War Football

During World War I, American army camps, navy stations and marine barracks formed football's first true all-star teams, competing against each other and top colleges while raising millions of dollars for the war effort. More than fifty college football hall-of-famers, dozens of future generals, and two Medal of Honor winners would play for, coach, or promote military teams during the war, including Dwight Eisenhower, Walter Camp, and George Halas.
In War Football: World War I and the Birth of the NFL, Chris Serb recounts a fascinating chapter of military and sports history. He details three of the best but long-forgotten seasons of American football, when college amateurs mixed with blue-collar pros on the field of play. These games showed investors a lucrative market for teams of post-collegiate stars and made players realize that their football careers didn't have to end after college. Soon the barriers to professionalism began to fall, and within two years of the Armistice the National Football League was born.
War Football explores for the first time this lost chapter of sports history and makes a direct connection between World War I and the founding of the NFL. Seven future Hall-of-Famers led the charge of more than 200 military veterans who played in, coached for, and shaped the character of the young league. Football fans, sports historians, and military historians alike will find this book a fascinating read.

Chris Serb is an independent journalist who has written extensively for such publications as Chicago Tribune, Chicago History, Writer's Digest, Chicago Athlete, and Men's Fitness. He is the author of Sam's Boys: The History of Chicago's Leone Beach and Legendary Lifeguard Sam Leone (2000), whose profits were donated to charity. Serb was a finalist for Chicago Headline Club's prestigious Peter Lisagor Award for Best Sports Feature in 2000.

Acknowledgments
A Note on Names and Nicknames x
Prologue: "War Football"
1: George Halas Sees His Future
2: Walter Camp's Vision
3: Cupid Takes Aim at the Northeast
4: A True All-American at Camp Custer
5: Camp Sherman's March through Ohio
6: Beckett's Marines Conquer the West
7: Selling War Football
8: Brickley Kicks for Uncle Sam
9: Jock Sutherland's Fighting Dentists Head Down South
10: Frank Pollard, Omar Bradley, and Race in War Football
11: Coach Ike
12: The Cleveland Navy Battles Pop Warner
13: George Halas and the 1919 Rose Bowl
14: How Football Helped Win the War
15: The AEF Tournament
16: Peace and College Football's Golden Age
17: War Football and the Birth of the NFL
Epilogue
Appendix 1: War Football Players
Appendix 2: All-Service Teams, 1917-1919
Appendix 3: War Football Records
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author