Xavier Downwind

Chief Xavier Downwind a.k.a. Red Fang (December 24, 1893 – July 26, 1968) was a professional football player who played in the National Football League during the 1922 and 1923 seasons. He played college football at the Carlisle Indian School, located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, before joining the NFL's Oorang Indians. The Indians were a team based in LaRue, Ohio, composed only of Native Americans, and coached by Jim Thorpe. Downwind was a Chippewa.^[1]

Xavier "Red Fang" Downwind

No. 18
Position:	End / Tackle
Personal information
Born:	December 24, 1893 Red Lake Indian Reservation, Minnesota
Died:	July 26, 1968(1968-07-26) (aged 74) Bemidji, Minnesota
Height:	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight:	200 lb (91 kg)
Career information
College:	Carlisle Indian
Career history
Oorang Indians (1922–1923)
Stats at Pro Football Reference

Family

The son of James Mayshuckkence Downwind, Xavier was married twice. First he married Katie Isabelle and who he had a child with in 1919, Paul Xavier Downwind. In the mid 1920s he married Rose Eliza Smith. Between 1927 and 1945, Xavier and Rose had seven children; Xavier Francis, Rupert, Herman, Winnifred, Ruth Arlean, Anna Margaret and Leo Harold Lee.^[2] He also has several grandchildren that reside in Minnesota.

References

• Whitman, Robert L. (1984). Jim Thorpe and the Oorang Indians: The N.F.L.'s Most Colorful Franchise. [Mount Gilead, OH]: Marion County Historical Society. OCLC 717439558.