Transcripts For CSPAN2 Chris 20240703

Northwestern and Kellogg School of management, serve is also an independent journalist. Having written extensively for the chicago tribune. Chicago history writers digest, chicago athlete and mens fitness. Hes the author of two books, sams boys the history of chicagos leon beach and legendary lifeguard sam leon and most recently, war football, world war one and the birth of the nfls, which was selected by the professional Football Researchers Association as winner of the 2019 nelson ross award for Outstanding Achievement in pro football historical research. Will you please join me in welcoming chris serb to the stage. Thank you, laura, for that introduction, and thank you to the National World War One Museum and memorial for having me here tonight. And thanks to all of you for showing up to hear me and listen to what i have to say. Both those of you who are here in person and those of you who are watching this remotely. Before i start, i want to acknowledge a couple of special guests. First and foremost, my wife, emily, whos a High School English teacher, and also the best editor that ive ever had. And also our school age daughters, helen and maggie, who probably learn more about world war one. This afternoon than i did throughout my entire Grammar School career. This presentation, as laura mentioned, is based on my 2019 book of the same name and as i researched war football, the thing that really fascinated me was nobody had ever told this story before. A couple of writers and historians had picked up on a couple of little pieces, but my book was the first to really connect the dots, to take a comprehensive look at. When you look back at the newspaper stories, its something that was really a big deal at the time. Good Old Fashioned american football spanning by the us military in its vast network of Training Camps. Its really a fascinating story. Its not just about football heroes, but its also about a couple of medal of honor winners about future business and civic leaders. But a couple of guys would later become World War Two generals, and even about a future u. S. President. Im going to tell a few of the stories that i came across about individual players, about their teams, and about some of the biggest games that happened during the war football era. And im going to connect this into whats hopefully a coherent whole that tells the story of how and why world war one led directly to the birth of the nfl. Now, when we think of the lasting effects that world war one had on society, a few big things come to mind. We think about massive duopolies, ethical change as european empires crumbled and borders were redrawn and the United States emerged really for the first time as a global power. We think about Rapid Advances in certain areas that really were driven by military necessity, but wound up having tremendous benefits for the greater good in things like communication and aviation and logistics and technology. And we think of the contributions of those who were affected by the war in art, in literature and in music leading to the lost generation and the jazz age. What we dont really think about is sports. The conventional wisdom holds that sports take a backseat in time of war, not just world war one, but any war Olympic Games get canceled. Major League Baseball teams use extremely old or extremely young or even one arm players to fill out their rosters. Teams and leagues and even entire sports shut down for the duration of a war. We can see here from this poster or this recruiting poster from britain right up at the top. This is not the time to play games. Now, is posters clearly trying to shame young people into volunteering by following the glorious example of the british athletes. But the message is clear in a world at war, theres simply no room for childs play. When men are needed for fighting and for killing. But the conventional wisdom is wrong. World war one ended up being one of the best things to happen to sports, at least in america. And football was the biggest benefiar this picture that you see here shows the end result. This is the 19, 19 rose bowl between undefeatenavy and marine corps teams. A big game on a big stage in front of a huge crowd. World war one led to a tremendous boom in football itself and in its popularity among american fans. That led directly to the birth of the nfl. Shortly after the armistice, and that led indirectly to your Kansas City Chiefs winning their third super bowl just a few short weeks ago. Some might call that pandering. I think thats more knowing your audience. Now things did look pretty bleak for football when the us first entered the war in april in 1970. Within a couple of days, many a College Footballs best players left school and went to their closest recruiting stations. A lot of schools canceled spring football practice, and instead they held these large scale, campus wide military drills. Instead, the big three of College Football, which was at the time harvard, yale and princeton, not clemson, alabama and georgia, but the big three all canceled football until further notice. A lot of experts wondered if the 1917 season was going to get canceled altogether. Well, not if this guy could help it to a lot of people in america. Walter camp was football. He hadnt been involved in the sport almost as long as football had existed. Hed been one of College Footballs best players as a yale halfback back in the 1870s. But as great a player as he was, he had far more influence on the game in the coming decades. As a writer, as a rule maker, and really as an ambassador for the sport through camps, influence football really evolved from the rugby style game that he had played back at yale into a sport that we today would recognize with line of scrimmage, forward passing, all kind of the accouterments that we would recognize in football today. And by world war one, it really was the modern game. Even with some tactical differences. President wilson appointed walter camp as Navy Athletic director. He was responsible for creating a physical Fitness Training program among recruits. This was definitely a civilian appointment. But that didnt stop walter from getting a snazzy military style dress uniform. Here he is in that uniform with his son, walter jr, who is an actual army officer who fought with distinction with the 28th division. So walter camp charging an enemy trench with a bayonet was a lot like plunging into the line with a football. So he lobbied for a steady diet of football to supplement military training. Football is war on a mimic scale, he wrote. The same discipline, coordination and quick thinking which was required on the football field is demanded in the service. There is no need for anyone to be apprehensive about football. Now. Raymond fantastic was not much of an athlete. He was a lawyer. Kind of a stuffed shirt. A being counter. Very different background from walter camp. But he came to the same conclusion about football just from a much different direction. Fantastic headed National Commission on Training Camp activities, which really had kind of a dual purpose. Keep up morale among the recruits and also keep up the public health. Foster care to deal with the maiv