12
Starting Out
It was time to travel the country and play some football. But for Walter Lingo it was time to show off his Oorang Airedales. Before leaving La Rue for the first game, Jim Thorpe received some good news when, the Saturday before the first contest, Elmer Busch arrived in town.
Elmer Busch (Guard, Center)
Elmer Eugene Busch was born on June 1, 1889, in Potter Valley, California, to Jack and Maggie Busch. One of four children, including two brothers and a sister, Elmer lived with his family in Potter Valley, about 140 miles northwest of Sacramento. From 1897 to 1902, Elmer was schooled at the Potter Valley Indian School. He furthered his education at the Sherman Institute in Riverside for three years (1907–1910).
A Pomo Indian, Busch enrolled at Carlisle in October 1910, at the age of 20. While at Carlisle, he grew to be 5-foot-10 and almost 200 pounds. It was during this time that he was invited to go out for football under Pop Warner. He played on the varsity team from 1911 to 1914, at guard. In 1911, Busch started at right guard and helped Carlisle finish the season with an 11–1 record. The following year, he blocked for Jim Thorpe, as the Indians amassed a 12–1–1 record and Thorpe made First Team All-American for the second straight year. On December 20, 1912, the Carlisle Arrow wrote about Busch, saying, “He was about the strongest man in the line and could always be depended upon to do his best, being strong both on the offense and defense, and very effective as an interferer for the backs.”
In 1913, Busch once again helped Carlisle to a near-perfect campaign (the Indians finished 10–1–1), earning Second Team All-American honors from Walter Camp. While at Carlisle, Busch became close friends with Thorpe, Pete Calac, and Joe Guyon. Following the season, Busch was elected captain of the 1914 squad. The Carlisle Arrow continued to praise him:
Busch has played right guard on the team the last three seasons and has proven himself to be one of the best guards Carlisle has ever had. He has been an important factor both in defense and on the offense, being especially valuable as an interferer and in making openings for the backs. . . . He is one [of] the headiest men on the squad, and his good judgement and knowledge of the game should make him an unusually good leader for the team.1
That fall, Warner’s team struggled to a 5–9–1 record. Because of the team’s difficulties, Busch felt he wasn’t providing the leadership needed to win, so he gave up his captaincy to Pete Calac. After leaving Carlisle in April 1915, at the age of 25, Busch worked in the boiler department of the Santa Fe Railroad in San Bernardino. He also did some coaching in Riverside (most likely at Sherman Institute) for two seasons, in 1916 and 1917. Leaving coaching behind, he served for 18 months in the U.S. Army during World War I, returning to California after the war.
As a teammate of Thorpe’s at Carlisle, it didn’t take long for Busch to say yes to coming to tiny La Rue to play pro football for the Oorang Indians. At 33 years of age, he was no spring chicken. But Thorpe wanted his experience on the line and quickly inserted him into the starting lineup at left guard, where he started most of the year, although he also started two games at center.
The Oorang Indians’ First NFL Game
The Oorang Indians were ready to hit the road. The “show” to be put on by Lingo would give the visiting cities some much-needed entertainment. “Of course most people had never seen an Indian. So when they went to bigger towns it was like a Barnum and Bailey Circus,” said Bob Lingo. “He had people go ahead of them and do the advertising. Hang up signs in the store windows and all that stuff. He made sure he’d have plenty of good-looking dogs with him. There’s nothing accidental about any of this.”2
The first road trip was a 90-mile ride south to Dayton to play the Triangles. One newspaper reported that 200 Oorang rooters would accompany the team. Lingo, the team (Thorpe only had 12 players accompany him), and the dogs loaded up in the train early Sunday morning to get to Dayton before the 2:00 p.m. kickoff. “[My father] went to every game. He always arranged to do interviews with local papers. More free advertising,” said Bob. Arriving in town, the Indians headed to Triangle Park, where the city of Dayton awaited them, especially Thorpe, as the Dayton Journal wrote on October 1: “Safe to say that 75 percent of the people who journey to Triangle Park this afternoon will go with the express purpose of seeing Jim Thorpe perform.”
They would be disappointed. Thorpe would only coach on this day, if you want to say he coached at all. But Triangles team manager Carl Storck had advertised the game with one special incentive for young fans to come out.
Manager Carl Storck of the Triangles, always a friend of the boys, has again made arrangements to take care of the youngsters. The especially erected bleachers at the east end of the field will again be used to accommodate boys in short trousers. All boys admitted to this section of the field for 25 cents, which will give all of them a chance to be on hand to root Al [Mahrt] and Lou [Fenner] without having to touch dad for too big a loan.3
For young football fans in Dayton, it only took 25 cents to see the Oorang Indians. Thorpe set his starting lineup as follows:
LE–Nick Lassa (Long-Time Sleep)
LT–John Baptiste Thunder
LG–Elmer Busch
C–Ted St. Germaine
RG–Ted Lone Wolf (Moses Ward)
RT–Xavier Downwind (Red Fang)
RE–Stillwell Saunooke
QB–Joe Guyon
LHB–Pete Calac
RHB–Reggie Attache (Laughing Gas)
FB–Ed Nason (Running Dear)
Despite going through training camp, Thorpe’s squad played like they hadn’t practiced at all. Lingo must have been disappointed. A solid but not spectacular team, the Triangles (who had finished 1921 with a 4–4–1 league record) steamrolled the Indians, 36–0. The local newspapers didn’t list an attendance figure. The Dayton Journal was hard on Lingo’s Indians the day after the game:
The Indians were a husky lot, but the beef they carried worked to their disadvantage, for they were slow and awkward. Had the Triangles resorted to a running, smashing attack throughout, there is no telling how many points they would have rolled up.
They outcharged the Indians completely, and the holes they opened in the opposing line were wide enough to accommodate a 10-ton truck. Through these enormous gaps the Triangle backfield men tore for big gains.
The Redskins’ offense was pretty much a joke. They did make two first downs, however, one coming by rushing the ball and the other through a long forward pass. The Indians never got close enough to the Triangle posts to stir up any excitement.
The Ohio State Journal praised Joe Guyon’s performance, calling “his work on both offense and defense . . . magnificent.” Overall, the Oorang Indians had laid an egg in their first showing. Only the halftime show drew a cheer from the crowd. Thorpe made one substitution, inserting Buck Jones (War Eagle) for Xavier Downwind, who was overmatched at tackle. Thorpe was in need of a few better players if he was going to compete with other NFL teams. Yes, the team was organized to help sell Airedales, but even Lingo knew that the team had to play better if he wanted spectators to keep coming out to see his dogs.
Oorang Airedales Halftime Entertainment
Throughout the fall of 1922, most NFL fans got a real treat when attending Oorang Indians games. At halftime they got to see what was probably the NFL’s first halftime show, provided by Walter Lingo and his Oorang Airedales. During these shows, Lingo included Indian dances and shooting exhibitions, as well as knife, tomahawk, and lariat throwing. They also witnessed Airedales at work, trailing live raccoons and chasing them up (fake) trees. For the climax, Red Cross Oorangs would reenact bringing medicine to wounded soldiers in the trenches. It was a strange “Wild West Show.” As Lingo says in his promotional material,
The climax was an exhibition of what the United States’ loyal Indian scouts did during the war against Germany, with Oorang Airedale Red Cross dogs giving first aid in an armed encounter between scouts and huns in no man’s land. Many of the Indians and dogs were veterans of the war—the Oorangs up front.4
A fully trained Red Cross Oorang was priced at $500, a reminder that buying an Oorang Airedale was not cheap.
