From Gridiron to Battlefield: When Football Went to War

Paying respect to these public figures reminds us to remember the millions of other Americans who served their country.

Four of Navy's mud-stained players pose after an Army-Navy football game in Rizal Stadium in Manila, The Philippines, in 1945. Public Domain

Comedian George Carlin once delivered a monologue marking the differences between baseball and football. He concludes with this comparison:

“In football the object is for the quarterback, otherwise known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use a shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy’s defensive line.

“In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! I hope I'll be safe at home!”

Carlin’s comparison between the two sports brings a laugh, but it’s also insightful. Football players, coaches, fans, and announcers all bring the language of the battlefield to the playing field.

Applied to World War II, this gridiron language takes on new meaning when we remember that thousands of American college and professional football players left behind their games and locker rooms and marched off to war.

Late in the war in November 1944, Americans in Holland teach U.S. football to British Allies. Public Domain

Wars Without Stadiums

In 1941, just two weeks after Pearl Harbor, the National Football League’s Chicago Bears defeated the New York Giants 37–9 in the league’s championship game, the equivalent today of the Super Bowl. In those days, professional football—the NFL was only 21 years old—played second fiddle to baseball in popularity. Attendance at this playoff contest, for instance, was less than 14,000. The league sported 10 teams in cities around the country.

From this fledgling organization, an astounding number of players, coaches, and team owners—638 men—served in the military during the war. Among them were New York Giants end Jack Lummus and Detroit Lions end Maurice Britt, both of whom were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Serving with the Marines during the Battle of Iwo Jima, Lummus was in command of a platoon when he and his men encountered stiff Japanese resistance. Leading his men forward to the attack, Lummus was twice knocked to the ground and wounded by grenades, yet continued to assault, at times singlehandedly, Japanese foxholes and pillboxes. He died after stepping on a land mine. His Medal of Honor commendation cited “his outstanding valor, skilled tactics, and tenacious perseverance.” He was one of 19 NFL players killed in combat.

Official portrait of Medal of Honor recipient Jack Lummus. Public Domain

Britt earned his Medal in 1943, half a world away in Italy. When 100 Germans launched a counterattack on his company, Britt and a few of his men resisted the assault. Though gravely wounded, he continued to fight the Germans, killing five of them and wounding more. His efforts and leadership broke the attack, which led to the release of several American prisoners. He was commended for “undaunted courage and prowess in arms.”

Interestingly, Britt, who had played ball at the University of Arkansas, and Baylor’s Lummus had three times faced each other on the field. Later, as players for the prewar NFL, they played against each other once.

Detroit Lions end Maurice Britt was awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor during World War II. Public Domain

The College Boys

There is no accurate count of the thousands of college players or recent graduates who exchanged their jerseys and pads for a uniform. Yet we do know that because Uncle Sam called so many of these athletes into service, a number of schools either shut down or suspended their football programs. Some, like Gonzaga, never brought the sport back to campus, while others, like Alabama, Virginia Tech, and Michigan State, had by 1943 put a pause on their programs.

Yet the game as a spectator sport remained alive during this time, in part because of the teams fielded by bases and preflight schools around the United States. Comprised entirely of men in military training, these teams played both one another and colleges. “I found it weird that (service teams) were part of the college football system,” said author Mike Finn during the COVID pandemic. “But because so much was in disarray then—it’s sort of like right now with COVID how we allow things ... and yet, we call this normal. Well, that’s what normal was back then.”

As might be expected, the nation’s service academies—West Point and Annapolis—dominated college football during the war years. West Point’s record for 1944, during which the team outscored opponents 504–35 and defeated Notre Dame 59–0, can be traced to two factors: the Army’s ability to select football players from military recruits and encourage them to enter the academy as students, and the player-depleted ranks of their rivals due to the war.

An online post about the University of Alabama’s wartime players and alumni provides a good inside look at the effects of the war on college ball. More than 300 Alabama gridiron graduates and coaches served in World War II. In 1942, 58 of the 59 players left the campus for training and eventual deployment to places like Italy, France, and the Philippines.