expansion of existi military bases as well as a Large Network of New Cantonment that were springing up all over the country. These camps are basically little cities capable of holding up to 40,000 soldiers and neighbors welcome. The additional money that was going to be spent on their economies. But they feared some of the unintended consequences, like having these guys show up in your town, drinking, smoking, gambling, and probably far worse. Neighbors feared that crowding these young men together into the nearby camps would spread drunkenness, violence, gambling, venereal disease, unwanted pregnancies and a whole host of other problems to their previously sleepy towns. So five six question became how do we keep these young men occupied . And how do we keep them away from our daughters. In looking to the future classic, really look to the past and you didnt have to look that far. He studied the deployment of National Guard troops, among them along the Mexican Border the previous year. And he found that those who had sporting equipment and a grassy field tended to spend their free time playing football or baseball instead of drinking booze and chasing women. Sports are the answer. Let the boys play football. With five six blessing walter camp set up a Football Program at the military camps. In these photo postcards, we see recruits learning the game on the left at camp dix in new jersey, and on the right at camp grant near rockford, illinois. And this old newsreel shows organized football among recruits at the great lakes. Naval training station in 1917. Ultimately, over a million soldiers, sailors and marines played on regimental teams, which are basically the equivalent of college. College intramural teams. Youd have barracks one versus the signal corps or Company Versus company d camps, set up schedules and held play offs and crowned a base champion at the end of each season. Pretty soon, raw recruits who had never seen a football before were learning the fundamentals of blocking and tackling. This kept recruits busy and it kept them in good physical shape. And it also kept them away from the bars and the prostitutes. Also an importantly, regimental football developed certain desirable military character instincts, things like toughness and teamwork and leadership and discipline in but as good as regimental football was, walter camp had something greater in mind. Every camp now had a dozen or so former College Football players on campus, maybe even a couple of allamerican or all conference type of players. In this slide on the left, we have joe thompson, who had been a player and later a coach. University of pittsburgh. In the middle, weve got eddie marsan, who is a three time allamerican at harvard. Now at the League Island Marine Barracks in philadelphia. And on the right, weve got cupid black, who was an allamerican guard at yale. Now, at the Newport Naval training station, camps vision had teams full of all star military players, and coaches like these playing each other and playing against the top colleges in front of huge crowds. The New York Times saw this trend as it was happening and they dubbed it simply war football, which is where i got the name of the book. To walter camp football was going to help america and our allies win the war. And the war in turn, would be a great boost to football. Now, College Football was bound to suffer due to the draft and due to travel restrictions, but war football was going to pick up the slack and then some. And it did. About a 100 military teams played varsity caliber military football, i. E. That which was on par with the colleges playing outside schedules. Im going to highlight just a couple of these here. Bob talbot had been an allamerican tackle at yale in 1913. Soon as the United States entered the war, he volunteered and ended up at camp sherman in chillicothe, ohio. He served in is as an aide to the camps commandant and also doubled as the camps football coach. Talbots playing days were over, but he had several other allamericans in t camp. Guys from yale and notre dame and ohio state. And he also found some hidden gems from smaller colleges, guys who hadnt really gotten to shine on a big stage yet, but who were really good Football Players. After a couple of practices, talbot realized just h good his team was, and he also saw a tremendous opportunity. He took the team on the road, crisscrossed ohio and raising money for a War Relief Fund camp sherman played in dayton and toledo and columbus. Even at a major League Baseball stadium in cleveland and cincinnati, they won six of their eight games. But more importantly, they raised 150,000 for the war effort, which is the equivalent of about 3 million in todays dollars. This showed investors and organized users, including talbot himself, that all star teams like this could be profitable. Now, camp sherman was the most Important Team from 1917, but the marilyn marines were the best team. They were based just north of San Francisco and their captain, coach and best player was john beckett, who had been an allamerican tackle at oregon. Beckett was £210, kind of a giant for his day, and was basically solid muscle. But he also talked with a slight lisp, and he blushed with shyness whenever a reporter talked to him. One interviewer said that beckett acted more like an eight Year Old Girl than a grown up marine. But beckett sure played football like a grown up. He was a tremendous blocker and tackler. He was the teams regular punter and he was even fast enough to shift into the backfield for trick plays. Becketts second from the right in this picture lined up at left tackle mare island, played college, is in military camps all along the west coast from los angeles all the way up to seattle. They won all of their games and then accepted an invitation to play in the 1918 rose bowl. Their opponent for that game was camp lewis, one of the new army encampments just outside of seattle. Now, maryland had already beaten camp lewis once that season, but at a score of just 13 to nothing, this was the lowest output that maryland had put up. All season. So a rematch was scheduled for the rose bowl. And this would be the first of two straight rose bowls to feature military teams instead of College Teams. Now, the game itself was a sellout. Over 30,000 fans packed the old tournament park in pasadena, and it was a sunny 80 degree day. Camp lewis actually scored the first touchdown and this was the first time that maryland had trailed all season. But maryland wore down the army boys eventually and wound up winning the game 19 to 7. Within a few weeks, most of the players would ship out for europe. One of the camp lewis players would die in action in france, while four of the maryland marines would eventually become generals, including john beckett. 1917 had been a successful war football. 