The halftime shows were more important to Lingo than the actual games. But the team had to perform better if he wanted to get people out to see his dogs. Lingo and Thorpe’s team returned to La Rue licking their wounds. Next the team would face the Columbus Panhandles, managed by league president Joe F. Carr. During the previous two decades, the Panhandles had featured the Nesser brothers—a family of six football-playing brothers who worked as boilermakers in the Panhandle Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The Nessers were well known in the pro football ranks. But by 1922 the siblings were getting up there in years, and most of them had just retired. Only one brother, Frank, would play against the Indians.
This would also be the only “home” game for the Indians in 1922, had played at Lincoln Park in Marion. The Panhandles had also struggled in their first game, getting whipped, 36–0, by the Akron Pros. Lingo and Thorpe quickly got back to work on the practice field. The Ohio State Journal in Columbus previewed what was going on in La Rue in an October 9 article: “On the other hand, Thorpe was given a good surprise at Dayton last Sunday, and word from the kennels in La Rue, O., where the Thorpe warriors are in training, states that a rejuvenated team will appear against the locals.”
Lingo and Thorpe saw that the team needed improvement, so Lingo invested in a blocking machine. On October 4, the Marion Daily Star reported on the new acquisition:
At Dayton last Sunday the defects of the squad were brought to light, and the Indian coach is trying to correct them. The line was not charging properly, and Monday afternoon a 2,300-pound blocking machine was installed. This machine is used by every large university in the country in preparing their football teams, and it will no doubt be an essential factor in the proper development of the Indian line. This weight machine means that the seven linemen will have 400 pounds to buck, and every man will have to charge at the same time in order to move it.
Another feature of the work handed out by Thorpe is the tackling dummy. Yesterday afternoon the entire squad spent two hours at this machine trying to better their form at tackling. With these machines now being used daily it is certain that the Marion squad will present a much better front than in last Sunday’s play.
Thorpe knew he didn’t have a complete squad of players that could compete physically or mentally each week in the NFL; he needed to coach them on the fundamentals. He convinced Lingo to invest in a few football machines to help the cause, proving that Thorpe was a better coach than critics think. If he felt they were just there to sell dogs, he wouldn’t have bothered to ask Lingo for the equipment. Thorpe got to work. Aside from putting in extra practice time, he revamped his starting lineup. He returned to his Carlisle connections and recruited three new players that would solidify his roster.
Leon Boutwell (Quarterback, Halfback, Fullback)
Leon Adelbert Boutwell was born on October 3, 1892, in Orr, North Dakota, to Rodney and Isabelle Boutwell. When Leon was a small child, the Boutwell family moved to White Earth Combined Chippewa Agency, near Cass Lake, Minnesota. From the Chippewa tribe, Boutwell attended Pipestone Indian School and the White Earth Reservation school before enrolling at Carlisle in 1910. At Carlisle, Boutwell stood 5-foot-7 and weighed 188 pounds. A well-rounded student, he participated in football on the reserve team, competed in track, and was a member of a music group called “The Invincible Band.” He was also heavily involved in the school’s weekly newspaper, the Carlisle Arrow. He would earn an industrial certificate for printing from the school, which would eventually help him find his true passion later in life, when he became publisher of the Daily Telegram in Mechanicsburg, Ohio. In December 1913, the Carlisle Arrow wrote glowingly about their quarterback, “The Philadelphia papers of last Sunday pronounced Leon Boutwell as invincible on the gridiron during the game last Saturday between the ‘Westerners’ and the ‘Easterners.’”
After leaving Carlisle, Boutwell attended school for one year at the Keewatin Academy before moving back to Minnesota, near Ogema, to be closer to his sister. He served in the U.S. Army during World War I, as a corporal in the 14th Field Artillery Band at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. After the war, he returned to Ogema where Thorpe contacted him. Although Boutwell didn’t play every fall on the football team at Carlisle, he was smart enough to know what Thorpe needed for his Oorang Indians. Although 30 years old, he would give stability to the backfield and allow Thorpe to move players to new positions to help shore up the weak spots on the team, especially the line.
At practice, Boutwell quickly learned about Thorpe’s physical prowess, the likes of which he hadn’t seen since leaving Carlisle. Catching punts from Thorpe one afternoon, Boutwell stationed himself at one end of the field. “I couldn’t return them, so we had another player stand at midfield to relay the return ball,” recalled a laughing Boutwell in a 1953 interview. Boutwell was soon joined by two more players who would help make the Indians a better team on the field.5
Sherman Pierce (Tackle, End, Halfback, Fullback)
Sherman Pierce was born on May 7, 1895, in Irving, New York, on the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation. Nicknamed “Eagle Feather,” he was a member of the Mohican tribe. In various articles, it is mentioned that he was a cousin of Bemus Pierce, the famous football player who played at Carlisle in 1904. While growing up, Pierce attended school and played sports at the Thomas Indian School. On December 18, 1911, he enrolled at Carlisle but was only there for a few months. Listed at six feet tall and 224 pounds, Pierce was held in high regard by Thorpe and the local press. The Marion Daily Star wrote, “He is fast, hits the line in a knock, skirts the ends close, and can punt. Thorpe believes he has solved his backfield problem by this reporting of this particular Indian.”6 Thorpe immediately put Pierce in as starting fullback, replacing the smaller Ed Nason.7
Bill Winneshick (Guard, Center)
William “Bill” Phineus Winneshick was born on December 24, 1894, in Winnebago County, Iowa, to parents John and Sue Winneshick. The family hailed from the Winnebago tribe. Tragedy struck the family when Bill was young, as his mother Sue passed away. From 1904 to 1911, Bill attended three different schools in Iowa before being sent to Carlisle by his father.
Winneshick arrived at Carlisle on June 5, 1911. His four years at the school were highlighted by his love of music. He became an expert in the slide trombone while performing in the United States Carlisle Band. (After leaving Carlisle he would form his own musical group called Chief Winneshick’s Band.) Like Boutwell, he wrote a column for the Carlisle Arrow. As for football, Winneshick never played on the varsity team, but he did befriend many players, including Boutwell, Saunooke, and Thorpe. Winneshick stood 5-foot-8 and weighed about 180 pounds.
He left the school on October 19, 1915, and settled in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He played with the Mishler Theatre Company as an orchestral member and semipro football with the Altoona Indians (as a teammate of Saunooke), as well as served as an assistant coach at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania, in 1917. Despite not being a football star at Carlisle, at 27 years of age Winneshick had some football ability to work with, which is why Thorpe contacted him.
When he arrived in La Rue, the Marion Daily Star commented, “Winneshick will be used at center. He is a big fellow, scaling over 200 pounds and exceptionally fast. In yesterday’s scrimmage he had little trouble in breaking through the line and broke up many plays before they would get under way.”8
The three men quickly found their way into the starting lineup—Boutwell at quarterback, Pierce at fullback, and Winneshick at center. Benched were inexperienced disappointments, mostly linemen, tackle Baptiste Thunder, tackle Xavier Downwind, and fullback Ed Nason (Running Deer). John Baptiste Thunder might have had the name Lingo was looking for, but his play didn’t match the hype and he left the team after the Dayton game—the only game he played.
Another major crisis struck during the week leading up to the next game against the Columbus Panhandles. A lion was spotted loose in Marion County, near Mt. Victory. The local press, as well as the Washington Times, reported on the big news story.
Terrorizing this region, lions, for seven days, led by lion-baiting dogs, hunters had spent the night in tents set up around the woods. Campfire blazed all night.
