The Most Interesting Team In NFL History Just Wanted To Sell You A Dog: The Story Of Jim Thorpe And The Oorang Indians

by Josh Koebert, posted in Uncategorized
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Football doggie!

The most interesting team in National Football League history is one you’ve never heard of. 

In just two seasons the Oorang Indians produced more fever-dream lunacy than most modern NFL franchises have in decades of existence. Before trying to argue that your favorite colorful characters and stories from NFL history top those of the Indians, please know that the story of this franchise includes: 

  • Dogs. Lots and lots and LOTS of dogs 
  • Accusations of sheep murder as the primary reason for forming an NFL franchise
  • Both the players and owners treating playing in the National Football League as a literal side-hustle and marketing gimmick for a completely different business
  • The smallest city to ever host an NFL franchise
  • Said franchise never actually playing a single game in their hometown
  • Truly mind-boggling revelations about how little it cost to start an NFL team in the 1920s
  • The invention of the halftime show and training camps
  • One of the most famous and accomplished athletes of all-time, who also happened to be a national champion ballroom dancer
  • Some of the best player names in NFL history
  • A pet coyote
  • Drunken, unsanctioned alterations to the public transportation infrastructure of St. Louis
  • Bear wrestling

Honestly, that list doesn’t even do the full story justice, as this truly may be one of the most entertainingly insane franchises in all of sports history. Without further ado, Forgotten Franchises presents the story of the Oorang Indians, the NFL’s original Dawg Pound.

Continue reading “The Most Interesting Team In NFL History Just Wanted To Sell You A Dog: The Story Of Jim Thorpe And The Oorang Indians” →

Maybe Don’t Name Your Team After A Random Hat: The ABA’s Dysfunctional Memphis Tams

by Josh Koebert, posted in ABA, Basketball, Memphis, Minor League Baseball, NBA, Tennessee

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I have a Twitter friendship with a number of Memphis Grizzlies fans and writers, the origins of which I can not even begin to accurately trace. Regardless, they are some of the most fun and encouraging Internet Folks I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing, and they’ve been pretty darn supportive of this site. While this dive into Memphis’ pre-NBA history is written with them in mind, I hope anybody that stumbles across it will find something to enjoy (and I think they will)!

Additional note: the Memphis Tams page at Remember The ABA proved invaluable in writing this, and I feel they deserve special recognition for that. 

-Josh (@jkoebert)

When you think of Memphis, Tennessee, what comes to mind? It’s those fun hats that Scottish people wear right? You know, the kinda flat ones they have on when they play the bagpipes? With the little fuzzy ball on top? These things: Continue reading “Maybe Don’t Name Your Team After A Random Hat: The ABA’s Dysfunctional Memphis Tams” →

A Great Team (Once) That No One Watched (Ever): The Story of the Tampa Bay Mutiny

by Josh Koebert, posted in Florida, Major League Soccer, MLS, Soccer, Tampa Bay

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For our second post I decided to focus on a more recent team-no-more, as well as one from the place I’ve called home for the last four years, Tampa Bay. Enjoy the tale of the Tampa Bay Mutiny, a team that begs the question: If a team is really good but no one is around to see it, how long will it be until said team folds?

Click the social media buttons in the top left of the page to Like Forgotten Franchises on Facebook and Follow the site on Twitter! 

-Josh (@jkoebert)

Despite being the second most-played youth sport in America (behind only basketball), soccer has had a difficult time capturing the nation’s imagination on a professional level. Outside of the meteoric rise and fall of the NASL in the late 70s thanks to teams like the legendary New York Cosmos and all-time great players like Pele, Johan Cruyff, and Franz Beckenbauer, there had been nothing even resembling a successful professional soccer league in the United States before the formation of Major League Soccer in 1996.

Continue reading “A Great Team (Once) That No One Watched (Ever): The Story of the Tampa Bay Mutiny” →

How The Milwaukee Badgers Helped Chicago Steal The NFL’s Most Controversial Championship And Launched The League’s Longest Curse

by Josh Koebert, posted in NFL

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Author’s Note: It is only appropriate that the first article on this site is about the team that inspired it in the first place. While in the throes of a Wikipedia wormhole I stumbled upon a collection of Defunct NFL Franchises and was pleasantly surprised to see the words “Milwaukee Badgers” on the list. A love of history and sports led, naturally, to further exploration of this team I never knew existed even though I grew up in their home city. What I found was at turns fascinating and ridiculous, which is right in line with many of the most famous franchises and fables from this era of the NFL. The idea of synthesizing the various sources and stories about the Badgers into one easily-digestible narrative was born. From there it branched out to the site you’re reading now, where teams young and old, from all sports, that were taken from this world too soon can get some posthumous time in the spotlight.

I hope you enjoy reading these stories as much I enjoy putting them together!  

-Josh (@jkoebert) 

The entity that we now know as the National Football League was born in the showroom of a Hupmobile dealership in Canton, Ohio in August of 1920. For reference, this is a 1920 Hupmobile previously on display at the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Continue reading “How The Milwaukee Badgers Helped Chicago Steal The NFL’s Most Controversial Championship And Launched The League’s Longest Curse” →