1918 looked to be even better. There were more teams, almost 200 varsity caliber teams this year. And most of these teams were absolutely stacked with talent at some of the bigger camps, over 300 players showed up for tryouts. Now, two boosters in particular made sure that war football was going to be a success. Walter camp on the left and Walter Rodgers all on the right. Arkansas, better known as ecce, had been an allamerican quarterback at university of chicago and then became the chicago tribunes lead football writer, a camp and eki hyped war football. In their weekly syndicated columnist, which are read all over the country, these two guys, more than anyone else, really sold war football to the public, and the public bought what they were selling. The teams were there, the talent was there, the publicity was there. All signs pointed to a great season for war football for 1918 and just as the season was about to start, the great influenza pandem spthrough. Public Health Authorities closed churches, theaters and the football stadiums. Hundreds of games were canceled or postponed, and those that were played were played in front of empty stadiums with no fans allowed in attendance. Or like this game from atlanta in front of a fully maed crowd, kind of foreshadowing what we would see with covid some hundred years later. Now, eventually, the flu ran its course in war football. Second season got underway. Im going to go over just a few of the highlights. Jack sutherland had been a star tackle while studying dentistry at the university of pittsburgh in 1918. He found himself as player coach at camp greenleaf, which was a specialist camp for medical personnel down in georgia. This was sutherlands first taste of coaching and he was terrific. Sutherlands doctors, dentists and veterinarians went nine and all, including winning a postseason game in washington, d. C. , with the army chief of staff and the secretary of war in attendance. This season at camp greenleaf launch, sutherland towards his hall of fame coaching career and for most of his 30 seasons on the sideline, he continued to practice as a dentist. Charlie brinkley had been an allamerican halfback at harvard before the war. Now, in 1918, he found himself as an engine at the massive embarkation port in hoboken, new jersey. Now, hoboken was basically a one man team. It was Charlie Brickley and ten other guys. And one man teams can only go so far. Hoboken only went two and two on the season, including a win over the uss arizona. The same battleship that would infamously sink some 20 years later at pearl harbor. Now, hoboken might have been mediocre, but brickley was still a huge draw. So uncle sam used him and won thirsty in november. The United War Work Fund held a massive fundraiser on wall street selling war bonds and raising tens of thousands of dollars for war relief charities. Brinkley was the highlight of this event. He gave a kicking exhibition drop kicking field goals from federal hall towards the new york stock exchange. Some 40 yards away. Brinkleys there. You can see him with his leather helmet on and see the football kind of flying through the air in this picture. And as you can see, it was a massive crowd said to be the biggest seen on wall street during wartime. Now, ironically, brinkley would go to prison some ten years later for wall street mail seasons. Out in rockford, illinois. Frank pollard broke new ground simply by making the team at camp grants. Pollard was one of about 1000 africanamerican soldiers. Among the 30,000 troops at the camp. And the camp was segregated, just like the rest of the army. But pollard went out for the main camp team anyway, and he wound up making it. He was the only africanamerican soldier to break war footballs color line. Thats something that pollards older brother, fritz pollard, couldnt even manage. Fritz, who had been an allamerican and ended up making both the college and pro football hall of fame was spent world war one coaching segregated black regiments at camp meade in maryland. Now, Frank Pollard made the team, but he was a backup at the time. Regulars played 60 minutes in most of the games. He did get off the bench in the teams fourth game and played a few minutes as a substitute and in a camp korean victory. That was it for his war football career, but his war football career carried some significance. Now. Now, omar bradley wound up advancing Race Relations during war football in a very different way. Bradley had been a backup lineman on armys great 1914 team, and in 1918 he was a starting tackle at camp dodge of des moines, iowa. In bradleys last game, he had to line up against iowas duke slater, who was one of the best lineman in College Football, and also one of the few black players in major College Football at the time. Now, bradley had grown up in rural missouri, where jim crow was still very much the law of the land. The referee knew this, and he pulled bradley aside before the game just to make sure that he was okay with facing off against a black opponent. Bradley assured him that he was and that he would play fair, as walter ecker saw who covered the game, noted a few plays was enough to convince anyone that the best of feelings elicited between the pair on several occasions, major bradley helped slater to his feet when the latter was handled roughly. Now, bradley, of course, went on to be a five star general and played a significant role in the winning of World War Two. In 1948, as army chief of staff, he was tasked with carrying out the orders of another missouri native president , harry truman, to disagree gate the military. He did this successfully, and i believe that the foundation of bradleys efforts were laid on that november day in 1918, when he helped duke slater to his feet. Now, sports fans love a good debate. And one of the big debates in 1918 was, which is better College Football or war football . Now head to head, military teams had won two thirds of their matchups against College Teams in 1918, but some of the experts thought that the best College Teams would come out on top against the best military teams, simply due to better teamwork. Compared to these military teams that might have had more stars, but that were basically thrown together. Now, fortunately, that question got put to the test on november 30th, 1918, in a hastily arranged championship game between that seasons College Champion from the university of pittsburgh versus the cleveland naval reserves. Cleveland star, who you see on the left here, is a very muddy pete students. Cohen, who was an allamerican quarterback from ohio state. Cinch home was good and so was his team. But pitt was an absolute juggernaut. Pitt was led by coach pop warner, who you see on the right. He was an arrogant foul mouthed bully, but he was also a winner for more than 50 years. He was College Footballs all time winningest coach and that pitt team of his had four First Team Allamericans in the starting lineup. And pitt hadnt lost a game in four full seasons. Now in the championship game itself, pitt punched cleveland right in the nose. They jumped out to a 6 to 3 lead and were driving again late in the Second Quarter when they got to the five yard line thinking that there were several minutes left on the clock. The referee blew his whistle. Halftime pop warner would go to his grave, insisting that he had been cheated out of at least 5 minutes of playing time. The record doesnt exactly back this up, but thats what pop believed, or at least what he publicly said. Now, early in the fourth quarter, pitt extended its lead again with a field goal stretching the lead to 9 to 3. But