[1][2][3] As a way of promoting his kennels, Lingo financed a National Football League franchise, called the Oorang Indians in 1922.
Upon creating the King Oorang breed, Lingo embarked on a mail order business, selling his puppies to people throughout the Americas.
He also gave away dogs as a promotion to winners of contests, silent film stars, baseball players, and two were given to the editor of Field & Stream magazine, who favored the kennel with complimentary ads and even a fictional book or two, featuring Oorang Airedales.
He invited celebrities, such as Ty Cobb of the Detroit Tigers, boxer Jack Dempsey, actor Gary Cooper, Tris Speaker of the Cleveland Indians, and Olympic sprinter Charles Paddock to LaRue to hunt with him and his dogs.
With no reluctance at all, Thorpe came to Lingo's aid by testifying that he once knew an Oorang Airedale that had saved a 6-year-old girl's life.
To help promote his dogs, Lingo eventually created the Oorang Indians, an NFL team in La Rue.
The stunt worked and Lingo would go on to make a million dollars selling Airedales in just one year, during the height of popularity of the Oorang Indians.
Lingo used his own Airedale terrier magazine, Oorang Comments, to get dog and football enthusiasts buzzing about his product and his team.
One halftime event showcased an Indians player, named Long Time Sleep, wrestling a live bear.
People could no longer afford the Airedales, prompting Lingo to have approximately three hundred puppies euthanized in 1929 alone.
He eventually tried to establish a business in Minneapolis, Minnesota that manufactured dog biscuits, but this venture failed to succeed.