Once upon a time, Jim and "Jack" Thorpe played pro football together. The year was 1923, and the team was the Oorang Indians, a fledgling NFL franchise that was more of a Wild West show than a serious football team.

Jim Thorpe was the coach and his brother, "Jack Deadeye" Thorpe, played guard, center, tackle and wingback as a member of the 17-player, all-Indian football team.At least that's the information gleaned from a number of sources. Unfortunately, Jim Thorpe did not have a brother named "Jack" nor "Deadeye". So who was this mysterious player who appeared in eight games for the 1923 Oorang Indians - with no references to a "Jack" or "Deadeye" Thorpe either before or after that year? Both were probably nicknames.By the time Jim Thorpe's mixed-race parents, Hiram Phillip Thorpe and Charlotte Vieux were married, Hiram already had at least three children by two earlier wives. Charlotte gave him eleven more. After Charlotte's passing, he fathered two more sons by another wife.Hiram fathered eleven children with Charlotte: George (1882), Rosetta (1882-1889), twins: Mary (1883-1884) and Margaret (1883-1887), twins: Jim (1887-1954) and Charlie (1887-1897), Mary#2 (1891), Jesse (1891-1892), Adeline (1895), Edward (1898 -1968), and Henry (1898, died at birth).So, if "Jack Deadeye" Thorpe was truly a brother of Jim Thorpe, he had to be either his younger brother, George (1882) or his older brother, Edward (1898). This is where it gets dicey. Various sources have conflicting references to whether "Jack Deadeye" was the younger or older brother.Jim Thorpe's grandson Michael Koehler hasn't heard of a brother of Jim Thorpe referred to as "Jack". In 1923, Jim's older brother, George would have been 41, Jim would have been 36, and his younger brother, Edward would have been 25. At 36, Jim was already worn from years of playing and was happy to coach and put on exhibits. It seems that a 25-year-old Edward would have been more likely to have played that year than a 41-year-old George.George married a Shawnee, Ella Washington, and had two kids, Webb and Nellie. Jim's younger brother, Edward Paul Thorpe died in 1968 in Redlands, California.Towards the end of his football career, Jim Thorpe was invited to help form the Oolong Indians of LaRue, Ohio. The Oolong Indians were no ordinary football team - they were a football team that served as an advertisement for LaRue's hometown industry, breeding King Airedale terriers.Walter Lingo owned Oorang Kennels, then the largest Airedale breeder in the world - shipping 15,000 dogs a year. Lingo, believing that a spiritual link existed between Indians and Airedales, befriended Jim Thorpe and they came up with an idea for a publicity stunt to both promote Lingo's Oorang Kennels and to getting some additional mileage out of the aging Thorpe.At the 1922 owners' meetings, Lingo purchased the rights to an NFL franchise for $100 - an interesting step for a town that didn't have a football field. They became a traveling team, playing only one "home game" at nearby Marion, Ohio.From the get-go Lingo's team was pure marketing. He hired Thorpe as manager of his kennel and the coach of his team, a team they decided would be made up of all Indians - although several including Thorpe were not pureblooded. He recruited 17 players, including Joe Guyon, who like Thorpe, would be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The name of the team was selected, Oorang Indians - in honor of the kennels.The Oorang Indians lasted two seasons with three wins and six loses in 1922, and one win and 10 losses in 1923, and often with losing scores of 41-0, 57-0, and 62-0, they were a disappointment as a football team but an amazing attraction. By being exhausted as an attraction, they had little energy left to play football.Rather than resting before and at half-time, the Oorang Indians introduced the pre-game and the half-time shows. They would parade Lingo's Airedales, perform shooting exhibitions with the dogs retrieving the targets, presenting Indian dances, and demonstrate tomahawk and knife-throwing. They exhibited Airedales trailing and treeing a live bear, along with bear wrestling. A highlight of the show was to see Jim Thorpe drop kick a football through the uprights from the 50-yard line, and then turn around and repeat the feat through the opposing goalpost.During 1922, the novelty was successful, but on their return to the cities for their 1923 tour, the crowds had slackened. Lingo wasn't selling Airedales, so the team was disbanded, and Lingo discontinued his franchise.