Welcome to the deep dive. We are we are really
so glad you're here with us today because we
have a story that is just going to completely
blow your mind. Oh, absolutely. It's a wild one.
It really is. And I am holding exactly one source
today. Just a single solitary Wikipedia article,
which is pretty rare for us. Right. Yeah. Usually,
you know, we pull from dozens of books or research
papers and interviews to build these deep dives
for you. But today, this single page. has enough
unbelievable material to fill, I mean, an entire
season of a television show. Easily. It honestly
reads like the script of a sports movie that
a Hollywood studio would just reject for being
way too unrealistic. They'd say it's too over
the top. Exactly. Seriously, you'd watch this
movie and say, come on, nobody is actually that
good. But our mission today is to explore the
very real, yet somehow largely forgotten, athletic
supremacy of a man named Luis Weller. Known as
Rabbit Weller. Rabbit Weller, yes. He was a member
of the Caddo tribe and just an absolute sports
phenomenon in the early 20th century. Okay, let's
unpack this. It is such a remarkable piece of
history. And just to give you a quick tease of
what we are about to get into, you are about
to hear about a man who somehow managed to impress
the literal, actual inventor of basketball. Which
is insane on its own. Right. A man who scored
points at a pace that looks like a glitch in
a video game. And an athlete who, I kid you not,
once played a football game against his own team.
Right in the middle of a matchup. Right in the
middle of the game. It's just incredible. But
to truly understand the legend of Rabbit Weller,
we need to go back to the beginning and set the
scene. Can you walk us through where his story
actually starts? Yeah, the story begins before
Oklahoma was even officially a state. Wow, okay.
Lewis Weller was born on March 10, 1904. This
was in Anadarko in the Oklahoma Territory. He
grew up to become a multi -sport athlete at Arkansas
City High School in Kansas. Okay. But the early
dominance, the stuff that really starts turning
heads, becomes apparent. when he moves on to
play football for Arkansas City Junior College.
And this is around what, 1925? Exactly. From
1925 to 1926. The numbers he put up in just those
two seasons are staggering. We're talking about
190 total points and 28 touchdowns. Just, I want
you to hold onto your seat for those numbers
because to put that in perspective for you, if
you play fantasy football today, having a player
who scores 14 touchdowns in a single modern 17
game season is like finding a cheat card. It
wins you your whole league. It does. And while
I was doing this in the 1920s, for someone who
doesn't watch a lot of old school football, can
you break down what the game actually looked
like back then? Like what did his role as a halfback?
actually entail. Football in the 1920s was essentially
a grinding, brutal, ground -bound battle of attrition.
Nothing like today's game. Not at all. The forward
pass was barely a suggestion at that point. It
was mostly running. And the equipment was incredibly
heavy. They wore these thick wool jerseys, rudimentary
leather helmets that offered, I mean, almost
zero actual protection. Just leather caps, basically.
Pretty much. Weller played halfback, which meant
he was the primary ball carrier. And because
everyone in the stadium knew a run was coming,
defenses stacked the box. Stacked the box, meaning
they pinned almost all their players right up
at the line of scrimmage just waiting to hit
whoever took the handoff. Precisely. You have
11 massive guys crowding the line just waiting
for the halfback. Ouch. Yeah. So for a single
player to cross the goal line 28 times in that
specific environment means he wasn't just slightly
faster or slightly stronger than the opposition.
He was operating on a physical plane that his
peers simply couldn't access. Which brings us
to 1927. He is now attending the Chiloco Indian
School in Oklahoma. Yes. And during one of his
games there, he recorded a statistic that I genuinely
had to read four times to make sure my eyes were
working correctly. It's unbelievable. What exactly
did he do in that single game? In one single
game, Louis Rabbit Weller returned seven punts
for touchdowns. Seven. Seven. For someone who
might only tune into football during the Super
Bowl. Can you break down why returning seven
punts in a single game is mathematically and
physically so absurd? What's fascinating here
is the sheer physical impossibility of that feat.
when you break down the mechanics of a punt return.