During the halftime of that season’s final game, six of these players stepped onto the playing field and were sworn into the Marines. “Football was suspended for the 1943 season,“ the Facebook post said. ”The ‘44 team would consist of 17-year-olds ineligible for the draft ... and those declared 4-F by the military.”

A Coach’s Patriotism

Some of these college and professional football players were drafted into the military. Others signed up to beat the draft and have some say-so in which branch they served. Still others volunteered from love of country in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor.

One of these was George Halas (1895–1983). He loved sports and was a member of the football, baseball, and basketball teams at what is now the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. During World War I, he left college a semester early—he still received a degree—and enlisted in the Navy. Afterward, he was instrumental in helping found the NFL and the Chicago Bears, whom he coached to three championships by the end of 1941.

Chicago Bears coach George Halas discusses the upcoming season with four of his second-year men at training camp in July 1966 at St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Ind. With Halas are Dick Gordon (45), Dick Butkus (51), Mike Reilly (62), and Jimmy Jones (80). AP Photo, File

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, though he was well beyond the draft age, Halas reenlisted in the Navy and spent the majority of his three years of service in the South Pacific, organizing events and sports for the sailors stationed there. On his return home, he successfully coached his Bears to another championship win in 1946.

Other Fields of Fire

The conflicts that followed World War II—the Korean and Vietnam Wars, the fighting in the Middle East—also found some players carrying weapons rather than footballs. Eddie LeBaron, for instance, appeared in two 1950 Washington Redskins games before being sent to Korea as a lieutenant with his Marine Corps reserve unit. There he was wounded in action, received the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star, and returned to the United States to play seven more seasons with the Redskins and four with the Dallas Cowboys.

Rocky Bleier played the 1968 season with the Pittsburg Steelers, was drafted into the Army, and then sent to Vietnam, where he was hit by shrapnel in the leg. Though warned by doctors that he might never play again, Bleier went on to spend 10 seasons in the NFL, including playing in four Super Bowls.

Of the few NFL players who fought in the Middle East wars of the last quarter century, Pat Tillman stands out. He was a star for Arizona State not only as a linebacker but also as a scholar, graduating summa cum laude. Picked to play for the Arizona Cardinals, Tillman broke the team’s record for tackles in 2000.

Then came the 9/11 attacks.

Interviewed the next day, Tillman said: “At times like this you stop and think about just how good we have it, what kind of system we live in, and the freedoms we are allowed. A lot of my family has gone and fought in wars and I really haven’t done a damn thing.”

The June 2003 military portrait of Cpl. Pat Tillman. Public Domain

After marrying his high school love, Tillman made public the news that he was taking a hiatus from the Cardinals and had enlisted in the Army, where he became a Ranger. In April 2004, he was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. His patriotism, sacrifices, and death inspired millions of Americans.

A Hidden Cost of War

Like George Halas, Maurice Britt, and Pat Tillman, millions of Americans in World War II and afterward had their plans and their lives overturned by their country’s call to arms. Some were celebrities, like actor Jimmy Stewart, who left Hollywood behind, enlisted in the Army Air Corps, rose from private to colonel, flew 20 missions over Europe, and was honored for his courage with two Distinguished Flying Crosses. Some were athletes, like the NFL and college players and men like New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra, who was playing on the club’s minor league team when he was drafted at 18. He joined the Navy and volunteered to serve on a newly designed rocket boat during the D-Day Invasion.

Yogi Berra won three MVP awards and 10 World Series titles with the New York Yankees. AP Photo

We rightfully pay our respects to these public figures who sacrificed years of their careers, and in some cases their lives, to serve their country. But behind them are those countless ordinary Americans, men and women who made the same sacrifices but without the fanfare. This disruption of ambitions and plans, marriage and family, and careers is an often overlooked consequence of war.

Recollecting those NFL players and other athletes who sacrificed some of their key performance years to serve their country can help us remember the millions of other Americans who did the same.

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