pitt was getting tired. Cleveland responded with a big drive of its own, chewing up 5 to 10 yards on each play. And with pitt falling back on its heels, pete stewarts going called the perfect trick play. He pitched the ball to his fullback. It slipped unnoticed around pitts right end and then caught a flea flicker pass and perfect stride for a 35 yard touchdown. The extra point if cleveland at 10 to 9 win. Pop warner insisted that he had been cheated. Pitts official record books wouldnt acknowledge that this game even took place for almost 90 years. But all the whining and all the sour grapes couldnt change the result on the field. The sailor boys had beaten the college kids, and in the process, war football proved that it was better than College Football, at least for that 1918 season. And the thing is, cleveland wasnt even the best team in the best navy team from the midwest. That honor belonged to the great lakes Naval Training station, located about an hour north of chicago. Great lakes was the biggest navy base in the country. And its commandant, captain william moffitt, wanted it to be the best or at least the best known. And he figured that one natural way to do that was through the sports pages. So great lakes competed in everything. They won region all or Even National championships and baseball. Basketball, boxing, swimming, track and field. They even had one sailor who was a Norwegian Immigrant who wore his great lakes colors when he won a National Title in ski jumping. As good as great lakes was and other sports. They really stood out in football. They drew the top talent from all over the midwest, big midwest colleges as well as finally finding some hidden gems from small colleges and even straight out of high school. The three officer candidates that you see in this picture in their great lakes uniforms became fast friends. We have Patty Driscoll on the left, who was an allamerican quarterback from northwestern. You know, Charlie Bachmann in the middle, who was an allamerican lineman from notre dame. And on the right, we have a guy named george halas who is actually a pretty average College Football player, is an end at university of illinois. But who really became a star during his one season at great lakes. Now, like a lot of allstar teams, great lakes struggled with teamwork early in the season. They should have been big favorites in most of their early games, but they struggled to to narrow ends in two ties and their fifth game of the season. Great lakes final. He put it all together against previously undefeated rutgers Patty Driscoll scored four touchdowns including punt returns of 90 and 60 yards in a blowout win the following week. Great lakes took advantage of a 90 yard fumble return to eke out a 7 to 6 win over previously undefeated Naval Academy. They finished the regular season undefeated and received an invitation to the 1919 rose bowl. Their opponent for that game was the mare island marines. Now, this was a totally different, totally revamped lineup from the team that had won the 1918 rose bowl. But this team was still pretty good. They won all eight of the regular season games, including seven by shutouts, but they had beaten a bunch of nobody. So only one of those wins came against a team with the winning record. Maryland then had to run a gantlet in a hastily arranged playoff of undefeated west coast teams. They had to they had to come from behind to beat a San Diego Navy team to earn that berth in the 1919 rose bowl in the game itself, great lakes jumped out to a tender nothing lead on by halftime. George hales extended that lead in the Third Quarter with a 30 yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter. Maryland fought back. They were driving deep into great lakes territory and they were marching their way towards touchdown. But haleys intercepted a maryland pass and returned it almost 80 yards until he was caught from behind at the ten yard line. Haleys interception sealed a 17 to nothing win. Haley slater kicked himself for not scoring that second touchdown, but he really stood out on the field that day and he was named the rose bowl mvp playing in the rose bowl is one of the greatest thrills of my life. Haleys recalled. Some 60 years later, that was the only game i ever starred in. Now, that rose bowl took place in january. The war had ended a few weeks earlier in november. States by Training Camps demobilized pretty rapidly and life got back fairly much to normal. But our soldiers in europe werent going to be so lucky. They were going to be stuck over there for a while. But with no battles to fight, troops would have little or nothing to do. Officials were once again feared a fearful of the same things that they feared. In 1917, thousands of american soldiers chasing liquor, gambling and women. And now in Foreign Countries where any slip ups could cause an embarrassing international incident, officials also feared a morale problem when the troops realized that they were going to be stuck over there for a few months. Again, sports are the answer. Let the boys play football. General John Pershing announced a series of athletic contests to determine champions of the aef. Football would come first with a season that ran from january to march instead of the traditional fall season. This would be the first large scale single eliminatio football playoff ever held and it would end with an aaf championship game in paris. Almost 50 years before the first super bowl would be played. Teams organized quickly, and over 60 teams entered the tournament, and these teams were just as star studded as those at the Training Camps back in america. And the top row left to right, youve got hamilton fish, a harvard allamerican and a future congressman playing for the fourth division. You got two guys weve seen before, john beckett and eddie marsan now playing for a mixed army marine team from saint nick saintnazaire, france. Weve got bert bastian, a minnesota allamerican who won the navy cross while fighting with the marines at bello wood, whos now playing for the afc general headquarters. And youve got alex weyand, an allamerican lineman from west point, who was playing for the Seventh Division and the front row. Bottom row, weve got bob higgins at the 89th division and lou little of the six division who would both become top College Coaches after the war and on the bottom right, weve got princeton star hobey baker, who would have played for a base team from tours france except that he died in a Training Crash just about a week before practice started. All eight of these guys would make the College Football hall of fame. The tournament was a big hit among both the regular troops and the high ranking brass. So here we see the crowd at the third ar championship game in koblenz, germany, climbing nearby trees for a better view. And here we see a group of high ranking generals watching the championship game in paris. General pershing, who was a huge football fan, is fourth from the left. Oh, thats supposed to be muted after a hard fought series of playoff games, the afc championship game came down to the 36th division, which was mostly soldiers from texas and oklahoma against the 89th division, which was formed at camp funston, kansas, just