Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Hello all,

I know this is a long shot, but it's worth a try. I was wondering if anyone knows someone who had the chance to watch the Oorang Indians, a travelling team that played in the 1922 and 1923 NFL season, well-known for their halftime performances and star player/coach Jim Thorpe. By this point, someone would have to be in their late 90s to have any recollection of the Oorang Indians, but like I said: it's worth a shot

Also, if anyone has any other info on the Oorang Indians, such as Walter Lingo's promotional work, that would be of big help. I'm currently doing research for an article I'm writing.

Thank you everyone

Bryan

I believe that in a very early edition of The Coffin Corner (might have been early 1980s)
there was an extensive article on the Oorang Indians (most likely by Bob Carroll).

I just looked it up - Volume III #1 (1981) by Bob Braunwort, Bob Carroll and Joe Horrigan.

bmeler wrote:Hello all,

I know this is a long shot, but it's worth a try. I was wondering if anyone knows someone who had the chance to watch the Oorang Indians, a travelling team that played in the 1922 and 1923 NFL season, well-known for their halftime performances and star player/coach Jim Thorpe. By this point, someone would have to be in their late 90s to have any recollection of the Oorang Indians, but like I said: it's worth a shot

Also, if anyone has any other info on the Oorang Indians, such as Walter Lingo's promotional work, that would be of big help. I'm currently doing research for an article I'm writing.

Thank you everyone

Bryan

Chris Willis, author and Head Librarian at NFL Films, just published a book on the Oorangs last year.

Whoops ... there I go, promoting members of the cabal ...

JeffreyMiller wrote:

bmeler wrote:Hello all,

I know this is a long shot, but it's worth a try. I was wondering if anyone knows someone who had the chance to watch the Oorang Indians, a travelling team that played in the 1922 and 1923 NFL season, well-known for their halftime performances and star player/coach Jim Thorpe. By this point, someone would have to be in their late 90s to have any recollection of the Oorang Indians, but like I said: it's worth a shot

Also, if anyone has any other info on the Oorang Indians, such as Walter Lingo's promotional work, that would be of big help. I'm currently doing research for an article I'm writing.

Thank you everyone

Bryan

Chris Willis, author and Head Librarian at NFL Films, just published a book on the Oorangs last year.

Just Read the book great read

JeffreyMiller wrote:Whoops ... there I go, promoting members of the cabal ...

To have actually seen the Oorang Indians play and have any significant memory of it, you'd have to have been born probably no later than 1915 or 1916, and that would be pushing it.

Meaning you'd be at least 101 or 102. If one was 97 or even 98, they'd have been three or four years old. I don't know about you, but I don't remember much from when I was three or four, and I expect to remember even less by the time I'm in my 90s.

There are, supposedly, more than 70,000 centenarians in the United States. Surely somebody is alive who saw them. But they would have likely had to have lived in one of the 20 or so cities where the NFL played in those two years (all eastern and midwestern cities), which knocks the potential number down quite a bit.

Luckily, as you see, some books have been written.

Throwin_Samoan wrote:To have actually seen the Oorang Indians play and have any significant memory of it, you'd have to have been born probably no later than 1915 or 1916, and that would be pushing it.

Meaning you'd be at least 101 or 102. If one was 97 or even 98, they'd have been three or four years old. I don't know about you, but I don't remember much from when I was three or four, and I expect to remember even less by the time I'm in my 90s.

There are, supposedly, more than 70,000 centenarians in the United States. Surely somebody is alive who saw them. But they would have likely had to have lived in one of the 20 or so cities where the NFL played in those two years (all eastern and midwestern cities), which knocks the potential number down quite a bit.

Luckily, as you see, some books have been written.

I know two people who turned 100 last year, but neither of them saw the Oorang Indians.

rhickok1109 wrote:I know two people who turned 100 last year, but neither of them saw the Oorang Indians.

This would be a great subject for your follow-up book to Johnny McNally...really old people who never saw the Oorang Indians play.

Thank you. Yes, I had the chance to read Chris' book