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 WorldWar 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 beneficiary. This picture that you see here shows the end result. This is the 19, 19 rose bowl between Undefeated Navy 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 massive expansion of existing 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 IslandMarine 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 the 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 how 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 pandemic swept through. 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 masked 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 exc