about 120 miles west of here. This newsreel is from the afc championship game itself. Its not the highest quality. Its more about the atmosphere than about the game itself. And a couple of brief football up. Theres general pershing in the couple of brief football scenes, you cant really tell whats going on, but in the game itself, the 36 drew first blood. They recovered a fumble for a touchdown in the first quarter. Neither team scored for the rest of the first half, but the 36th was clearly outplaying. The. 89th at halftime, some over confident soldiers from the 36th parade around the field, they abbed it. The divisional standard, and they literally tooted their own horns as one of the regimental bands started playing. In the 89th division locker room, things were subdued, maybe even a little depressed, until a special guest came in it was Major General frank wynn, the commander of the 89th division. As halfback potsie clarke recalled more than 40 years later, wynn declared, hold on, man. Since i have taken command of this division, i have never issued an order that was not carried out at home. Today, thousands of our friends and families are following this game. This game means as much as 50 kilometers on the fronts. There is only one thing i can do order you to take this game now. As far as military orders go, thats probably not a valid one. But general wynn speech was the spark that the 89th division needed early the Third Quarter, patsy clark scored a short touchdown from a fake field goal formations give the 89th their first lead. He added a second touchdown on a 65 yard rush in the fourth quarter. That put the game away. Patsy, whos in the back row on the far right in this picture, also kicked both extra points, scoring all 14 points for the 89th division in the conference behind win for the for the afc champions ship the winners got these medals its not quite a super bowl ring but its something they would hold on to with pride for the rest of their lives. This medal belonged to Sergeant Harry flanagan, who was a starting guard, and flanagan kind of illustrates the democratic nature of war, with the obvious exception that africanamerican soldiers were excluded. But the 89th Division Team was a mix of officers noncombat like flanagan, and even a couple of privates. Now, even with the differences in rank, the vast majority had played College Football for the coach and played at harvard. The quarterback who would go on to be a Major General during World War Two, played at west point team mvp, patsy clark had played at illinois, even one of the privates and played at kansas state. But Harry Flanagan hadnt played College Football at all. He was a big, burly irish Police Officer from omaha, and he was one of the strongest men in the division. The coach noticed this and he turned flanagan into a lineman and he ended up being a really good one for the afc champs. Now, throughout 1919, soiers, sailors and marines returned to civilian life by the tens of thousands. The adjustment was difficult for most, but it was doubly difficult for the Football Players. They had already given up football once when they graduated college, they got another taste of it during war football, but now they had to give it up again. They were in the prime of their lives and what should have been the prime of their athletic lives. But they were once again players without teams. Now, before the war, pro football have been seen as really a good option. It was limited to a small number of teams and a few disorganized leagues around the midwest, and especially in ohio. Pro football had gained a little bit of momentum, a little bit of popularity before the war. But a lot of mainstream america really rejected the professional game. They viewed it like what you see in this picture, not just rough, but dowight dirty, the kind of guys who would poke you in the eye at the bottom of the pile or choke you or punch you right in the nose or kick you right in the chin. And it wasnt just about the play on the field. Pro football was associate id with gamblers and drinkers and sabbath breakers and other shady characters. It was definitely not the same clean cut type of football or Football Player that was associated, rightly or wrongly, with College Football at the time. Fewer than 20 of pro Football Players had played in college, but pro football was a perfect fit for a guy like Paddy Driscoll. Petty had been an allamerican at northwestern in 1916, but he dropped out school early to pursue his pro baseball dreams as his baseball career. Its stalled after just a couple of weeks in the big leagues, and he found himself with nothing to do. So in fall of 1917, he played for a Pro Football Team in hammond, indiana. If he had stayed at northwestern, he would have gotten some big headlines and some splashy photos and some really nice feature stories written about him in the newspapers. But instead, at hammond, he played anonymously, but he made 40 bucks a game at great lakes in 1918. He got those headlines and those splashy photos and those feature stories as the team was breaking up after the rose bowl, driscoll told his new friend george halas that he was going to play in hammond again that fall, would have a splinter ousted. No thanks, ellis said he had promised his mother that he was through with football. Also, he had his own baseball dreams to pursue as a new york yankees prospect. But haleys career stalled after just a couple of weeks in the big leagues, just as driscolls had after the season, he took a job using his engineering degree, designing bridges for 55 a week. Pretty good salary for the time, but haleys was thoroughly bored. I would look at some of the other engineers doing the same thing day after day for 30 years, haley slater recalled the prospect did not excite me. My real love was football, so he reached out to driscoll and wound up with an offer 100 a week for a nine game season down in hammond hammond. When haleys arrived at hammond his first practice, he was amazed at what he saw. Almost all of the hammond players had played College Football. These nine players that you see on this slide were former allamericans. And what was no coincidence, two thirds of the roster had played war football outside of driscoll and maybe one or two others. None of them would have really considered pro football before the war. But now, after theyd had a taste of war football, they realized they hadnt gotten all the football out of their systems and they seized this new opportunity all around the country. The story was similar military veterans who had played war football found themselves signing up for pro football. Now that they played a little bit of postcollegiate ball pro football didnt seem quite so taboo anymore. And at the same time, these college educated, clean cut military men really helped improve pro football image. But pro football was still highly disorganized in 1919, teams poach each others players regularly, college and Even High School players sneak into games under fake names. Championships were settled by convoluted arguments instead of by actual play on the field to lend some order to the chaos representing artists from several teams met in canton, ohio, in september 1920. The