Several World War veterans are among the hunters. The dogs being used today were supplied by the Oorang Indians living in La Rue, nine miles away.9
A day after the article ran in Washington, the lions were captured and no harm was done. As the Panhandles game approached, the Indians were better prepared to play. The hunt for the lions paled in comparison to the week of practice that Thorpe put the Indians through. Two days before the Panhandles game, at the Oorang clubhouse, Joe Guyon spoke to a reporter from the Marion Daily Star for an October 6 article, giving his thoughts on Thorpe’s tough practices. “I thought ‘Pop’ Warner, Carlisle coach, was a bear on long practices, but he does not stand as high as Thorpe,” Guyon declared.
Thorpe’s squad looked a hundred times better than just a week earlier. His backfield had gained the ability to pound the line and play the wide-open passing game of the single-wing formation when needed. With the new additions, he also moved Pete Calac from halfback to right end to strengthen the line, and Joe Guyon from quarterback to left halfback, with Boutwell taking over the reins at quarterback and Long-Time Sleep moving from end (for Calac) to right tackle to take advantage of his strength. The new backfield of Boutwell (quarterback), Attache (right halfback), Guyon (left halfback), and Feather (fullback) would hopefully give the team a spark. On the Wednesday before the game, Thorpe put his team through a five-hour workout. He divided the team up, putting the linemen on the “bucking machine” and having the backfield work on passing plays, followed by a two-hour drill calling signals and a challenging team scrimmage.10
The people of La Rue were excited about seeing the Indians play so close to home. William Guthery, who was 17 years old at the time, recalled in a 2000 interview going to Marion to see the Indians play:
Now, I only went to see one game, and that was played at nearby Marion since we didn’t have a true football field. The Indians played the Columbus Panhandles, and at the beginning of the game, Thorpe would dropkick. They didn’t have placekickers in those days. He’d dropkick from the 50-yard line one way and turn around and kick over the goal the other way. During the game I remember the team’s offensive play. They would line up real quick before the other team got into position to start the next play. It worked sometimes.11
What Guthery saw that day would become part of NFL history.
The extra practice, the new additions, and the change in the starting lineup worked for Thorpe. Football ads appeared in the Marion Daily Star, trying to get fans out to see the game, although the ads hailed the team as the “Marion” Oorang Indians. Admission was set at $1.25 per ticket—courtesy of Walter Lingo—and kickoff was set at 2:00 p.m. The ads didn’t help much, as only 1,200 fans (in a town of roughly 28,000 residents) paid to get into Lincoln Park to see the Indians try for their first victory.
The Panhandles arrived in town the night before the game and stayed at the Hotel Marion. Panhandles manager and NFL president Joe F. Carr was confident that his team would win. “Our team was handicapped at Akron last Sunday by injuries, but they are now again in shape and we will show the Indians the way in tomorrow’s contest,” he said to the local press.12
In their second game, Thorpe’s boys played much better football against a weaker opponent (the Panhandles would finish the season winless in the NFL, at 0–8). Behind two touchdowns and two extra points by Joe Guyon, and a touchdown run by Sherman Pierce, the Indians defeated the Panhandles, 20–6. The Ohio State Journal describes the action, writing, “The Indians displayed good form since the defeat at Dayton a week ago, as a result of hard practice. Jim Thorpe did not play because of the way the locals were going but did much directing from the side.”13
Jerry Corcoran, Joe Carr’s right-hand man for the Panhandles, was impressed with one Indian player. “Long-Time Sleep ain’t no long-time sleep at all. He’s wider awake than any man on the team. He beats the ball down the field under punts, running like a deer. Where did the Oorang [tackle] get the name Long-Time Sleep, anyway?” Corcoran asked.14
But in the end, the duo of Guyon and Pierce would make NFL history. Although the NFL did not officially keep statistics in 1922, research shows that Guyon and Pierce were the first teammates in NFL history to rush for more than 100 yards in the same game. Guyon had 13 carries, 116 yards rushing, and 2 touchdowns. Feather had 16 carries, 109 yards rushing, and 1 touchdown.
Despite the historic win, Lingo knew his squad needed more work, so the day after the Panhandles game, he looked to get his squad another contest. He started talking to the Ohio Cranes from nearby Bucyrus and their manager Lowell Ringer. Lingo and Ringer negotiated into the night, finally coming to an agreement:
While it was announced Monday that the Oorangs would play Wednesday at Seccaium [Park], the contract was “in the air” until Monday night.
While a very brief time is allowed in which to advertise the game, it is expected that a crowd of several hundred fans will drop everything else and flock to the park to see the Redskins and the Cranes in combat. Manager Ringer realizes that his team is up against a tough proposition but ventures the forecast that the Indians will not run wild over the Cranes. The names of Guyon and Calac especially mean something in football history, but the Cranes have a husky team and are not overawed by the personnel of the visitors.
The management of the park has invited to be the guests of this game the following high school football teams and their coaches: Galion, Crestline, Shelby, and Bucyrus. This will afford the high school player a chance to see this big Indian team in action, as well as the big stars.15
The “practice” game, played on a Wednesday afternoon (four days before the big matchup with the Canton Bulldogs), would give Thorpe a chance to try out some new plays, as well as have his squad work on the fundamentals. Backup players like Bob Hill, Alex Bobidosh, and Horatio Jones would also see some much-needed action. Ads were put in the Bucyrus newspapers on the day of the game advertising the contest, but no admission prices were listed. On October 11, the Indians traveled 32 miles to Bucyrus to take on the Ohio Cranes. Because of the short notice, only 100 people showed up at Seccaium Park for the 2:30 p.m. kickoff. Walter Lingo stood on the sidelines, watching the game with Marion Daily Star sportswriter Fred Kraner. This game wasn’t about attracting fans or showing off his Airedales, it was about getting better on the field.
This game again demonstrated Thorpe’s talent as a coach. Perhaps Lingo was protecting his “product” so spectators would come out, but Thorpe took the game seriously. He wanted to have his team ready to play. The next day, the Bucyrus Evening Telegram described the scene at Seccaium Park.
The great Jim Thorpe, hero of many hard-fought college battles, star of the Olympic Games a few years back, and, in his prime, the world’s greatest athlete, strode about the field attired in a blue suit, sweater, and cap, and was the object of much attention. The scene at Seccaium [Park], with a little knot of fans and a makeshift gridiron, must have seemed quite a contrast to him and Guyon and Calac, both Carlisle stars, as well to the scenes of college days of glory.
Asked by a Bucyrian if the Crane team was good enough, Thorpe remarked, “They’re all good enough for me—too good,” meaning evidently that he was through playing football himself.16
During the game, Thorpe got the best out of his boys, as he should have. Playing 10-minute quarters, the Indians scored fairly easily, as Attache, Guyon (45-yard touchdown catch from Calac), and Calac scored touchdowns in a 20–6 victory, although the Cranes had a 90-yard run by halfback Boyer to set up their only score. The Indians seemed to respond well to the extra work on the field.
The mid-week game was just an appetizer for Jim Thorpe. Four days later, his team would travel to his old stomping grounds to face the Canton Bulldogs. This was a game that had been on Thorpe’s mind for a while. The local press in Canton had been writing daily articles about the upcoming visit by Thorpe, who would be making his first return trip to the city where he got his pro football start in 1915, when he signed for $250 a game with the Bulldogs. After leading the Bulldogs to the “Ohio League championships” in 1916, 1917 and 1919, he left to play for the Cleveland Indians in 1921. That season, the Cleveland Indians played the Bulldogs, but the game was played in Cleveland. Thorpe was excited about returning to Canton; he wanted to beat the Bulldogs more than any other team in 1922.
