Oklahoma Once Had a World Champion Pro Football Team

With the continued success of the Thunder, and a large majority of sports fans in Oklahoma now calling for a professional football team, it's worth mentioning a new Sooner State NFL team would be the second pro-level team in our state history.

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You have to dig deep into Oklahoma history for this story as it's a forgotten bit from days gone by.

OK's only professional football team was home in Hominy--a tiny oil boomtown that is more-or-less a speck on the map today. Located Northwest of Tulsa deep in Osage County, while the oil business still does its thing there, it's been almost 100 years since it made headlines of any kind--most notably the world-champion Hominy Indians professional football team.

How did Hominy, Oklahoma come to have a professional football team?

It's a story most Oklahomans are somewhat familiar with these days. The team was founded in 1925 by Otto and Ira Hamilton - members of the Osage Tribe. At this time in Oklahoma history, the Osage were the wealthiest group of people on earth. With money to burn, a group of investors bankrolled the team for Otto and Ira.

The team was comprised of Native Americans from around the state. Not all of the same tribe, but all gifted athletes. In fact, they're referred to as world champions because in 1927, their second year playing, the Hominy Indians beat the NFL champion New York Giants in an exhibition game after the regular season.

That win made headlines across the country, as did the Indians' 28-game win streak.

Things went well for the Hominy team until they didn't.

Like just about everything that wasn't essential in those days, the Great Depression claimed the legacy of Oklahoma's world champion Hominy Indians in 1935 when the team disbanded. Nobody has been able to organize another run at a Sooner State football dynasty since.

There's been a lot of talk in the last two years or so. Since OKC can support and literally sell out every OKC Thunder game to date (minus the Covid games), perhaps an NFL team isn't such a wild idea.

Of course, all talks of an Oklahoma NFL team come down to just one detail... What would we call them?