minutes of which are shown on this slide. One of those representatives was great lakes george allis, who had mov on from hammond and was now represent a factory team from decatur, illinois. The teams agreed to cooperate in scheduling to prohibit the use of College Players and to name a League Champion after each season. After 2 hours of discussion and debate, the American Professional Football Association was born. It was renamed the National Football league. Two years later, the new league quickly filledith war ftball veterans. More than 244 football alumni uld play oroa in the nfls early years. Only a fraction of these, maybe 40 or so, would have attempted to play pro before the war. But conditions had changed drastically by 1920, organized professional football was bound to happen anyway some point. But war football really gave it a huge jumpstart. It led to the birth of the nfl five or ten or maybe even 20 years sooner than if there had been no war. At least seven pro football hall of famers were veterans of war football on the top row. Left to right, you have bert bell, who quarterbacked a base Hospital Team in france, and then on the philadelphia and spent more than a decade as nfl commissioner. Youve got fritz pollard, who coached black soldiers at the segregated camp mead in maryland, who then won leagues new leagues first title with the akron pros. We got guy chamberlain Athletic Director at camp kearny in san diego, who won five nfl titles as an end with three different teams. We got george harris, great lakes end, rose bowl mvp, and one of the nfls founders with the Decatur Staleys and the Chicago Bears. He won eight nfl titles and was involved in a league for a record 64 seasons as player coach and owner, and usually in some combination of the three and on the far right, weve got george trafton, who played with fritz pollards younger brother, frank, at camp grant and then played center for halas for 12 seasons and the bottom row on the left weve got Paddy Driscoll from great lakes, who played with the chicago cardinals and Chicago Bears for ten seasons and then spent almost three decades in the league as a coach and in administrator and on the bottom right weve got jimmy councilman who was also a great lakes, great lakes was so stacked with talent that even a hall of famer like councilman ended up on the bench just playing in some mop up duty at the time. But he played in the nfl for ten seasons and won a championship and then returned to the nfl in 1940s as coach and won a second championship. These seven men were shaped and four not only by the war but by war football. And in turn, these seven men shaped and forged the early nfl and helped ensure its survival. Now, as i researched my book, i kept coming back to one big question why now . Promoters had tried to organize professional football at several different points before the war, and every attempt failed. What was it about the and about war football that put all the pieces together . Now, after a lot of study, the way that i see it, it came down to four or really big factors as far. First through war Football Players were able to extend their careers beyond the normal college limits. Now, none of them were quite as old as poor abe vigoda here, but geor halas, john beckett and Charlie Brickley had all wrapped up their College Careers to or three or five years before th had played again in the military. And in an extreme example, on the bottom right, we have brady gardner, who the last playedt the Carlisle Indian school in 1907, a ten years before he starred at camp custer in michigan. All of these guys extended their careers through war, football and then after the war, all of these guys had a chance to extend their careers again and they took that chance. Now, the second factor, once you had a lot of military veterans joining the new that drastically improve the image of the program. Again the public image of pro football before the war was kind of like that picture. We saw a few slides ago. Big brutes, drinkers, roughnecks, the kind of guy that would poke you in the eye at the bottom a pile. But now, because of their military service, they were seen as clean courts, allamerican skin soldiers and sailors first and Football Players second. Here you have chris bentz, who had played tackle for the chicago naval reserves. He was almost £300. He was massive for his time. He really was a big brutes. But now the public saw him as so more than that. They saw him as the picture on the right. A navy man, a volunteer, a patriot to public servants. If only a few war football veterans had signed up for the new league. It wouldnt have changed the image of pro football that much, but because so many did, that gave a real momentum to the shift in the way the public viewed pro football and pro Football Players. Third, and this is a really proactive call factor, war football showed investors that they could actually make money from these kinds of all star teams like the ones that had come together during the war. Bud talbot, whos on the far right in this picture, was the first to demonstrate this when he took camp sherman on their barnstorming tour in 1917 and raised a huge amount of money. After the war, bud copied, their blueprint in building his own all star team, the dayton triangles, which was a Founding Member of the nfl and actually played in the nfls first game. Bud talbot was the first, but many war football teams showed the same thing. The potential investors were teams packed in the crowds wherever they played in college stadiums, major League Baseball stadiums, even random llsides in the middle of nowhere like this picture that we see from camp funston, kansas, in 1917. Now, patriotism during the war was certainly part of the draw, but so was the all star nature of the military teams. Investors took notice and they tried to copy this in building their own teams. In the early nfl. Now, finally, and this is borrowing a little bit from my nba background, but the fourth factor and possibly the most important was a profound networking effects. This wasnt something that was really understood or studied until decades later in a business sense. But when you look at war football, its pretty clear how this played out before the war. A Football Players connections were kind of limited. You had strong ties to the guys that you grew up with and the guys that you played College Football with, and maybe a couple of week ties to some opposing players that you would faced off in college and that was about it. But now because of war football, you had much Bigger Networks to tap into. Lets say you had played for your College Football, university of iowa, and now you were playing for an army camp down in kentucky. One of your teammates might have played at illinois. Another one might have played at michigan. You played against these guys in college, but hadnt really gotten to know them super well. But then you had other guys showing up for your going out for your team. Maybe you had heard about but hadnt gotten to know a guy from harvard, a guy from notre dame, a guy from west point, maybe even a couple of semipro players from the ohio. And you not only had more connections, but your connections are much stronger