The day before the game, the Canton Daily News ran a lengthy article on the big matchup, including close-up photos of Thorpe and nine of his players. No doubt the photos were courtesy of Walter Lingo, photographed by Adam Bauer. The Canton Repository also previewed the big game:
Jim Thorpe and his Oorang Indians arrived in the city late Saturday afternoon and are ready for the scrap scheduled for this afternoon [Sunday newspaper]. All the members of the squad are reported in good shape and ready for battle.
While the Bulldogs were putting in a hard week of drills, Thorpe, at the team’s training camp in La Rue, drove his Indian machine through drill after drill to prepare them for the Canton battle, as Thorpe says he would rather win Sunday’s game than any other on his schedule.17
Lingo and his team were excited about playing in Canton. Walter became even more excited when he saw the crowd at Lakeside Park. More than 5,100 paying fans came out, with the Canton Daily News reporting that the total was more like 7,000 or 8,000. More than 500 of those fans were school-age boys who crowded the sidelines. Play was stopped several times to clear them out of the way.18
Despite threatening skies, the temperature hovered at about 60 degrees as the 2:15 p.m. kickoff neared. Before the game started, Thorpe gave the large crowd a punting and field-goal exhibition. Kicking a few over the goalposts from the 50-yard line yard brought the most cheers. After exerting himself, Thorpe made his way to the bench, put on a sideline blanket, and never played a down. For most of the 60 minutes, the Indians played the Bulldogs tough. But they couldn’t score against the league’s best defense. Despite losing five fumbles, the Bulldogs finally managed to put some points on the board after a scoreless first half. The game’s first score came on special teams: “[Norm] Sacksteder took it perfectly on Canton’s 40-yard line and was off like a rabbit. He swung to Marion’s left side, squirmed from tackler after tackler, else dodged closer to liberty, until the last Indian was passed on the perilous journey to 60 yards for the first touchdown.”19
Sacksteder’s return gave the Bulldogs a 7–0 lead. From the sidelines, Thorpe and Lingo watched the Indians offense get manhandled by the Bulldogs defense, failing to gain a single first down in the second half and completing only two passes the entire game. Another Bulldogs score gave the home team a 14–0 victory, making old Jim none too happy. But the Bulldogs dominated the NFL in 1922, going 10–0–2, to win the league championship. Thorpe could take pride in the fact that he gave the future champs a tough contest.
Aside from the close score, the game’s other headline came after the two teams became involved in some fisticuffs on the field. In the third quarter, a fight broke out, and fans witnessed several Indians chase a Canton Bulldogs player around the field. The Canton Daily News described the colorful scene as follows:
[Duke] Osborne, like every good soldier, mixes courage with caution. That is one reason why the Bulldogs’ field leader “lives to tell the tale.”
When an Indian warrior jumped with both knees on the armored skull of halfback [Harry] Robb of Canton in the third quarter, Osborne pulled his trusty right fist, took careful aim, and down went the guilty Redskin—[Ted] St. Germaine, one of the giants of the Marion team. He dropped like an ox. Then came the retreat. Out of the bunch of gesticulating players, Osborne dashed as if he heard the dinner horn. On his heels stalked more than half a dozen Indians. Halfway across the field, Osborne turned to make a stand, and then, taking another thought, again retreated until some of his comrades intercepted the hurrying Indians. Spectators swarmed the field, but the trouble ended without any more fisticuffs. It all goes to impress the fact that belligerent Caucasians playing football with Indians should carry their own horses for safety’s sake.20
The story of Duke Osborne punching out Ted St. Germaine has been retold during discussions about the early days of the NFL; the popular radio show Rip-ley’s Believe It or Not even recited the story of how one former Canton Bulldog was chased around a football field by a bunch of Indians. But all was not lost for the team before they left Canton. After the game, the Bulldogs honored one of the Indians with a nice gift. In Bill Winneshick’s hometown, the Lebanon (PA) Daily News reported on the event:
William Winneshick, of North Ninth Street, this city, was the recipient of an extraordinary compliment from the football players of the Canton Bulldogs professional team. Winnie played center against the team for the Oorang Indians, and as an appreciation of his wonderful playing and good sportsmanship, he was presented with the football used in the game and also a gold watch. The game developed into a slugging match, but evidently the Lebanon Indian played the game and kept out of the fights.21
Winneshick might have been the only one feeling good during the 126-mile train ride back to La Rue. As for Lingo, he was probably wondering what he had gotten himself into. But the trip to Canton was successful. The rather large crowd led Walter to believe that his investment was paying off, introducing his Airedales to the public. With no league game scheduled for the next Sunday, Lingo contacted Robert Eddy, business manager of the Indianspolis Belmonts, and agreed to bring his team west. Indiana was an untapped market for his Airedales. The 1922 American Kennel Gazette and Stud Book lists Pennsylvania, Illinois, and New York as having sold nearly twice as many Airedales from the Oorang Kennels than the state of Indiana. Lingo wanted to change this, and the city of Indianapolis was just big enough to whet his appetite.
Indianapolis boasted a competitive pro football team, claiming to be state champions from 1914 to 1917, and in 1921, they had won the Indianapolis city championship by beating the Ferndales, 7–0. It seemed to be a decent matchup for the Indians against a nonleague opponent. Throughout the week, the Indianapolis Star had been printing articles previewing the game. Four days before the game, on October 19, the paper ran an article on the Indians that included several photos of Baptiste Thunder (who was no longer with the team) and Xavier Downwind, as well as a headshot of Nick Lassa (Long-Time Sleep). The newspaper must have liked using the Indian names as a way of advertising the game.
Lingo loaded up his football team and dogs, heading west for nearly 200 miles to Indy. The night before the game, a light snow started to fall. At the hotel, Thorpe said his team was “ready for a hard game with the Belmonts.” Little did he know one of his players would spend the night in jail and miss the game.22
On a wet and muddy field, the Indians took on the Indianapolis Belmonts at Washington Park. The Indianapolis News reported a crowd of 2,000 spectators, including Indianapolis Star reporter L. M. Stanley. Led by star halfback George Niehaus and end Kenneth Glidewell, the Belmonts never had a chance. The wet field didn’t affect Thorpe’s squad. It was the first time the Indians actually looked like a legit NFL team—even if it was against a nonleague squad (which every NFL team scheduled games against and usually dominated).
During pregame, Thorpe gave his patented kicking exhibitions but once again did not play. This time his leg must have felt extra strong. The Indianapolis Star wrote, “Jim Thorpe, coach of the Indians, gave an exhibition of kicking before the game and booted one dropkick through the posts from near the 75-yard line.”23 Pretty impressive for the 33-year old coach.
The first half was sloppy and tight for the Indians. Reggie Attache’s short TD run was the only scoring. But after the big halftime show, the Indians flexed their muscles. In the second half, they showed no signs of being tired. Thorpe replaced Sherman Pierce at fullback with Pete Calac and, pairing him with Joe Guyon, set off a scoring barrage for the Indians. Calac and Guyon scored two touchdowns each as Lingo’s squad won easily, 33–0. “Calac hit the line like a pile driver and could not be stopped short of substantial gains,” wrote the Indianapolis Star.24
The Belmont players were mighty impressed with the Oorang Indians. “I played a lot of football before that game and a lot afterward, but I’ve never been hit harder,” recalled George Niehaus in a January 6, 1974, interview with Indianapolis Star Magazine, adding,
I injured my shoulder in that game, and it took a month to get better. Those Indians were tough, one of the best teams I ever saw or played against. Run, run, run, right up the middle. Sheer power. We held them pretty well in the first half, but in the second half they gave us the works. They called us “kids.”
