Indians and visit his good friend, Indians manager Tris Speaker. On April 12, while at the Indians game, Lingo was supposed to present Oorang Airedales to Speaker and Ty Cobb, whose Detroit Tigers were in town to play the Indians. The local newspapers reported the Airedales as no-shows:
Lingo had two fine Airedale pups—Indian Oorang and Tyger Oorang—ready to present to the two managers. The two dogs have been kenneled together since birth and were always brothers. But just three days before Opening Day they fought over a dog biscuit. When the kennel men separated them, both dogs were dilapidated—too much so for immediate presentation. So they will be presented at Sunday games in the near future.
Out of consideration for Tris and Ty, Lingo refuses to tell which dog had the best of the argument.4
Ty Cobb always loved a good fight and would have been proud to hear that Indian Oorang was given a black eye. The dog was well enough to be presented to Speaker, but Lingo thought better of presenting the Airedale in front of a big crowd when it didn’t look so “nice and pretty.”5
Six weeks later, the Airedales were ready to present. Lingo sent Cobb his Airedale by train, and on Memorial Day, Lingo made the trip back to Cleveland. During a doubleheader at Dunn Field against the White Sox, Lingo walked to home plate to present Indian Oorang to Tris Speaker. Lingo handed the Oorang Airedale over to the future Hall of Famer as newspaper photographers snapped photos. As for the games, Lingo saw his friend’s team get swept by the Chicago White Sox (4–0, 7–6).
In the May 1922 issue of Field and Stream, the magazine’s dog editor and author, Freeman Lloyd, wrote a short article on his visit to the Oorang Kennels. Lingo had mentioned to Lloyd that his kennels had sold more than “15,000 individual dogs and puppies” and that “more than a thousand Airedales and hound bitches are out on sales contracts in the state of Ohio, on farms.” Lloyd also wrote about Lingo’s expanded kennel company with businesses in Tennessee and Georgia. He wrapped up the article by letting readers know the following:
Dogs are tested on the spot [in La Rue]. In September, October, and November a sort of clubhouse on Mr. Lingo’s property on the site of an old camp of Wyandotte Indians on the Scioto River, less than a mile from La Rue, will be open for guests who wish to come and try out the dogs themselves. Each guest will be provided an Indian guide who will hunt the hounds or Airedales.
Mr. Lingo told Field and Steam that he had advertised and sold dogs since he was a boy nine years old. People laughed at him, he said, when he persisted that a big mail-order business could be built up in hounds and Airedales. Now, Mr. Lingo spends $2,000 a month advertising and increasing his business every day.
The article references the Indians who would be working at the Oorang Kennels in the fall.
Lingo was expecting to get his money’s worth from his new employees. He had a business that was growing daily. He was also spending money to help promote his enterprise, placing ads in 13 national publications in 1922. In addition to the usual publications, Lingo added Field Illustrated, a monthly out of New York.
But enough of baseball and advertising. It was time to get back to football. It was time to officially join the NFL.
The Birth of the Oorang Indians
On June 24 and 25, at the Hollenden Hotel in Cleveland, Walter Lingo attended his first NFL owners meeting. Joining 16 other owners and NFL president Joe F. Carr, he paid the fee to join the league. The team would be named after his dog kennels, the Oorang Indians. Some historians mistakenly thought the team was named after a tribe. “My father named the team after the dog business, the Oorang Indians. He paid $100 for the franchise. There’s been some debate whether he actually paid the money or not, or whether he gave somebody a dog or something,” said Bob Lingo. The $100 Walter paid for a NFL franchise was peanuts compared to what it cost for an Oorang Airedale. In 1922, a trained Oorang Airedale was $150, while a fully trained police, Red Cross, scout, or army dog cost $500.6
On June 25, the Canton Daily News reported on one of the NFL’s newest franchises, making the connection to the current president’s hometown:
Jim Thorpe, famous Indian athlete and former leader of professional teams in Canton and Cleveland, will head an all-Indian team which will have Marion, Ohio, President Harding’s hometown, as its habitat, when the pro season opens this fall, a franchise having been awarded to that city Saturday afternoon at the meeting of officials of the organization here.
The Oorang Indians were now a NFL team, making the town of La Rue the smallest city to have a NFL franchise. But for the next two years, some newspapers would label the Indians as hailing from Marion. With Marion native Warren G. Harding in the White House and the Marion Athletic Association being involved, the city got top billing for Lingo’s Oorang Indians. For Walter, this was okay, since his pro football team was being associated with the president of the United States (as well as his kennels), and the publicity generated from the connection with Marion would only help his team/kennel. Only the town of La Rue would get shortchanged. It wasn’t until years later that Lingo would mention that La Rue, not Marion, was the home of the Oorang Indians, further stumping historians and writers throughout the decades in their documentation of the history of the NFL. Rest assured, La Rue was indeed the home base of the Oorang Indians.
On August 20, the NFL owners met again, this time in Dayton, to formalize most of the league’s schedule. Lingo traveled south to the Gem City to get his team some games. In 1922, the NFL would field 18 franchises. Lingo started talking to the teams about bringing his Oorang Indians—led by the great Jim Thorpe—to their towns, scheduling 10 league games in nine different cities:
|
Home/Away |
Opponent |
|
|
Sunday, October 1 |
away |
Dayton Triangles |
|
Sunday, October 8 |
home |
Columbus Panhandles |
|
Wednesday, October. 11 |
away |
Bucyrus* (Ohio Crane) |
|
Sunday, October 15 |
away |
Canton Bulldogs |
|
Sunday, October 22 |
away |
Indianapolis Belmonts* |
|
Sunday, October 29 |
away |
Akron Pros |
|
Sunday, November 5 |
away |
Minneapolis Marines |
|
Sunday, November 12 |
away |
Chicago Bears |
|
Sunday, November 19 |
away |
Milwaukee Badgers |
|
Sunday, November 26 |
away |
Buffalo All-Americans |
|
Thursday, November 30 |
away |
Columbus Panhandles |
|
Friday, December 1 |
away |
Louisville Brecks |
|
Saturday, December 2 |
away |
Durant (MI) All-Stars* |
|
Saturday, December 9 |
away |
Baltimore Pros* |
*Non-NFL games.
The schedule included just one home game, to be played in Marion on October 8, against the Columbus Panhandles. The other games would be played on the road. When Lingo returned home, he also scheduled a few nonleague games, including trips to Indianapolis, Lansing, Michigan, and a season-ending trip eastward to play the Baltimore Pros. Lingo would have his Oorang Indians on the road for almost three straight months.
The summer had quickly passed for Lingo. It was time to have his football team gather in his tiny hometown. The Oorang Indians were coming to La Rue.