Right, because it's not a normal play. Not at
all. I want you to really think about what a
punt return is. The opposing team kicks the ball
high into the air, and you have to stand there
waiting for it while 11 men sprint down the field
with the sole violent intention of knocking you
to the ground. Just a wall of guys running full
speed at you. Exactly. In modern sports, returning
just one punt for a touchdown in a game is a
massive highlight. It often defines the entire
week of football. Returning two in a season is
considered a Pro Bowl -level achievement. And
he did seven in one afternoon. The physical endurance
required to sprint, weave, take hits, break tackles,
and run the length of the field seven distinct
times is beyond comprehension. It speaks to a
level of breakaway speed and cardiovascular stamina
that is almost mythical. Mythical is the right
word. He was quite literally running circles
around the opposition. It's like he was playing
against people whose feet were stuck in the mud.
And that mythological status only grew when he
transitioned to his time at the Haskell Institute.
This is where he went from being a regional phenomenon
to a legitimate sports legend. He really did.
But before we get into the stats, what was the
significance of playing for places like the Chiloco
Indian School and the Haskell Institute? Because
that context matters, right? It does. It's really
important to understand the context of Native
American boarding schools during this era. These
were federal institutions originally designed
with the explicit goal of assimilating Native
American youth. The environments were notoriously
regimented, incredibly strict, and often very
harsh. Navigating that system required a profound
level of psychological resilience. So for Weller
to not only survive in that environment, but
to thrive, to become an athletic icon and a unifying
figure for his peers, it tells you a lot about
his internal fortitude. That context makes his
achievements there even more impactful, I think.
At Haskell, he was their first ever three -time
football captain. The first ever. And he recorded
13 touchdowns of 60 yards or more. That means
13 different times he just blew past the entire
defense for more than half the length of the
field. What does being a three -time captain
tell us about him beyond just the foot speed?
It tells us that Weller was a profound leader
in a sport. as physically demanding and team
-oriented as football, you don't get named captain
three times just because you're fast. You get
named captain because you command respect, because
you understand the game at a deeper level, and
because your teammates trust you implicitly.
With all those records, you'd think he'd just
coast on his reputation. But what did he do in
1930 that took things to an entirely new level?
The year 1930 produced what is arguably his masterpiece.
Haskell is going up against the Oklahoma A &M
Cowboys. Okay. And this is a team that was completely
undefeated at the time. This is a massive, high
-pressure game. The tension is palpable. The
offense is really struggling to move the ball
conventionally. And I want to remind you, the
listener, that in 1930, games were incredibly
low scoring. A single touchdown could easily
decide the outcome of a matchup. Every single
yard was an absolute battle. Right. So knowing
that points are at an absolute premium, Weller
just completely takes over. First, he returns
a kickoff, 90 yards for a touchdown. Wow. He
just takes the ball near his own end zone and
runs through the entire undefeated Oklahoma A
&M team. But the game remains incredibly close.
It comes down to the wire, and his team desperately
needs a miracle. So what does he do? We'll have
to leave it at another one. He returns a punt
95 yards for the winning touchdown. Haskell wins
the game 13 -12. He provided literally all the
points needed for the victory. You really have
to appreciate the immense pressure of that specific
situation. Every single person in the stadium
knows that if Haskell is going to win, Lewis
Weller has to do something extraordinary. The
defense definitely knew it. The Oklahoma A &M
players know it. The coaches know it. Yeah. And
even knowing that he is the primary threat, even
with all 11 defenders keying in on him, they
still couldn't stop him. It's the kind of game
that cements a legacy forever. But OK, here's
where it gets really interesting. Oh, yes. In
that very same year, 1930, Weller participated
in a charity football game. The game featured
the Chiloco Indian School playing against Arkansas
City Junior College. Now, if you remember from
earlier, Weller had played for both of these
institutions. He had ties to both. How did they
resolve the issue of which team he would play
for in the charity exhibition? The solution was
delightfully bizarre. He represented Arkansas
City Junior College in the first half. And then
at halftime. Wait, don't tell me he switched
sides. He changed jerseys and played for the
Chiloco Indian School in the second half. That
is genuinely one of the funniest facts I've ever
heard in sports history. Imagine the psychological
absurdity of this scenario. For the first hour
of the game, you are in the huddle with one group
of guys. You are blocking for them. You are strategizing
with them. Then the halftime whistle blows. You
walk into the other locker room. Put on the jersey
of the guys you were just tackling. and head
back out onto the field to hit the teammates
you were just protecting. From a competitive
standpoint, it requires a fascinating mental
shift. You have to essentially compartmentalize
your loyalties quarter by quarter. It's wild.
