Today's Tidbit... Halftime Entertainment Reaches Olympian Levels

Feb 13, 2025

Apparently, some people did not like the Super Bowl's halftime entertainment. It wasn't my cup of tea either, but my best dancing and musical days are behind me, and the kerfuffle pales compared to other challenges facing this country.

But as long as people are complaining about halftime entertainment, I thought we could look back at examples of odd halftime entertainment from days gone by. A bonus is that each story has a connection to the Olympics.

1920s Oorang Indians

The oddest franchise in NFL history was likely the Oorang Indians, a team led by Jim Thorpe and comprised solely of Native Americans. Given the star-studded cast available from Carlisle, Haskell, and other Indian School football teams of the time, the fact that the team existed was not particularly odd. Rather, it was the fact that the Oorang Dog Kennel in La Rue, Ohio, sponsored the team to promote their Airedale dogs.

The team went 4-16 during its two years on the field, but it was better known for entertaining crowds when it was not playing football. Halftime shows included Thorpe giving punting exhibitions, while Nick Lassaw, aka Chief Long Time Sleep, performed snake dances, as did other team members and elements of their traveling party. A key feature at halftime was tricks performed by the Airedales at the instruction of team members.

1922 Oorang Indians team picture (Big Read)

1936 Creighton vs. Hardin-Simmons

If you happened to be in the stands in Omaha when Creighton played Hardin-Simmons in 1936, you enjoyed two distinct halftime festivities. One involved the Hardin-Simmons Cowboy band, clad in leather chaps, 10-gallon hats, and cowboy boots. Led onto the field by a rider on a snow-white pony hoisting an American flag, they played a few tunes and left the field to be replaced by Alton Terry, who began demonstrating his unique athletic skill.

Mr. Terry was the reigning NCAA javelin champion and placed sixth that August at the Berlin Olympics. Three times, Terry launched his javelin from the 15-yard line to the other 5-yard line or so, ensuring that there were no football players warming up at the other end.

And you thought spearing was relatively new to football.

('A Record Toss For Grid Fans,' *Omaha Sunday Bee-News*, October 25, 1936.)

Giving Them The Bird

Three years later, St. Louis U and Washington U renewed their Thanksgiving Day rivalry football game while also renewing the halftime cross-country run sponsored by the local fish wrap, the Globe-Dispatch. It was an open run and included 28 runners, including SLU and WashU varsity runners, other local college and high school harriers, and a collection of AAU basketball players.

The 1939 game occurred at WashU's Francis Field, the site of the 1904 Olympics, so the boys started and finished on hallowed ground while otherwise winding their way through campus. Not only did the top three finishers receive gold, silver, and bronze awards as usual, but they also received a dressed turkey, a goose, and a duck, respectively.