Updating defunct NFL teams

[Darth Brooks]

Oorang Indians

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oorang_Indians

One of the more colorful teams of the era. Before anyone makes the assumption, the name wasn't just a "tribute" like Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves and such. It really was made up entirely of Native Americans. Jim Thorpe was the head coach. Unfortunately the owner was just looking for a way to promote his kennel.

Some choice bits from Wikipedia:

In June 1922, Walter Lingo, who also served as the team's business manager, traveled 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.

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. Indians came from all over the United States traveled to LaRue to try out for the team. Many of the prospects were from Thorpe's alma mater, the Carlisle Indian School. Several of the candidates looking to make the team, also had not played in years and were older than 40.

The club performed almost exclusively on the road, as a traveling team, where it could draw the biggest crowds and best advertise the dogs. The same dieticians and the same trainer who fed his Airedales and cared for their well-being, also tended to the Indian team members.

Walter Lingo's son, Bob, later reflected that the team practiced every day, depending on the workload at the dog kennel. However training for an NFL season was only a secondary mission for the players. They did everything at the dog kennels, from training the dogs to building crates to ship them in.

They held the first halftime show. 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 had a history of repeatedly drop kicking footballs through the uprights from midfield. Indians player, Nick Lassa (also called "Long-Time-Sleep") even wrestled a bear on occasion.

The Indians players knew that Lingo's only goal was to advertise his Airedales and that winning football games wasn't important to him. Therefore the players spent a lot of their free time partying and drinking.

The Indians are also believed to have the highest percentage of Oklahomans on its roster than any other NFL squad before or since. Finally the club was also the first NFL team to have a regular training camp during their short existence.

Original uniform

Update

I would have gone with Burgundy for the uniform color but so many of these teams used variations of red that they would look the same. The Pottsville Maroons are (or will be) literally be an "M" on a maroon helmet and a maroon jersey. If I get desperate (or lazy) I'll be doing that.

[Spearhead]

Like that Indians helmet.

Could you show us the Eskimos logo?

[Darth Brooks]

Decided to do Canton with stripes on the side. I really don't like this one as well.

[pianoknight]

Do these defunct teams all go pantless? I'm envisioning like some neo-Greco Roman wrestling fad.

Would love to see pants as well, partly because these are so freaking amazing already.

[Buster]

This might interest you for deciding other teams to do:

[Darth Brooks]

That is pretty cool. It's funny how tenuous the teams were in the beginning and how much they're valued at now. I had a set idea for the teams I wanted to do. Ones that were around for a while and had success in their day but that didn't survive. Oorang is the exception just because they had such an amazing story. I want to do eight and then I'm done.

Providence Steamrollers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Providence_Steam_Roller

Providence won the NFL championship in 1928, You can watch these guys in action : http://oldfilm.org/content/framingham-lion-tamers-vs-providence-steam-roller-0

Typical story. Really good local team joins the NFL, does well for a while but eventually the gap in organization talent shows and the team folds. The jersey depicted is Fritz Pollard, one of the star black players of the day and a member of the NFL's hall of fame.

The logo was a bit of an issue.

This is the original and for all intents and purposes the official logo. I debated back and forth between using a version of it or making a new one. I came to the conclusion that eventually a different logo would be used (the Dog man surely would have been a secondary logo. He's just too cool for school)

This is what I came up with.

I may go back and add pants although you can probably figure on white or very light alternate as the main color with dark stripe on most of them.

[Darth Brooks]

Pottsville Maroons

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottsville_Maroons

There is evidently an official website for the team!

http://www.pottsvillemaroons1925.com/

Pottsville's Official logo points to the thing that makes their story interesting.

In 1925 they went 12-2 and beat the second best team, the Chicago Cardinals (In case you're wondering, yes that's the team that's the Arizona Cardinals now) They did so well that everybody said "Let's play another" and they went after Notre Dame. At the time the College game was thought to better than the pro,but even so the Maroons won. The problem is that they booked a stadium in Philadelphia and the Frankford Yellow Jackets cried foul. The commissioner penalized them by throwing them out of the league and giving the trophy to the Cardinals. The owner of the Cards at the time didn't want anything to do with "A stolen crown" and refused to acknowledge the championship. After Charles Bidwell bought the team they started laying claim to the 1925 championship.

The team came back to the NFL and lasted until 1929

The update. While Pottsville's Official logo is interesting, it really wouldn't look good on a helmet. I'll quote myself.

"The Pottsville Maroons are (or will be) literally be an "M" on a maroon helmet and a maroon jersey. If I get desperate (or lazy) I'll be doing that."

Yup.

[BrianVlietDesign]

Keep up the good work with these! My favorite is the Triangles and the updated Bulldogs!

[RL52]

I actually like the Steamrollers jersey the best. Its a nice Black and Red combo.

[thaipod]

I like the Steamrollers jersey as well. I dig the logo you made, but on the helmet, it looks off. Perhaps on the helmet, instead of the entire steamroller, just use the "P + football" grill of the steamroller?

[FALCON6]

Alrighty! Nice job. Oorang's helmet is a masterpiece. Love the greek letter logo. And Providence's logo is a bit complex, but the uniforms have a nice flow of black and red. Pottsville is great due to simplicity.

[Darth Brooks]

I like the Steamrollers jersey as well. I dig the logo you made, but on the helmet, it looks off. Perhaps on the helmet, instead of the entire steamroller, just use the "P + football" grill of the steamroller?

I had the same thought when I made it.

Like that Indians helmet.

Could you show us the Eskimos logo?

Actually, write to tonyd [you know what goes here]zenithcity.com for the logo. I asked, and he gave me permission to use it but to send inquiries about the logo to him.

[Darth Brooks]

Rock Island Independents

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Island_Independents

I'll be straight honest here, I got tired of doing red unis. Rock Island is another team that had success pre NFL. In 1919 they went 9-1-1 but never had the same success afterwards. In 1926 they jumped ship, being the only NFL team to move to the 1926 version of the AFL. The rival league didn't pay as well as the NFL and they folded in 1927.

Original uniform.

Reimagining.

This is the first of these that I've done that's just a helmet graphic and not a logo. Cleveland, Cincinnati and maybe St. Louis come to mind as teams that go without a helmet logo.

[kwmoore]

I don't remember the football Reds really even having a logo as such.

[FUNKAFIED]

This series is brilliant. I would buy just about anything that had that Canton Bulldogs shoulder patch on it.

[ChuckFitz66]

The Stripes on the Independents' jersey are the same as the Triangles'. I'd modify them a little.

[GraysonColtsBoy]

Wow! Did you know that the Colts history as been traced back to 1913 as the Dayton Triangles.

[Djruggs]

Just so you know, in the PSD, there is a jersey labeled "NFL" if you make that visible and make the generic jersey not visible, the NFL crest is the only thing at the base of the collar.

[beruud]

These are great good job, yellow jackets is my fav.

[BlueSky]

Darth, in the immortal words of, well, Darth, "Impressive. Most impressive." The idea for this thread and its execution are both superb. Best work I've seen around here in quite a while. It's not often I see multiple concepts and think, "It would be awesome to see those on the field." Just about every one of these qualifies. Well done!