And from a physical standpoint, the sheer stamina
required to play a full football game is immense
anyway. But to do it as the focal point for both
offenses, it is a testament to his boundless
energy, which, appropriately enough, aligns perfectly
with his nickname, Rabbit. It's hilarious to
picture the guys on the sideline in the third
quarter just watching him tear through their
own defense and thinking, well, it was a lot
more fun when he was doing that for us an hour
ago. I'm sure they felt exactly like that. But
we need to make sure we don't just paint him
as a football player. The source notes he was
the ultimate multi -sport threat, excelling in
track and baseball as well. What did it mean
to be a star in those sports back then? Track
requires that explosive, fast -twitch muscle
fiber, which obviously translated to his football
speed. Makes sense. Baseball requires an entirely
different skill set. You need elite hand -eye
coordination, spatial awareness, and rotational
power. The fact that he was dominating in all
three arenas shows that he wasn't just relying
on one physical trick. He had a comprehensive
athletic toolkit. And that athletic toolkit brings
us to the most surprising quote in this entire
Wikipedia article. We are talking about a man
who is a football legend. But the article mentions
James Naismith. For those who might not know,
who is James Naismith? James Naismith is the
man who literally invented the sport of basketball
in 1891. The actual inventor. He dreamed up the
game, nailed the original peach basket to the
wall, and wrote the founding rules. This absolute
founding father of a totally different sport
watched Louis Weller play and went on the record
calling him the most expert dribbler I have ever
seen. If we connect this to the bigger picture,
the weight of that compliment is almost impossible
to overstate. By the 1930s, basketball had been
around for a few decades. James Naismith had
seen the game evolve. He had seen the earliest
specialized basketball stars emerge. He knew
what he was looking at. He had spent his life
analyzing the mechanics of the sport he created.
For him to look at a man whose primary claim
to fame was being an unstockable football halfback
and declare that this football player possessed
the greatest dribbling skills he had ever witnessed.
It reframes our entire understanding of Weller's
athleticism. It's like if the inventor of the
guitar watched a famous drummer play a solo and
said, that is the best guitar playing I've ever
heard. That's a great analogy. Why do you think
sports allowed for this kind of multi -sport
dominance back then compared to what we see today?
We're so accustomed to the highly specialized
athletes of the modern era. Today, you are funneled
into a single sport by the time you are 10 years
old. Oh, absolutely. Year -round travel teams
and everything. Exactly. You train specific muscle
groups, you hire specialized coaches, and you
dedicate 10 ,000 hours to one specific craft.
Luis Weller represents an era of generalized
athletic mastery. Generalized athletic mastery.
His nervous system, his hand -eye coordination,
his spatial awareness. These traits were so profoundly
developed that they translated seamlessly across
completely different physical disciplines. He
didn't just play multiple sports. He mastered
the fundamental mechanics of them. That is a
great way to look at it. And naturally, that
kind of mastery couldn't stay contained in the
amateur ranks forever. After college, Weller
made the professional jump. He did. In 1933,
he took his talents to the National Football
League, joining the Boston Redskins to play halfback.
What was the transition to the NFL like in 1933?
The NFL in 1933 was a completely different beast
than the billion -dollar spectacle we know today.
It was a gritty, fledgling league trying to find
its footing during the Great Depression. Not
a lot of glamour. None at all. The pay was minimal,
the travel was grueling, and the physical toll...
was immense. It was a league of tough, hard -nosed
men fighting for every single inch. And what
makes his time in Boston so cool is the reunion
it brought about. He ended up playing under his
former coach from Haskell, William Henry Lone
Star Dietz. That's right. Not only that, but
he was joined by two other Native American football
players on the team, Chief Larry Johnson and
John Orion Crow. It's amazing to think about
these guys who had shared this unique collegiate
experience at Haskell, taking the field together
at the highest professional level of the sport.