Lone Wolf Gets Arrested
It was an impressive win for Lingo and Thorpe—even more impressive considering what had happened just a few hours before. After arriving at the hotel in Indy, several players went out on the town to have a few drinks. One player, Lone Wolf, seemed to have had just a few too many. On the front page of the Monday edition of the Indianapolis Star, under the headline, “Indian Football Player Tackles Mule, Then Police,” the paper tells the story.
One of Jim Thorpe’s full-blooded Indian football players, after a session with “pale-face” mule, went on the war path single-handed and alone late Saturday night and reposed in the city prison yesterday while his companions played the Belmont team at Washington Park.
The dusky son of the prairies told the police his name was Moses Ward, [24] years old. He was charged with drunkenness and resisting an officer.
Ward, and two other players, was in a taxi at East and New York Street when the driver attempted to collect their fare. Ward, it is said, kicked all of the glass out of the machine. When his companions remonstrated with him he struck one in the mouth and the other in the nose. The two went to police headquarters to have one go and stop his war dance.
Motor policemen Pfaffenbarger and Hague were sent. Neither of them ever was a football star, nor did they live in the days of Indian fighting, but they soon learned something about both. Ward tackled, and it took the combined efforts of the policemen with the free use of their clubs to get Ward in the police automobile.
Then it required considerable strategy to keep him there. When Ward and the two breathless policemen arrived at police headquarters, the prisoner was still in pretty good trim and started all over again. He had Hague thrown backward over a table, and there was no telling what the result might have been had not Pfaffenbarger delivered a “knockout” punch with his club. Ward went down. He was carried to the cell house but soon revived and declared he was the only “full-blood American in the building.” He was unable to provide bond.25
Lone Wolf’s out-of-control antics got him a night in jail. He did not play in the game against the Belmonts. The following day, according to the Indianapolis Star, he appeared in court.
Moses Ward, whose Indian name is “Lone Wolf,” a member of Jim Thorpe’s full-blooded Indian football team, who was to have played at Washington Park Sunday, but could not because of drunkenness and resisting an officer, was found guilty of the chargers in city court yesterday by Ralph E. Upkide, special judge, and fined $1 and costs. Judgement was withheld.
Ward boarded a train for La Rue, O., the training camp of Thorpe’s football team, immediately after his case was completed. Ward said that he had not taken a drink for six years until Saturday night and that the present day “firewater” was entirely too hot for him. He declared he was through with strong drink for all time to come.
Ward was never arrested until ill fate overtook him Saturday night, he said.26
The remorseful Lone Wolf headed back to La Rue to face his teammates, Thorpe, and, worse yet, Walter Lingo. As soon as he arrived in town, he was sent back to his reservation in Minnesota to cool down, missing the next two games. The rest of the Indians arrived back in La Rue, rejoicing a nice victory.
The next week would be the low point of the season, as they prepared for their next game, against the Akron Pros. In the week leading up to the game, the Akron Beacon-Journal wrote a preview of the big matchup. No doubt Walter Lingo pumped up his team after the decisive victory—even if it was against a nonleague team:
Indians Who Play Pros Here Specialize in Football Game; Live at Camp at La Rue, O., Where Thorpe Teaches Redskins Fine Points of Game—Long Schedule
Specializing in football. That’s what Jim Thorpe is doing with his Oorang Indians, who play the Akron Pros here next Sunday afternoon.
Talk, eat, and sleep football is Jim’s motto. Thorpe is making a desperate effort to convince the football world that old Father Time is not overtaking him. And Jim conceived a most unusual method to make good his claim. Down near Marion, O., lives Walter Lingo, owner of the largest dog kennel in the world and a bosom friend of Thorpe. Lingo, according to outside talk, is financing Jim’s idea of an all-Indian team.
Owns Large Dog Kennel
At La Rue, O., where Lingo has his kennels, a football training camp has been established, with Thorpe the big chief. Here the players of the team live, practice football, and spend odd hours hunting. A regular schedule is worked out from day to day, certain hours for “skull” practice, others for scrimmage. The camp is conducted on regular army plan.27
The article also features a new team photo of the Indians, provided by Lingo and photographed by Adam Bauer. In the photo, 17 players appear in full uniform, with coach Jim Thorpe standing in the back row, arms crossed, while eight of the players sit in the front row. Also in the front row, in the middle of the squad, is one of Lingo’s Airedales, being carefully held by Stillwell Saunooke. This image has become one of the most iconic photos of the Oorang Indians.
A day after the article appeared, the Akron paper ran a sizeable advertisement for the game, letting Akron fans know when the game was and where to buy tickets.
FOOTBALL
Akron Pros vs. Jim Thorpe’s Oorang Indians
Every Player a Full-Blooded Indian
ELK’S FIELD, SUNDAY, 2:30 P.M.
Preliminary at 1 O’clock
Tickets on Sale at Hamilton Cigar Store28
The Marion Daily Star reported, “A large number of rooters will go to Akron for the game, and while many will drive through Sunday morning, others will go by train, leaving at 6:17 Sunday morning.”29 Marion Daily Star sportswriter Fred Kraner also accompanied the team to Akron. A solid crowd of 3,000 fans came out to Elks Park to watch their Pros face off against the Indians. What they saw was a total mismatch. Two years removed from winning the first-ever APFA–NFL championship, the Pros were still a pretty good team, but on this day they were the best team on the planet.
The Pros scored early and often, embarrassing the Indians, 62–0. They scored a whopping nine touchdowns, seven of them on the ground, with two each by backs Rip King, Carl Cramer, and Joe Mills. Only once did the Indians come close to scoring, reaching the Pros 10-yard line in the second quarter, only to fumble the ball away. The loss is one of the worst in NFL history. While watching his team get manhandled, Thorpe kept his eye on one of the Akron players—left tackle Al Jolley, 23 years of age and an aggressive player who held his own against Nick Lassa, Bob Hill, and Bill Winneshick. Thorpe would keep Jolley in mind during the 1923 season.
The 124-mile train ride back to La Rue was filled with silence and despair. Thorpe and Lingo knew their team had played a bad football game. Maybe the traveling and entertaining was finally catching up with them. Although wins and losses weren’t that important to Lingo, the losses gnawed away at the competitive Thorpe.
But there was no rest for the weary, as the NFL’s most famous traveling team had another game to get ready for. One week after the debacle in Akron, the Oorang Indians traveled north some 700 miles to Minneapolis to play the Minneapolis Marines. The Marines had been the best professional football team in Minnesota for years but struggled in their first year in the NFL, going 1–3 in league games in 1921. In 1922, they were being led by star quarterback Marty Norton. On the gridiron, the Indians matched up well against the Marines, who were 0–2 in league games, suffering defeats at the hands of the Dayton Triangles and Chicago Cardinals.
The game in the Twin Cities would be a landmark moment for Lingo’s squad. It would see the great Jim Thorpe in a football uniform once again. A sizable crowd of 4,000 spectators gathered at Nicollet Park. What they saw was a tight, hard-fought contest between two evenly matched teams.
The Indians dictated play throughout the first half. In the second quarter, the Indians offense started to push the Marines around. Sherman Pierce had several line smashes that put the ball at the Marines goal line. From the five-yard line, Joe Guyon took it over for the score. His missed extra point made the game 6–0.
