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War Football

World War I and the Birth of the NFL

Chris Serb

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.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 296 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-1-5381-2484-0 • Hardback • June 2019 • $37.00 • (£28.00)

978-1-5381-2485-7 • eBook • June 2019 • $35.00 • (£27.00)

Subjects: Sports & Recreation / Football, Sports & Recreation / History

War Football

World War I and the Birth of the NFL

Hardback

eBook

Summary

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.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 296 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-1-5381-2484-0 • Hardback • June 2019 • $37.00 • (£28.00)

978-1-5381-2485-7 • eBook • June 2019 • $35.00 • (£27.00)

Subjects: Sports & Recreation / Football, Sports & Recreation / History

Author

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.

Table of Contents

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

Reviews

In this impressively researched volume, journalist Serb makes the plausible argument that the success of military service football during World War I prompted the establishment of the National Football League one year later. These games and teams demonstrated that fans would show up for post-graduate football that lacked college connections. Moreover, prominent figures such as Walter Camp and Gen. John J. Pershing expressed the view that football was useful in the training and fitness of soldiers, as well as providing men with a positive pursuit in their free time. Serb details the proliferation of service ball at U.S. military bases in 1917–18 while the army and navy were being assembled, and features extensive accounts of significant contests. Several soldiers who played service ball during the Great War would later play in the NFL, including George Halas, who would prove to be the driving force of the league for over 60 years as the founder and owner of the Chicago Bears. He and many other major players and coaches are profiled here. VERDICT For anyone interested in the early days of football and its interaction with the U.S. military, this book will prove to be a valuable reference.

— Library Journal

In War Football, Chris Serb not only makes a strong case that football played during The Great War “created an environment where professional football could finally succeed on a large scale,” but also crafts one of the more complete records of the game as it was played at various stateside training camps.... Although he recognizes that professional football was becoming more popular before the war, he argues that the pros suffered from a lack of organization, a dearth of known players, and negative public perceptions. He makes a persuasive case that the taste for gridiron glory that was extended for many former college stars during the war, along with the athletic networks that they formed in the various training camps, set the stage for a postwar surge in professional football’s popularity.... With an engaging narrative that is accessible to a wide audience, Serb’s book should interest academics and general readers. It also would be a good read for undergraduate students in a football history course, as well as for those in a more general course on World War I. War Football is well worth a read.

— Sport in American History

RECOMMENDED . . .In this descriptive history, independent sports journalist Serb argues that "war football" played in military training camps and overseas during World War I directly led to the creation of the NFL by improving the environment around--and reputation of--professional football. The book is well documented with references to primary historical sources, particularly newspapers and programs, thus adding new information to the field . . . This is a valuable contribution to the field, given its focus on an often overlooked period of sport history.
— Choice

. . . an enjoyable page-turner. . . This account of how the war impacted the growth of the sport takes us in a different direction from previous histories that focus on Walter Camp, George Halas, or the sport’s semi-professional roots. Serb’s analysis of the impact of WWI as a situational factor provides a new way to understand the sport’s growth.

— Sport in History

An impeccably researched work which details the time period during the Great War when football was being played at U.S. military bases at home and abroad
— Insidehook

Think you know all there is to know about the NFL? Think again. In his fascinating book, War Football, Chris Serb digs deep into American history to tell the riveting story of how World War I directly led to the birth of the NFL and brings to life the intrepid pioneers who formed what has become the nation's most important sports league.
— Christine Brennan, USA Today sports columnist and ABC News, CNN, and NPR commentator

Chris Serb’s War Football is a revelation. It is a thoroughly researched and wonderfully written saga. This book shines a light on the untold story of World War I, including its role in the birth of what would ultimately become today’s National Football League. The rich detail that brings to life those early days—endowed by our football forefathers, Walter Camp and George Halas—is not to be missed!
— Pete Dawkins, US Army Brigadier General (ret.), 1958 Heisman Trophy winner and College Football Hall of Fame halfback at West Point

Features

9/2/2019: The podcast of the World War One Centennial Commission welcomes author Chris Serb to discuss the book's topic.

Link: https://www.worldwar1centennial.org/index.php/communicate/2015-12-28-18-26-00/weekly-sync-call/6574-ww1-centennial-news-episode-138-09-02-19.html

9/10/2019: Chris Serb explains how World War I led to the NFL in this interview with Insidehook.

Link: https://www.insidehook.com/article/sports/war-football-world-war-i-formation-nfl

2/4/2020: Learn all about the connection between football and WWI with help from author Chris Serb and the National WWI Museum and Memorial.

Link: https://www.theworldwar.org/learn/football

11/16/20: Author interviewed on podcast Sports' Forgotten Heroes discussing the book.
Link: https://sportsfh.com/

Awards

• Winner, The PFRA Nelson Ross Award for "Outstanding Recent Acheivement in Pro Football Research and Historiography." (Pro Football Research Association, 2019)

War Football

World War I and the Birth of the NFL

Chris Serb

War Football

World War I and the Birth of the NFL

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