Gridiron Warriors

They fought in the Battle of the Bulge and landed at Guadalcanal; they bombed Germany and bull-rushed Iwo Jima. Yes, these men were soldiers, but they shared something else vital in common: They were college and pro football players of the 1940s World War II era. Some carried guns and fought; some carried the pigskin and played, donning the gear they were most familiar with--leather helmets and pads--to join either of the service academies or one of the many military, naval, or marine bases engaged in playing service football. A few were physically deferred, enabling them to still compete on college teams or in the NFL.

This work delivers a living history of a vanishing time in a collection of oral histories, all told by the players themselves in the first person. And the book boasts plenty of star power: Of the 35 storytelling players, 31 were selected All-America, named All-Pro or to the Pro Bowl, played on national champion teams, or became Hall of Famers. From Oklahoma to Okayama, Northwestern to Neubiberg, gridiron oddities and anomalies played out on a meandering trail globally. Little did these men know that the new wartime era of football would yield extraordinary changes on the fields of play--college, pro, and service football--within the larger fields of war.