Pete Calac Pedro " Pete " Calac ( 1892 – 1960 ) was a professional football player who played in the Ohio League and during the early years of the National Football League . Over the course of his 10 year career he played for the Canton Bulldogs , Cleveland Indians , Washington Senators , Oorang Indians and the Buffalo Bisons . Biography . Early life . Calac was born on May 13 , 1892 to Francisco and Felicidad Molino Calac of Valley Center , California . Two of Pete ' s brothers had died of typhoid fever and he had a brother and two sisters living in 1908 . A Mission Indian , he was born on a reservation and attended grammar school in nearby Fallbrook , California . While there , he was selected to attend the Carlisle Indian School . Carlisle Indian School . Calac came to the Carlisle Indian School located across the country in Carlisle , Pennsylvania on November 16 , 1908 at the age of 15 . He came to the school via the Union Pacific Railroad with only a third - grade education . Calac left Carlisle in June 1911 and returned to California . He asked to return to Carlisle and was re - enrolled September 22 , 1912 . At the school , he excelled at football . In 1914 and 1915 , he was captain of the football team . He was first elected as the team ' s captain in 1914 when the team ' s current captain , Elmer Busch , was forced to resign . Until attending the school , Calac had never played football before and had no knowledge of the game . Calac recalled in Robert W . Wheeler ' s book , " Jim Thorpe : World ' s Greatest Athlete " , that the other players took an interest in him because of his large size . It was then that Jim Thorpe , who would later be recognied as being one of the Top Athletes of the 20th Century . Thorpe and Calac soon became friends and would later play professional football with the Canton Bulldogs and the Oorang Indians . US Army . After attending West Virginia Wesleyan , Pete returned to California for a visit to family and tribe and enlisted in the Army . He served with the 91st Division , known as the " Wild West Division , " in France and Belgium during World War I . He returned from the war without a wound . He later stated that " I guess I dug in too much " . However in article by the Professional Football Researchers Association , Calac was reported to have suffered career threatening wounds during the war but was back at the top of his game by 1922 . Football career . Canton Bulldogs . In 1916 with Calac and former Carlisle teammate Jim Thorpe starring , Canton went 9 - 0 - 1 , won the Ohio League championship , and was acclaimed the pro football champion . The Bulldogs had a repeat of their 1916 season , by winning the 1917 Ohio League championship . Then in 1919 Thorpe and Calac were joined in the backfield by future Hall of Famer Joe Guyon and won their third Ohio League Championship . Union Quakers . Calac and Guyon joined the backfield of the Union Quakers over the 1921 Thanksgiving weekend for the games against the Conshohocken Athletic Club and the pre - NFL version of the Frankford Yellow Jackets . The 1921 Quakers team won the Philadelphia City Championship . Washington Senators . The Washington Senators franchise spent only 1 season in the NFL . Once the team left the league at the end of the 1921 season , only three of the team ' s players would play in the NFL following the very next season . Those players were Benny Boynton , Guyon and Calac . Oorang Indians . In the winter of 1921 , Walter Lingo , a Airedale terrier breeder , brought Thorpe and Calac , to his plantation in LaRue , Ohio to hunt for possum . During that meeting Lingo decided to purchase a franchise in the National Football League . Called the Oorang Indians . The team was composed only of Native Americans and was mostly used as tool to for Lingo to promote his Airedales . The team was not considered to be very good , despite having two future Hall of Famers in the lineup . Lingo was more interested in selling his dogs instead of quality football . As a result , the Indians became more of a novelty act , known for their halftime shows instead of a football team . Calac played the team ' s halfback for both years of the Indians existence . Buffalo Bisons . After the Indians folded in 1923 . Calac was left in need of a team . He was scooped up by the Buffalo Bisons , who were previously known as the Buffalo All - Americans . The team was sold to a group led by local businessman Warren D . Patterson and Tommy Hughitt , the team ’ s quarterback , for $ 50 , 000 . The new owners changed the name of the team to Bisons , and committed themselves to signing big name players in an effort to improve performance both on the field and in attendance . As part of this big name spending spree , Calac was offered a contract to serve as the team ' s fullbck . The combination of Hughitt , Boynton , Eddie Kaw , and Calac gave Buffalo the most potent offensive backfield in the league . In a 13 - 0 opening day victory over the Columbus Panhandles , managed by future NFL President Joe Carr , Calac was knocked out of the game with a broken nose . While with the Bisons , the team had to travel to Philadelphia for a game against the Frankford Yellow Jackets . Philadelphia , being a large metropolitan area , was unfamiliar territory for several of the rural players . That night several players including Calac and Jim Allinger went out to a restaurant for dinner . According to Allinger , he unfamiliar with what to order in a restaurant , so he sat right next to Calac , who was a veteran player . The waiter asked Pete what he wanted and he said , " A lot of meat and a lot of potatoes . " Family . Pete and his wife were reported to have been married since 1924 . They had a son , 2 daughters and 7 grandchildren . Their son , following in Pete ' s footsteps , played high school football in Canton . Afterwards he became a member of the police force . According to his obituary , Pete Calac passed on January 30 , 1960 . Legacy . Grantland Rice , Dean of American Sportswriters , once wrote , " I believe an All - American , All - Indian Football team could beat the All - Time Notre Dame Team , the All - Time Michigan Team , or the All - Time anything else . Take a look at a backfield like Jim Thorpe , Joe Guyon , Pete Calac and Frank Mount Pleasant . "