Indian Football Proud Tradition
As Little Axe School students cap off their Homecoming celebrations this week with a football game, it sholud be reminded that football in this area holds a long tradition. In fact, Little Axe football likely goes back as far as 1886, when the Big Jim Band of the Shawnee first settled in the area and played a game using a deerskin ball similar in size and shape to the American football. This was almost a decade before Oklahoma University even had a football team.
Native Football
Early writings indicate Native Americans playing football in the 17th century, which included the Shawnee.
A good example is the following brief account by Roger Williams who wrote about “pasuckquakohowauog,” which he translates as “they meet to foot-ball.” He says:“They have great meetings of foot-balle playing, only in summer, town against town, upon some broad sandy shore, free from stone, or upon some soft heathie plot, because of their naked feet, at which they have great stakings, but seldom quarrel.” (Williams 1643: 146)
However, the Absentee Shawnee in Little Axe were not the first to play football in Oklahoma Territory.
Indian football was also played by the Delawares of Western Oklahoma, a group which split off from the main group of Delawares in the late 1700′s.And the game was a bit different than today:
The Ball is made of deerskin, and is oblong in shape, and is stuffed with deer hair. It is about 9 inches in diameter.The Goal Posts are on the ends of the field. They are made of trees or posts about 5 or 6 inches in diameter which have had the branches removed. They are about 15 foot high. There is no crossbar as in the white man’s football goal posts. The two on each end of the field are spaced about 6 feet apart.
The Playing Field is of no special size. The one near here [Dewey, Oklahoma] is approximately 150 feet long, and, at its narrowest point, 60 feet. This is to say that the goal posts are 150 feet apart. The field is not really bounded by straight lines to mark the field.
The Teams are two in number. One team being all men, the other all women.3 Thus, the men play against the women. Each team can have any number of players. Young people can also play, but smaller children are usually not allowed to play for fear that they might get hurt.
The Play began when some selected old man or old woman went to the middle of the field and threw the ball into the air (as in basketball). The men and women players would jump up to knock it toward their own goal-post. The men may not carry the ball, nor may they pass it. If a man catches or intercepts the ball, he must stand where he catches it and kick it toward the men’s goal, or toward another man. A man should not tackle or grab a woman who has the ball, but must feign to prevent the woman from passing. He may also knock the ball from her hands. The women players may pass, run with, or even kick the ball. [Mrs. Dean later added that the women would kick at it if it was on the ground, but no high kicks.] They may grab or tackle the men players. [Here too Mrs. Dean added that this would never be a "flying tackle" like in White Man's football]. The women may throw the ball through the goal-posts, or carry it through.
Even the “football pool” can be attributed to Native Americans:
A bet-string is passed around the camps or among the people. This is a long string on which people who wish to bet tie something such as a head scarf, handkerchief, or even a ribbon. If the team on which the person bets wins, the person can go and get anything off this bet-string that has not been spoken for.
More Oklahoma football history can be found in an exhibit at Norman’s Moore-Lindsay Historical House. “Other Traditions: Football in Oklahoma” runs through the end of October at the museum, 508 N. Peters Ave.
Jack Thorpe, son of legendary football player and Oklahoma athlete Jim Thorpe, will speak at the exhibit Oct. 8.