now, too. Youre not only playing and practicing together. Youre sleeping in the same barracks. Youre doing your military training together. Your literally going into battle together. So you had many more connections, and your connections are much stronger now after the war. If youre building a football team, your universe of potential connections to draw on goes from being pretty narrow, like the image on the left and in the center to being almost unlimited. Like image on the right. You could easily call on a dozen or more war football friends to build your team and not only those bodies, but their networks, teammates and friends from before the war. That networking effect probably played out most vividly with the 1918 great lakes team, which you sein this picture. A whopping 70 team of these guys played in e rly nfl. Five of them for george baileys original Decatur Staleys in 1920. Helus also leveraged the College Networks of other great lakes teammates to fill out his roster. This gave him a much better roster, a championship caliber roster than the one that he than the one that he could have built if he was just using his illinois network. A lot of other founding nfl teams showed the same types of networking effect. The cleveland tigers led way with 15 war football veterans. The rock island independents had 13. Buffalo allamerica fans had 12. The akron pros, like the decatur steelers, had ten. And the networking effect only grew and spread from there. So those four factors is the way i see it. Were really the key in the success of the nfl at this time and show how and why war football led to the birth of the nfl. Now, pro football still had a long way to go. It would struggle for survival in the 1920s and 1930s. It wouldnt gain a True National following until the 1950s. And it wouldnt pass pro baseball as americas favorite spectator sport, probably until the 1970s. But the pro game finally had a sense of and it had a foundation for the future. Or football paved the way for a red grange, for jim brown, for my hero, walter payton. For tom brady. For patrick mahomes. And for thousands of others along the way. Its a legacy that started in part 120 miles west of here. A camp funston, kansas. And its a legacy that continues right here in kansas city today with the winning of super bowl 57. Just a few weeks ago. As well as the nfl draft, its coming up in just a couple of weeks. I thank you for letting me share that story with you tonight. Friends of yours. Join us online now is the time to place your questions into that youtube live chat. If you are here in the auditorium, youll notice that there are microphones on either side of the auditorium stairs. And we would welcome your question or a Museum Educator or a will be able to comment to you with a microphone so that you can be heard. First question from chris is actually just following up. You mentioned at the get go that there was a story, a president. Could you expand on that . Yes. So Dwight Eisenhower is the president in question. And i think his football story at west point is pretty well known. There have literally been books written about Dwight Eisenhower playing against jim thorpe, the real allamerican. This, you know, some some really fascinating stuff about eisenhowers college career. But he tore his knee that same season and never played football again. He became a football coach just kind of on a volunteer basis, both at west Point Coaching junior varsity. And then once he arrived at Fort Sam Houston down in texas, he coached local high school, a local college. Now, during war football, we dont know for sure whether he coached in 1917 or 1918 at one of the many stateside assignments that he had. He was at camp colt for a while in pennsylvania. He probably did a little bit of coaching there, but he most definitely during the National Guard mobilization of the winter of 1916, 1917, he definitely coached a team from the 12th division, all stars which were based in Fort Sam Houston, where eisenhower was also based. And actually, the interesting thing about that all star team, the champions of their tournament, was the second texas infantry, which would later reform is the 36th division. They were the runner up in the atf tournament. Eisenhowers team got killed by the second texas infantry, but they wound up being the team to actually score against the second texas infantry. So a Little Feather in his cap. Ike would continue to coach for several seasons as at military camps. I think at fort benning was one of his assignments. So maybe i think at camp mead in maryland also, he was basically a football man well into the 1920s before he shifted onto the ladder. That would make him Supreme Commander of the allied forces and our United States president. Was there active gambling on these games by the troops or the towns that the games are played in . There definitely was active gambling and walter ecker saw that. I mentioned he he would he would quote odds in some of his newspaper columns. I think, for the rose bowl. Great lakes was a 10 to 8 gambling favorite, which they wound up winning 17 to nothing. The concept of point spread didnt really exist back then, but the yeah. The odds would get quoted in the newspapers and they would openly reports. Oh great. When great lakes traveled to annapolis to play against against the Naval Academy, they would say that soldiers or im sorry, sailors from great lakes would bring shoeboxes full of money from their barracks mates to gamble with with the Naval Academy midshipmen on the the result of the game. So yeah, it was it was it was kind of a fairly open secret at the time. Yeah, just a couple of comments and then a question. First of all, ike, as a kansan was it kansas . Yes, he was for sure. And i was a missouri im sorry, pershing was a missouri. Pershing was a missouri. And he was here for the dedication of his. Yes. Yes. I saw a couple of team photos where there were 20 some players did most of them play both sides of the ball or when did an offense in a defense evolve . Yeah, platoon football didnt really exist as we now know it until i think the forties. So yeah, most of them would. Play 60 minutes all game, you know, maybe if it was a blowout or obviously if there was an injury, they would come out. They would come out at that time. But yeah, there you would have a roster of about 20 players, but really 11 or maybe, you know, if coach needs a spark, bring that scrappy halfback whos terrible at defense but is really fast, you know, a little bit of strategy in that. But for the most part, it was 60 minute football were it was the military very concerned about injury to these guys . Thats a good question. I, i didnt really see much of that. I know that the new york New York Times article called war football said that, oh, only a couple of players injured and i think they were overexaggerating. I do know that one player died at naval base in charleston, south carolina, but only one player died compared to in College Football. You had you know, seven, eight, nine players dying per year. So i dont know what it was about war, football that that led to fewer certainly fewer deaths. I dont really know whether there were fewer injuries or not. I know that there was a pretty