Those were the last points the Indians would score. It looked like they would get another league win, but the halftime show must have taken something out of them, as the Marines took control in the second half. Quarterback Marty Norton was a one-man wrecking crew on a 90-yard drive that resulted in his 22-yard touchdown. The successful extra point gave the Marines a 7–6 lead. At this point, the crowd got what they had been waiting for, as Thorpe put himself in the game for the first time during the 1922 campaign. Despite the great expectations, it didn’t help the team. Norton scored another touchdown, and the Marines closed out a 13–6 victory.
Lingo was probably the only man happy on the trip back to La Rue. The crowd of 4,000 has seen his dogs perform, and he was also excited that Thorpe had seen some action. Thorpe was pumped too. His brief time on the field had reenergized him, and he quickly announced that he would play in the Indians’ next game, a matchup against the 5–1 Chicago Bears.
The Indians were 3–4 overall but just 1–4 in NFL games. Lingo was trying to sell Airedales, not climb in the standings. Now it was off to the big city to play the Bears. George Halas, player-owner of the Chicago Bears, had been at the first organizational meeting in Canton and won the 1921 APFA–NFL championship. He too was trying to get fans out to the games. For the game against the Indians, the Chicago Tribune had suggested to Halas reducing the cost of tickets for boys age 16 and younger. Halas thought it was a great idea. “We believe the Tribune suggestion a good one and will do our part to help make football a beneficial sport to every lad in Chicago,” said Halas.30 Tickets for boys age 16 and younger were half price, and Halas ran small ads in the Tribune advertising tickets for sale at Cubs Park for the 2:15 p.m. kickoff.
Before heading to Chicago, Lone Wolf rejoined the team. Thorpe did not hold anything against him, as he penciled him in to start at left tackle, while Lingo invited a few special guests to join him at the game. George Selkirk and his band of Sioux Braves from Sisseton, South Dakota, were invited to the game to be cheerleaders. After parading through the downtown district, they entertained the spectators at Cubs Park while dressed in full Indian regalia.
The trip to the Windy City wasn’t as productive as Lingo had envisioned. A rainy day limited the crowd to about 3,300 spectators, and on the field the Indians couldn’t keep up with the Bears. The only exciting thing for Lingo was seeing Thorpe give the team a lift on the field in the second half of a lopsided game. The Chicago Evening American wrote,
Jim Thorpe can still play football, as was proven in the muddy battle at the Cub Park yesterday, when the Chicago Bears beat the Oorang Indians of Marion, O., 33 to 6. Up to that time, when Thorpe, called one of the greatest halfbacks of all years, went into the game during the second half, the Bears had been plowing through the Indians, scoring at will.
With Thorpe in there relieving Joe Guyon, the Oorang captain, who was injured, things changed immediately. Jim called for the ball time after time. He carried it and passed it. The Indians looked fully 50 percent stronger with him in there. And instead of being whitewashed, the Indians scored a touchdown in the final quarter and were well on the road to another when the final whistle blew. Six Dakota braves in war regalia and paint did a little snake dance when Jim crossed the line.31
Throughout the years, sportswriters have told a story about the Indians’ trip to the Windy City and the night before the game. Before the team played the Bears, the players celebrated a night out on the town at a local tavern called Everyman’s Saloon. When the bartender issued last call at 2:00 a.m., the Oorang players stuffed him in a telephone booth, turned it upside-down, and kept the party going until a few hours before kickoff. The accuracy of the story is still in question, but it would explain the team’s awful performance on the field.
Thorpe’s second-half performance had everyone cheering and showed the football world he still had some juice left—including getting the Native Americans Lingo had invited to the game to do an end-zone dance. The next Sunday, the Oorang Indians traveled nearly 400 miles to Milwaukee to play the Milwaukee Badgers, a new NFL franchise in 1922. To attract more fans, the Badgers signed former Centre College star quarterback Bo McMillian, to go along with halfback Fritz Pollard and end Paul Robeson, two of the NFL’s early black players. Stopping the trio would be a challenge for Thorpe’s boys.
Despite the star power on the squad, the Badgers were just 1–1–3 heading into their matchup with the Indians. Lingo and Thorpe met some of the local sportswriters when they arrived in town. Rumors were swirling about whether Thorpe would play. “I’m coming to Milwaukee’s gridiron to give the fans there the best that is in me. My men are in great condition for the game, and I’m certain the Badgers will know that the Oorangs have a powerful club after the game is well under way,” he commented.32
Definitely not politically correct in today’s climate, the Milwaukee Sentinel, on the day of the game, featured Thorpe in an Indian headdress, saying, “Whoop-ee-e.” The fans would come out to see the NFL’s newest attraction, something Lingo was excited about as he traveled north with his football team and dogs. On this trip, the team also brought along Nick Lassa’s pet coyote. The halftime show would be one to remember.
On November 19, the Indians jogged onto the field at Athletic Park in front of a massive crowd of 6,500 fans. It was the largest crowd Lingo had ever seen and the largest the Indians would play in front of in 1922. The game kicked off at 2:00 p.m. The huge crowd saw a one-man show put on by Paul Robeson. The former Rutgers All-American scored both touchdowns in the Badgers’ 13–0 victory.
The work of Paul Robeson stood out in Milwaukee’s play, and every man of the orange jerseys crew put up a better game than he had before shown this season. . . . Milwaukee’s giant Negro end, he made both Milwaukee touchdowns, was in the thick of every play, and stood out head and shoulders over every lineman in the game.33
A week after being shut out by the Badgers, the Oorang Indians hopped back on the train, this time heading east. Lingo’s squad motored more than 300 miles on a five-hour trip to Buffalo, New York, to play the Buffalo All-Americans. The day before the game, the Indians arrived in town and checked into the Iroquois Hotel. It was here that Thorpe added another player.
Joe Little Twig (End, Tackle)
Joseph “Joe” Little Twig was born on May 12, 1897, near Hogansburg, New York. A Mohican Indian, he attended the Catarague Indian School, where he played football for the first time. Some newspaper reports list him as going to Carlisle, but there is no proof that he attended the school. Solidly built, at 5-foot-11 and 183 pounds, Little Twig joined the U.S. Army in 1917, serving nearly five years, until Jim Thorpe came calling. He was immediately inserted into the starting lineup at right tackle, while Xavier Downwind was reinserted at center, where he would start the next four games.
The All-Americans finished in second place in the APFA–NFL standings in 1921, losing out to George Halas’s Chicago Staleys. But at this point in the season, they had just a 3–3–1 record. Led by player-coach Tommy Hughitt (quarterback), the All-Americans were still one of the best teams in the NFL and two weeks earlier had lost, just 3–0, to the NFL’s eventual champion, the Canton Bulldogs. The day of the game, a light snowstorm hit Buffalo, but 3,000 brave fans still came out to Buffalo’s Baseball Park to watch the matchup. It must have been something about playing in the snow, because the Indians played their best game of the year.