He spent the 1933 season in the NFL, and then
in 1934, he played in the American Football League
for the Tulsa Oilers. He reached the absolute
pinnacle of the gridiron. But an athlete's playing
days are only one chapter of their life. Can
you break down what working for the Bureau of
Indian Affairs actually meant for him after he
hung up his cleats? The transition out of professional
sports can be incredibly difficult for athletes.
You lose that everyday structure. Yeah, that
makes sense. But Weller channeled his drive into
serving his community. The Bureau of Indian Affairs
is the federal agency responsible for the administration
and management of land held in trust by the United
States for Native American tribes. Very important
role. This was highly complex, often fraught
work involving shifting federal policies. For
a former Native athlete to step into that agency
meant shifting from a physical hero on the field
to an administrative advocate for his people.
He was navigating federal bureaucracy to support
Native communities. He moved from being a leader
in the locker room to being a leader for his
community. And this brings us to the end of his
story, which is actually incredibly poignant.
Louie Rabbit Weller passed away on April 17th,
1979 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was 75 years
old. The cause was a heart attack. Right. But
the detail that really got me was what he was
doing when he passed and who he was with. He
suffered that heart attack while playing a round
of golf. And his golf partner that day was none
other than John Orion Crow. The exact same John
Orion Crow, who was his teammate back on the
Boston Redskins in 1933 and who had gone on to
become the commissioner of the Bureau of Indian
Affairs. So what does this all mean? When you
look at the arc of Louise Weller's life, you
see a beautiful full circle journey. We spend
so much time marveling at the statistics, the
seven punt returns, the 28 touchdowns, the undeniable
speed. Sure, the flashiest stuff. But the fact
that. Nearly half a century after they lined
up in an NFL backfield together, Weller and Crow
were still spending their afternoons playing
golf together. It emphasizes the deep, enduring
bonds forged through sports and shared heritage.
It's a real brotherhood. Exactly. These weren't
just guys who worked together for a season or
two. They were brothers who shared a unique cultural
background, navigated the complexities of early
professional sports together, and then dedicated
their post -football lives to serving Native
American communities. The statistics eventually
fade into the record books, but those relationships,
that shared sense of purpose, lasted a lifetime.
And it's that human element that makes his induction
as a charter member of the American Indian Athletic
Hall of Fame in 1972 so well deserved. To summarize
this incredible journey for you, Louie Rabbitweller
was a man who seemed to completely defy athletic
logic. A multi -sport legend who dominated high
school, junior college, and the Haskell Institute,
lighting up undefeated teams and scoring at a
rate that is frankly hard to wrap your head around.
Very hard to wrap your head around. He was a
pioneer in the early days of the NFL, a community
leader, and a man whose dribbling skills left
the creator of basketball speechless. He was
an absolute titan of his era. This raises an
important question. We live in a hyper -connected,
hyper -analyzed modern era. We are completely
obsessed with tracking every single athletic
metric. We measure everything now. Everything.
We have high definition cameras capturing every
angle, sensors in the equipment measuring speed
and launch angles, and entire databases dedicated
to preserving every fraction of a second. But
looking back at the staggering, almost mythical
feats of Louis Weller -like returning seven punts
for a touchdown in an era before everything was
filmed or digitized, it makes you wonder. What
else is out there? How many other superhuman
performances from human history have completely
faded into obscurity simply because there wasn't
a camera around to capture them? How many other
athletes played games that defied the laws of
physics, only to have those memories lost to
time? What other legends are hiding deep in the
archives, waiting for their story to be told?
That is an incredibly profound thought to end
on. It really does make you want to go digging
through old newspaper clippings just to see what
else we've forgotten. Thank you so much for joining
us on this deep dive into the extraordinary life
of Louie Rabbitweller. We hope you enjoyed uncovering
this hidden gem of sports history as much as
we did. Until next time, keep exploring, keep
questioning, and we'll see you on the next deep
dive. Take care.