gruesome injury in that first rose bowl between mer island and and camp louis. One player broke his leg and he was out of commission for a couple of months. But yeah, i really dont i really dont know that whether uncle sam was concerned about that or not. One last question. Ill get out of the way. Is your book available in the in the visitors . Yes, my book is available here at the museum. And i will even add in that it is not only available on the in the museum store, it is available right now online. Ww at the world war i you can check our online store and if you are quick enough, you might even get one of the books that chris was kind enough to sign earlier this evening. So go check that out. Well take the next question, please. Yes. Im curious if regimental football continued during peacetime or if it was that was when the transition to professional really began. So regimental football definitely continued during peacetime war football. The big spectacle i think a lot of walter camp envisioned old military football is going to be huge going into the 1920s. It really wasnt. It scaled the military itself, scaled down, the football scaled down. I think in one of the more embarrassing results that happened after the war, it was in 1919. University of chicago had gone winless in 1918, and they were really a top notch football team, but they were decimated by the draft and and various other factors. University of chicago beat great lakes 123 to nothing, just nine months after a great lakes had been the National Champion in the rose bowl. So but regimental football very much continued. Again, Dwight Eisenhower coached at camp mead and then at fort benning. There was a lot of barracks. One versus the signal corps and company b versus company f and and that type of stuff. I think it was really seen as a way to get recruits into good shape a lot, a lot similar to the way the military used boxing and various other athletic events. And athletic competitions to to really harden the the raw recruits, get them into shape. Yes. What were the most common type of formations and style of offense and how did that progress during football or did it progress . You know, whether quick, quickly or did it progressed more as the nfl came into being . I dont think there was a lot of innovation among the military teams at the time. A lot of them ran the pop warner formations, the single single wing was really popular. The defensive fronts you usually had usually had either a diamond or a box formation in the defensive backfield, and then a seven man line and then maybe one guy would drop off the line into what we today would call a linebacker position. But they didnt have a term for it back then. There really was not ton of Innovation One exception. Great lakes. The forward pass was legal ized in 1906. It was little used in its early years because of some restrictive rules. It really came more into its own. Around 1912, 1913, but still was not used very much. Four or five passes a game by a team that used the pass a lot great lakes during that rose bowl used the pass a ton and they used it to really good effect and it really the maryland marines, the maryland marines tried to fight back by using the forward pass themselves. And i think they had six passes intercepted. So it was you know, its its a higher high risk, high reward type of situation there. Thank you. Our next question will come from an on line watcher. Could speak more about jim thorpe. Was he involved in war football or could you speak more broadly to what native american Football Players . So jim thorpe was not involved in war football. He was it was a a terrible injustice. But native americans had to apply for citizenship back in the time. And jim thorpe didnt get his citizenship until. I think i think those rules i may be mistaken. I think those rules were changed sometime around 1930. Now, many native americans were citizens and were drafted in many, many simply volunteered. Jim thorpe was not involved in war football. He played some pro football in ohio in 1917. And i think i think he may have worked at a factory in 1918 when when pro football essentially shut down. But other native americans really did stand out during football. I showed one of my slides. He had birdie gardner at the bottom. Right birdie was so walter camp named all service team in both of 1917 and 1918. Birdie gardner was first team all service and he was a really, really good player. Now he was aging at the time. He was a full ten years out of college. He did give the nfl a go, but he was he was out of the nfl after just a season or two. But there were several other really good native american Football Players, gus welch, who had played with jim thorpe at carlisle, played for a team from camp mead, maryland, in 1917. Adrian lindsay played with, i believe it was the 89th division over in over in the aaf tournament. There were a couple of other really good native american players who really stood out both on the battlefield and on the football field during during the war itself. Our last question will come from online and our friends at Camp Zachary Taylor Historical Society about how many war football teams were there. So no, there were about 100 of what i would consider varsity caliber teams in 1917. And there were almost 200 in 1918. Its hard to get a really good on that because the records are extremely incomplete. But when i call them a varsity caliber football team, i mean that you had a main camp team that played an outside schedule. They would go play another military camp, go play a big college. So i would say there were yeah, there were slightly over 100 the first season and almost 200 the second season. And then of course aaf team. Yeah there were some 60 teams that entered the af tournaments, all of those would be varsity caliber team and some of those had come through the intramural ranks. You might have had an intramural or a championship within the 90th division to determine who would be the representatives that would play in the af tournament. But there were there were a good number of teams. It was a pretty healthy, really healthy, really robust thing back in the war. And thats why when i started researching it, i was that the dots hadnt been connected. I mean, it did take me a long time and a lot of scrolling through microfilm to find out the big story. But my friends if you want to find out more and see some pictures that you did not get a chance to see tonight, let me encourage you to purchase. And if you do so quickly, you might even get a signed copy purchase. Chris serb book war football world war one and the birth of nfl. Well either on site here at the National Level or womens memorial or on line at our website w to be the world wars. Would you please join me in thanking journalist author deputy district chief of the Chicago Fire Department and a Pretty Amazing dad to bring his daughters out here. Chris serb. And now one of our favorite lecturers, retired u. S. Army historian dr. Speaking on the womens spies of dday. Well have the lecture. Well have time for q a. And then we invite all of you to join dr. Holden and Committee Members downstairs for a reception and that, my friends, is more than enough for me. So, dr. Holden, the