After giving up a touchdown in the second quarter, Lingo watched his squad dominate the rest of the game, with the great Jim Thorpe taking over. Shortly after giving up the touchdown, Thorpe led a scoring drive that culminated in his own short touchdown run. He missed the extra point, the only mistake of the day. In the second half, Thorpe scored on a 20-yard run and then threw a pass to Joe Guyon for the one-point conversion. In the fourth quarter, Thorpe threw a 30-yard scoring strike to Guyon as the Indians got back into the win column with a stunning 19–7 victory. The Buffalo Courier commended Thorpe’s performance:
Three thousand faithful football fans sat shivering in the stands at Baseball Park yesterday and watched a mighty shadow of the past, forgotten by many as a great man whose deeds, written large in the annals of grid history, would console him in idle memories of bygone greatness come back. Jim Thorpe, the stoic Indian giant, well on in middle age, a trifle fat around the waist but with the same marvelous physical and mental qualifications that enabled him to take his place at the head of the college world some 14 years ago, almost single-handedly bowled over the All-Americans’ drilled array of youthful ex-college stars and was the main factor in the brilliant 19–7 victory of the Oorang Indians.
Going into the fray when his team was receiving a bad pummeling at the hands of Buffalo’s star combination, Thorpe completely turned the tide. Although seven points behind, the powerful Indian rallied his men and, with one of the greatest exhibitions seen on any gridiron, twice carried the ball almost the length of the field for touchdowns and threw a pass into the waiting arms of the flashy Joe Guyon for the third score and an overwhelming win.34
In the Buffalo Evening Times, Buffalo quarterback Tommy Hughitt wrote a recap of the game, praising the Indians’ performance under the headline “Thorpe’s Oorang Indians Hand All-Americans Worst Defeat in History.” Hughitt gives the Indians credit for the big win, writing, “All in all a tough game to lose, but to Thorpe, Guyon, and Calac the Indians can attribute their success. Thorpe played better than he has played in the past five years, while Calac and Guyon were up to their usual form and were towers of strength.”35
It was probably the best game the Oorang Indians would play in their two-year existence, as Thorpe played great and the squad beat a quality opponent. The win gave the Indians a 4–6 overall record and a mark of 2–6 in NFL games. But the team didn’t have much time to rest, as Lingo had set up a Thanksgiving Day game against the Columbus Panhandles. Four days after defeating the All-Americans, the Indians traveled the 60 miles to the capital city.
The Columbus papers wrote numerous articles in the days leading up to the game, including posting the special admission price of 25 cents for boys age 12 and younger at Neil Park. Two days before the game, the Ohio State Journal ran a small article previewing the contest, accompanied by a team photo of the Oorang Indians. In the Columbus Dispatch, there was an interview with NFL referee Jim Durfee, who spoke about Thorpe.
I have seen Thorpe in a lot of games, but never have I seen him show to better advantage than he did Sunday. He did everything a football player is supposed to do, and he did it all so easily that he seemed to stand head and shoulders above that crowd of stars. Without Thorpe the Indians looked ordinary. With Thorpe they looked unbeatable.36
The veteran Durfee was impressed with Thorpe’s performance against Buffalo. He would have another front-row seat on Thanksgiving Day, as he was assigned to officiate the Indians–Panhandles game at Neil Park. Kickoff was slated for 2:00 p.m., and 3,000 spectators came out to watch the rematch.
The Oorang starting backfield consisted of Thorpe (left halfback), Joe Guyon (right halfback), Pete Calac (fullback), and Leon Boutwell (quarterback). The Indians started out strong in the first quarter with a nice scoring drive, capped off by a short touchdown run by Calac. The missed extra point gave the Indians a 6–0 lead that held up for the rest of the half. In the second half, the Indians poured it on, as Guyon returned an interception 80 yards for a spectacular score and Calac sprinted around the end for a 20-yard scoring run. The defense gave up one TD, but that was all in a convincing 18–6 win.
On the sideline that day was Lew Byrer of the Columbus Citizen, who had visited the Indians training camp back in September. He recapped the game for the Citizen under the headline “Indians Show One Powerful Drive”:
Walter Lingo’s Oorang Indians defeated Joe Carr’s Columbus Panhandles 18 to 6 Thursday afternoon at Neil Park, before 3,000 fans.
Despite the one-sided score it was a real football spectacle, with Jim Thorpe, Joe Guyon, Pete Calac, Eagle Feather, and Long-Time Sleep playing stellar roles for the Indians, and Frank Nesser, Hopkins, Wolford, Mulbarger, Carney, and Emmett Ruh starring for the railroaders.
The impressive thing about the game was the terrific power of the Indian attack. With Thorpe, Guyon, and Calac as chief ball carriers, the Indians smashed their way thru the heavy Panhandle line, circled the ends, and forward passed in perfect form.
The three star Indian ball carriers all reminded fans of Chic Harley [former Ohio State star] at his best. All are bigger men than Harley, but they played with the same easy grace, the same lightning speed, and the same quick-thinking style which made the Ohio star one of the greatest to ever carry a pigskin.
Guyon and Calac were greater stars than Thorpe because they played more. After the Indians had piled up an apparently safe lead in the first half the 39-year-old Thorpe left the game. But he was a tower of strength during the first half.
The game clearly demonstrated at least one thing—college football need never fear the encroachment of professional football. Thursday’s game was a super football game with great stars shining on each team. Yet, there was obvious lack. It was the rampant spirit of the rooters, the brilliant uniformed college bands, and the dynamic cheerleaders.37
Byrer makes some good points about the differences between college football and pro football during this time. Yes, the NFL lacked the rich tradition and pageantry of the college game. It would be decades before the league would make its own mark. But Byrer might not have been in the right spot or city to see that the NFL was gaining some much-needed publicity, with teams like the Oorang Indians traveling throughout the country. The city of Columbus was starting to fall in love with the Ohio State Buckeyes (and Ohio State’s first big star, Chic Harley, and the recently built Ohio Stadium) to the extent that the citizens of Columbus would only go nuts for their college football team, not the one from the NFL, which is why the Columbus Panhandles folded after the 1922 season. Joe Carr replaced them with the Columbus Tigers. But after the 1926 season, the Tigers folded as well, and Carr left his hometown to the Buckeyes.
One of the other Columbus newspapers, the Ohio State Journal, sent a writer and photographer to cover the game. The day after the game, they ran a full-page recap of the Indians’ big win over the Panhandles, as well as two photos—one an action shot of Jim Thorpe running around left end (one of the few action photos of the Oorang Indians) and a close-up photo of Thorpe on the sidelines wearing his helmet, a blanket over his shoulder, smiling and talking to Hank Gowdy, a former baseball teammate with the Boston Braves. The trip to Columbus was a happy one for Lingo, Thorpe, and the rest of the Oorang Indians.
For the first time in their brief history, the Indians had won back-to-back NFL games (they were now 5–6 overall). Two days after playing the Panhandles, Lingo scheduled his team to play the Louisville Brecks, but weather forced the game to be cancelled. The Panhandles game turned out to be the last league contest played by the Indians, who finished with a 3–6 record, good enough for 12th place among the 18 NFL teams.
Although league play for the 1922 season had concluded, Lingo scheduled two more games in two potential markets for his Airedales. He arranged for his Indians to travel 200 miles north to Lansing, Michigan, on December 2, to take on the Durant All-Stars, a team sponsored by a local car dealer. The All-Stars had a record of 7–0–1, playing teams from Michigan. The local press labeled the All-Stars a “light, fast team.” Thorpe did not take them seriously.38
The night before the game, Lingo and the team rented rooms in town at the Roosevelt Hotel. Local Lansing ads showed ticket prices at $1 for reserve and general admission, while box seats were $2.25.
F-O-O-T-B-A-L-L
Jim Thorpe’s Oorang Indians
of La Rue, Ohio
vs.
LANSING DURANT ALL-STARS
Pattengill Stadium, Sat., Dec. 2
2 P.M.
Reserved Seats and General Admission $1.00, Plus Tax 10 Cents; Box Seats $2.25, Plus Tax 25 Cents.
