Walter Lingo, Jim Thorpe, and the Oorang Indians: How a Dog Kennel Owner Created the Nfl’s Most Famous Traveling Team

This book tells the little-known story of the Oorang Indians, a traveling professional football team comprised entirely of Native Americans. Created by dog kennel owner Walter Lingo and coached by star athlete Jim Thorpe, the team spent two seasons in the NFL in 1922 and 1923 traveling throughout the country and drawing crowds wherever they went.

Chris Willis is the Head of the Research Library at NFL Films, a position he has held since 1996. He is the author of multiple books on pro football, including The Man Who Built the National Football League: Joe F. Carr (2010), Dutch Clark: The Life of an NFL Legend and the Birth of the Detroit Lions (2012), and A Nearly Perfect Season: The Inside Story of the 1984 San Francisco 49ers (2014), all published by Rowman & Littlefield. In 2002 Willis was nominated for an Emmy for his work on the HBO Documentary ＂The Game of Their Lives: Pro Football in the 1950’s.＂ Willis was awarded the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Ralph Hay award for lifetime achievement in pro football research and historiography in 2012.