Joseph Little Twig (Johnson) (1893 - March 6, 1939) was a professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player, who played during the early years of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

. For 1922 until 1926, he played in the league for the

Oorang Indians The Oorang Indians () were a traveling team in the National Football League from LaRue, Ohio (near Marion). The franchise was a novelty team put together by Walter Lingo to market his Oorang dog kennels. All of the Indians players were Native Am ...

Rock Island Independents The Rock Island Independents were a professional American football team, based in Rock Island, Illinois, from 1907 to 1926. The Independents were a founding National Football League franchise. They hosted what has been retrospectively designated ...

Akron Indians The Akron Pros were a professional football team that played in Akron, Ohio from 1908 to 1926. The team originated in 1908 as a semi-pro team named the Akron Indians, but later became Akron Pros in 1920 as the team set out to become a charter mem ...

and the

Canton Bulldogs The Canton Bulldogs were a professional American football team, based in Canton, Ohio. They played in the Ohio League from 1903 to 1906 and 1911 to 1919, and the American Professional Football Association (later renamed the National Football Leag ...

Football

Little Twig, a member of the

Mohawk nation The Mohawk people ( moh, Kanienʼkehá꞉ka) are the most easterly section of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy. They are an Iroquoian-speaking Indigenous people of North America, with communities in southeastern Canada and northern Ne ...

, first played football at

Thomas Indian School Thomas Indian School, also known as the Thomas Asylum of Orphan and Destitute Indian Children, is a historic school and national historic district located near Irving at the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation in Erie County, New York. The institution ...

on the

Cattaraugus Reservation Cattaraugus Reservation is an Indian reservation of the federally recognized Seneca Nation of Indians, formerly part of the Iroquois Confederacy located in New York. As of the 2000 census, the Indian reservation had a total population of 2,412. Its ...

and then at the Carlisle Indian School located in

Carlisle, Pennsylvania Carlisle is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Carlisle is located within the Cumberland Valley, a highly productive agricultural region. As of the 2020 United States census, ...

. Before starting his NFL career, Little Twig served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

from 1917 until 1921. He was stationed overseas during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In 1922, he joined the Oorang Indians; Jim Thorpe's All Indian Football team in LaRue, Ohio. He spent two years with the Indians. After the franchise folded in 1923, Little Twig and Thorpe joined the

for the

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hol ...

and

1925 Events January * January 1 ** The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria. * January 3 – Benito Mussolini makes a pivotal speech in the Italia ...

seasons. He finished his NFL career in 1926, playing with the

and the

Post-football career

In 1927, Little Twig joined the Canton Police Department. While on the police force, he served as a patrolman on motorcycle duty. He left the force in 1931. In 1929 JLittle Twig married Gertrude Hale. Thorpe attended the ceremony and acted as best man. In 1935 Little Twig divorced his first wife and married a Winifred (Winnie) Wood. With this wife Little Twig had two daughters Norma Jean and JoAnn. He died on March 6, 1939 when his automobile struck a tree at the bottom of a hill in Canton, Ohio.

References

Joe LittleTwig
{{DEFAULTSORT:Little Twig, Joe 1893 births 1939 deaths 20th-century Native Americans United States Army personnel of World War I People from Franklin County, New York Players of American football from New York (state) Native American players of American football Akron Indians players Canton Bulldogs players Oorang Indians players Road incident deaths in Ohio Rock Island Independents players Carlisle Indians football players Native American United States military personnel