Mail Orders Accepted Now at the Durant Motor Co. or M. J. & B. M. Buck’s Furniture Co.
Jim Thorpe’s Appearance Guaranteed by Contract39
Just two days after playing the Panhandles on Thanksgiving, the Indians played like a worn-out team. Thorpe played and coached—or didn’t coach—from the sidelines, as his Indians were beaten handily by a weaker team, the All-Stars, who pounded his squad, 29–0. The highlight for the Durant All-Stars was an interception of a Jim Thorpe pass by fullback Hammes, who returned the pigskin 60 yards for a score (the Marion Daily Star reports the return as 70 yards). The Indians threw three interceptions in the first half, and Thorpe replaced himself at halfback with Ed Nason at the beginning of the second half.40
The one positive was the rather large crowd that came out to see the game. Even after the lackluster results the Oorang Indians had managed in 1922, the name Jim Thorpe could still put paying fans in the stands. The Lansing State Journal writes, “Jim Thorpe’s highly touted Oorang Indians went down like a flock of cigar signs before Jim Killoran’s [Durant head coach] smashing Durant Stars Saturday afternoon, 29–0. Nearly 5,000 fans, the greatest crowd ever to witness a game at Pattengill Field, saw the tilt.”41
The Indians still attracted a nice crowd in Lansing, which for a town of 57,327 was a good turnout, but it was an embarrassing loss. Lingo probably cared little about the lopsided defeat, since he was advertising his Airedales to a new market. This would be the only game the Indians would play in Michigan.
To finish the season, Lingo pulled out all the stops by arranging a game on the East Coast against the Baltimore Pros—a nonleague team with a record of 4–2–1, with wins against the semipro Cleveland Panthers and the Philadelphia Hobart Athletic Club. The Baltimore game was getting some local publicity, as Joe Mallon, team manager of the Pros, had put together a strong team. Led by former Penn State star halfback Glenn Killinger, the Pros also featured tackle Tom Healy (former teammate of Thorpe with the Canton Bulldogs), halfback Ernie Hill, end Dutch Lentz (St. John’s), halfback Joe Leighty (Penn State), and team captain and tackle Carl Schmidt (Johns Hopkins).
A few days after playing in Michigan, Lingo and his team took a train, traveling more than 450 miles to Baltimore. On Friday, December 8, the Oorang Indians arrived in town. The Pros were finishing up their last practice as Lingo, Thorpe, and the rest of the team were checking into the Caswell Hotel. As they relaxed at the hotel, the Baltimore Evening Sun ran a full-page article on the squad that included individual photos of Bill Winneshick, Stillwell Saunooke, and Reggie Attache—more publicity for the Oorang Indians provided by Walter Lingo. Every paper in Baltimore ran a preview of the game that included Adam Bauer’s photos from earlier in the season.
As part of the pregame festivities, Baltimore mayor William Broening “kicked the pigskin at the start of the game.” Unlike a week earlier against the Durant All-Stars, Thorpe had his team ready to play, and the game was a hard-fought defensive struggle. The Indians gave the large crowd of 5,000 onlookers a “good show.” In the second quarter, the Pros began a march downfield, reaching the Indians four-yard line. From there, Killinger plowed his way through for the touchdown. A successful extra point gave the local team a 7–0 lead at halftime.42
During intermission, Lingo watched as his Airedales performed flawlessly. They were a hit on the East Coast. The second half saw more of the same as the first, with little offense. The Indians moved the ball but couldn’t punch it over. The game ended, 7–0.
Lingo and Thorpe Visit the White House
After the game, Lingo and Thorpe headed straight for Washington and the White House. They had made arrangements to visit their dear friend Dr. Charles Sawyer. Speaking to the Marion Daily Star in 1943, Walter Lingo described his visit.
We [Oorang Indians] had just finished a game with the Baltimore Orioles [Pros] when Thorpe and I went to the White House to see Dr. Charles E. Sawyer of Marion, who served as President Harding’s personal physician. During the conversation Laddie Boy, the president’s Airedale, was mentioned. Hearing the conversation, President Harding excused himself from the dinner table and stepped out on the porch. The four of us talked “dog talk” for half an hour.43
Lingo’s visit to the White House would always give him a smile when talking about his trip to Washington. Chatting with his good friend Sawyer and the president about Airedales became a lasting memory for Walter. It would be a story he would retell many times throughout the years.
While Lingo and the rest of the team returned to La Rue, Jim Thorpe and Pete Calac traveled south to join players from the Toledo Maroons to play a few exhibition games in Shreveport, Louisiana, and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Iva Thorpe and the children remained in La Rue at the Coon Paw Inn. The Indians were back with their families before Christmas. Lingo was home in La Rue.
The Oorang Indians played 13 football games during the fall of 1922, 12 of them on the road. Lingo’s team and dogs covered nearly 3,000 miles, visiting 12 cities in eight states (Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin). The specifics of their travels were as follows:
Longest road trip: Minneapolis, MN (700 miles)
Shortest road trip: Bucyrus, OH (32 miles)
Largest crowd: Milwaukee, WI (6,500 spectators)
Smallest crowd: Bucyrus (100 fans)
They finished with a 5–8 overall record, which wasn’t bad considering the main purpose of the squad was to advertise Oorang Airedales. The team was outscored 122 to 232 (an average of 9.3 to 17.8) and shut out six times—pretty bad football at times. But the numbers are a little misleading. Of the 13 games played in 1922, only four were blowouts or noncompetitive.
October 1, at Dayton Triangles, 0–36
October 29, at Akron Pros, 0–62
November 12, at Chicago Bears, 6–33
December 2, at Durant All-Stars, 0–29
For the rest of the schedule, they competed well against their opponents. They weren’t one of the best teams in the NFL or pro football, but they certainly fit in with the young sport and the newly organized league, which had just celebrated its third birthday. Although wins in the NFL were few and far between in 1922, the Oorang Indians did win in one department—publicity. They were advertised and written about in NFL cities as well as any other team in 1922. Numerous articles and photos (shot by Adam Bauer) were featured in newspapers throughout the country, giving the NFL the publicity it needed during that time.
The team also attracted fans. In 1921, the NFL averaged 2,618 fans per game (using newspaper figures for 66 league games) and, in 1922, 2,537 per game (in 74 league games). In eight of nine league road games, the Oorang Indians attracted 3,000 or more fans—more than the average for a NFL game in those two seasons. In two of the games, in Canton and Milwaukee, they more than doubled the average. The nonleague games in Lansing and Baltimore almost doubled the average attendance figure as well.
October 1, at Dayton Triangles (not available)
October 15, at Canton Bulldogs (5,100, Canton Daily News)
October 29, at Akron Pros (3,000, Marion Daily Star)
November 5, at Minneapolis Marines (4,000, Minneapolis Tribune-Journal)
November 12, at Chicago Bears (3,300, Tomahawk)
November 19, at Milwaukee Badgers (6,500, Milwaukee Journal)
November 26, at Buffalo All-Americans (3,000, Buffalo Currier)
November 30, at Columbus Panhandles (3,000, Ohio State Journal)
Fans consistently came out to see Lingo’s Oorang Indians and the great Jim Thorpe. Lingo’s first year in the NFL was a “success.” His Airedales had been seen by many sports fans throughout the Midwest and along the East Coast. He had accomplished exactly what he wanted to do with this promotional idea.
It had been a hectic and rough three months on the road playing football games and trying to sell dogs. Everyone needed a rest.