National Football League - Walter Lingo, Jim Thorpe, and the Oorang Indians: how a dog kennel owner created the NFLs most famous traveling team

Walter Lingo, Jim Thorpe, and the Oorang Indians

Walter Lingo, Jim Thorpe, and the Oorang Indians

How a Dog Kennel Owner Created the NFLs Most Famous Traveling Team

Chris Willis

Rowman & Littlefield

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Willis, Chris, 1970 author.

Title: Walter Lingo, Jim Thorpe, and the Oorang Indians : How a Dog Kennel Owner Created the NFLs Most Famous Traveling Team / Chris Willis.

Description: Lanham, Maryland : Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016045681 (print) | LCCN 2017005694 (ebook) | ISBN 9781442277656 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781442277663 (electronic)

Subjects: LCSH: Oorang Indians (Football team)History. | National Football LeagueHistory20th century. | Lingo, Walter, 18901966. | Thorpe, Jim, 18871953. | Football team ownersUnited StatesBiography. | Olympic athletesUnited StatesBiography.

Classification: LCC GV956.O27 .W55 2017 (print) | LCC GV956.O27 (ebook) | DDC 796.332/64dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016045681

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Preface

During the past twenty years, Ive researched the history of pro football and have had the chance to interview many people associated with the sport. One such interview in 2000 led me to eventually write this book. I was doing research on the NFL in the 1920s and dug around to see who was still living from that decade who could possibly talk about the NFLs ragtag days. I did some research on the Oorang Indians, the NFL team from tiny La Rue, Ohio (1920 population, 795), which was founded by local dog kennel owner Walter Lingo and played two seasons (19221923) in the league under the guidance of the great Jim Thorpe.

In my research I found that William Guthery Sr. was living in Fort Pierce, Florida. Guthery was a prep player on the La Rue (Ohio) High School team in 1922, who practiced on the same field as Thorpe and the Indians, because the small town of La Rue had only one suitable football field. So both the NFL team and the high school squad practiced together, as the Indians helped teach the high schoolers how to play football.

On June 26, 2000, Guthery, who was 94 years old at the time and had returned to his hometown to visit his family, sat down with me at his sons home in La Rue to talk about the Oorang Indians. Both teams started that year, and you can imagine what we were thinking because none of us had ever played football before. We didnt know the rules. We didnt really know how to handle the ball or catch a ball. Jim Thorpe and the Indians showed us how to do it, recalled William Guthery Sr.

Knowing I was going to interview Guthery, I contacted Bob Lingo, Walter Lingos son, who lived close by in Delaware, to also do an interview. For nearly an hour I became fascinated with Bobs answers about his fathers dog kennel business and his crazy idea of forming a NFL team to help promote it. Both interviews turned into short chapters for my first book, Old Leather: An Oral History of Early Pro Football in Ohio, 19201935 , published in 2005. After doing those interviews for Old Leather , I always had it in the back of my mind to revisit the world of Walter Lingo and the Oorang Indians.

Throughout the years, as I was combing through various sources, I kept coming back to a fascinating story about a kennel owner from a small town in Ohio forming a traveling team in the NFL to help promote his business. It wasnt until 14 years after my first contact with Bob Lingo that I reentered the Oorang world.

In the summer of 2014, I returned to Ohio and spent two separate visits with Bob, and his wonderful and charming wife Judy, to talk about his famous father. He answered all of my questions about the Lingo family, living in La Rue, the Oorang Kennels, and the football team. He also allowed me to go through the Lingo Family Collection, photos, letters, and anything that pertained to that time period. I couldnt have asked for a better situation.

After interviewing Walters side of the family I was also able to interview his siblings families, which included John Knaur (the Donald Lingo family) and Rick Swartz (the Edward Merle Lingo family), to get a more complete picture of this unique and special family.

In 2000, I had also met and interviewed La Rue native Jim Anderson, the foremost historian and collector of everything La Rue and Oorang Indians. Ive known Jim for more than 15 years, and he has always been helpful in my research. Jim also showed me around the small town of La Rue, a tour I had also taken in 2000. He took me to the Lingo home on School Street and showed me the inside of the house, as well as the back of the house, so I could see the last three buildings of the original Oorang Kennels. Going inside the buildings was an experience I wont soon forget. I also visited the field where the Oorang Indians practiced (an Ohio Historical Marker signifies the site of the practice field) and the La Rue Cemetery and Walter Lingos gravesite.

To complete my research, I went through newspaper accounts, magazines, photos, and anything related to the Oorang or Walter Lingo I could find, as well the archives at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. For the past two and a half years, Ive been submerged in the world of Walter Lingo, the Oorang Indians, and Lingos Oorang Kennels.

This is a story worth telling.

Acknowledgments

After spending more than two years researching the life of Walter Lingo, Jim Thorpe, and the Oorang Indians, I feel I dont have enough words to thank all of the people who helped me in completing this book. First and foremost, I want to thank the entire Lingo family for their support and generosity. Without their help, this book could never have been written. I personally want to thank Bob Lingo, son of Walter Lingo, and his wonderful wife Judy for opening up their home on two separate visits to Ohio. They were kind, generous, and extremely helpful in getting me the material I requested. Thank you Bob for answering every single question (I know it was a lot) during those visits and Judy for copying and scanning the material from the Walter Lingo Collection. I truly appreciate your help and cherish the time I spent visiting.

I am also indebted to John Knaur, grandson of Donald Lingo (Walters brother), for answering my questions about his grandfather and allowing me to use photos from his collection, and Rick Swartz, grandson of Merle Lingo (Walters brother). Thank you for taking the time to do an interview with me and for showing me the family archives. The three Lingo families more than fulfilled my expectations, so thank you very much.

Once again, I want to thank the great people at Rowman & Littlefield for believing in preserving the history of professional football. I worked with Stephen Ryan on my first couple books and now Christen Karniski, acquisitions editor. Thank you for helping put this book together; you always make the final product better. Moreover, I want to thank the rest of the staff at Rowman & Littlefield; it is always a joy to work with you, and there is no other publisher I would want to work with.