Oorang Indians The Oorang Indians were a traveling team in the National Football League from LaRue , Ohio ( near Marion ) . The team was named after the Oorang dog kennel s . It was a novelty team put together by the kennels ' owner , Walter Lingo , for marketing purposes . All of the players were Native American , with Jim Thorpe as its leading player . They played the 1922 and 1923 NFL seasons . Of the 20 games they played over two seasons , only one was played at " home " in nearby Marion . With a population well under a thousand people , LaRue is the smallest town ever to have been the home of an NFL franchise , or probably any professional team in any league in the United States . History . Lingo and Thorpe . The Indians franchise began when Lingo first met and became friends with Jim Thorpe , a future NFL Hall of Famer and who was considered the greatest athlete of his time . Thorpe first came to Lingo ' s defense after neighboring farmers accused the Lingo ' s Oorang Kennels of raising a nation of sheep killers . Thorpe came to Lingo ' s aid by testifying that he once knew an Oorang Airedale that had saved the life of a 6 - year - old girl , named Mabel , from being trampled by a bull . After that , Lingo and Thorpe became hunting buddies . Purchasing the team . In the winter of 1921 , Lingo brought Thorpe and Pete Calac , who was a teammate of Thorpe ' s at the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania , to his plantation in LaRue to hunt for opossum . Lingo would purchase a franchise in the National Football League . At the time , the franchise was priced at $ 100 . However just one of Lingo ' s Airedales sold for $ 150 . Lingo saw the idea of a franchise as a way of touring the country ’ s leading cities for the express purpose of advertising his Airedale dogs . Therefore he placed two conditions on the team . The first was that Thorpe had to field an all - Indian team . Secondly , Lingo wanted the team to help run his kennels in addition to playing football . Thorpe and Calac agreed to both terms . In June 1922 , Walter Lingo travelled to Canton , Ohio and purchased an NFL franchise for $ 100 . 00 . He named his team the Oorang Indians after his kennels and favorite breed of dog . The name stood out to sports and dog fans alike . Lingo also served as the team ' s business manager . Fielding the team . Jim Thorpe served as a player - coach and recruited players for the team . In keeping with Lingo ' s wishes that franchise be an all - Indian team , the Oorang Indians consisted of members that were Cherokee , Mohawk , Chippewa , Blackfeet , Winnebago , Mission , Caddo , Sac and Fox , Seneca and Penobscot . The team roster included such names as Long Time Sleep , Joe Little Twig , Big Bear , War Eagle , and Thorpe . Since Lingo ’ s plan was to advertise his dogs and kennel , the Indians were a traveling team , having only played one home game . That one " home " game was also played in nearby Marion , instead of LaRue since the town did not have a football field . This caused the team to travel week after week to many of major cities in the country . However , despite the hectic schedule , Lingo insisted that the Indians received the very best of care . The same dieticians and the same trainer who fed his Airedales and cared for their well - being , also tended to the Indian team members . 1922 and 1923 seasons . There were two future Hall of Famers on the roster , Thorpe and Joe Guyon , but they did not play much . Thorpe sat out quite a few games and never played more than a half , while Guyon did not join the team until midway through the first season . The Indians defeated the Indianapolis Belmonts , in a snowstorm , 33 - 0 in their inaugural game , taking home 2 , 000 in profits and a Cherokee tackle named Chief Johnson , who Thorpe recruited at halftime . However football was not a priority for Lingo , promoting his kennel was . The pre - game and halftime activities were considered more important than the results of the game , and this entertainment was provided by the players and the Airedale dogs . Because of this lack of interest by Lingo , the Indians turned out not to be a very good team . In fact , they won only three games in two years . Decline . At first the Oorang Indians were an excellent gate attraction . However most fans knew that the team wasn ' t very good , and they ' d already seen the halftime show , so they stayed away . Lingo didn ' t renew the franchise in 1924 . The novelty wore off and Lingo pulled his financial backing . So , at the end of the 1923 season , the Oorang Indians shut down for good . Although the team disbanded in 1924 , Lingo ’ s kennels continued to thrive until the stock market crash of 1929 . Lingo then traveled to Minneapolis , Minnesota to promote Oorang dog biscuits . Back in LaRue , Lingo ’ s wife , Beryl , office secretary Belva Bowdre , and kennel superintendent Carl Sharpe revived the kennels . Although never reaching the success enjoyed in the 1920s , The Oorang Kennel Company continued until Walter Lingo ’ s death in 1966 . First ever halftime shows . Rather than retiring to the locker room at halftime , the Oorang Indians showed Lingo ’ s Airedales to the crowd . It was debatable , though , whether the Indians were there to play football or give Airedale exhibitions at halftime . In addition to the exhibitions with the dogs ; the Indians , including Thorpe , participated in helping the Oorang Airedales perform tricks for the crowd . However , it was their halftime entertainment that made them such a huge attraction in the early 1920s . There were shooting exhibitions with the dogs retrieving the targets . There were Indian dances and tomahawk and knife - throwing demonstrations . Thorpe would often repeatedly drop kick balls through the uprights from midfield . Nikolas Lassa , also called " Long - Time - Sleep , " even wrestled a bear on occasion . Party lifestyle . The whole purpose of the Indians was to advertise Lingo ' s Airedales . The Indians knew that football wasn ' t important to the owner , so they spent a lot of their time partying and drinking . In 1922 the night before a game with the Chicago Bears , the Indians went to a Chicago bar called " Everyman ' s Saloon . " At 2 : 00 a . m . , the bartender stopped serving drinks since Illinois law prohibited the sale of alcohol after 2 a . m . . This action upset the Indians who stuffed the bartender in a telephone booth and turned it upside down . The Indians were defeated by the Bears 33 - 6 just a few hours later . Another instance in St . Louis occurred when several of the Indians went out drinking for the night . As the night came to an end , the players decided it was time to return to their hotel . They soon found a trolley that could take them back to their rooms , however that particular trolley was headed in the opposite direction . To solve this problem , the Indians players picked up the trolley , and turned it around on the tracks . They then told the conductor the address for their hotel .