America in WWII - (Page 57) preflight schools—together with the Great Lakes Naval Training Station and even the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro near Santa Ana, California—helped turn the college football polls into a virtual who’s who of service teams. Traditional powers such as Notre Dame, which lost star quarterback Angelo Bertelli to the marines in 1943, found themselves losing to these hybrid upstarts, whose rosters were filled with experienced college and even professional players. Not affected by defections, the US Military Academy also returned to power. In 1944, Coach Earl Blaik’s West Point Cadets ruled the national polls, trampling the Fighting Irish along the way. Despite travel restrictions and other hurdles, rabid football fans continued to celebrate the college game by filling stadiums for the annual post-season bowl games. After all, one fan wrote, the “colorful fanfare and tradition associated with college football still are the main attractions which draw the fans, regardless of inferior play.” Others, however, wondered why thousands of much smaller events, such as scientific conventions, were being cancelled all over the country, while football fans “utilized the transportation which the scientists gave up so that the army could use the roads, so that the vital rubber supply would be saved, so that the war effort could be materially helped.” In fairness, however, bowl games were the exceptions. On the whole, attendance at college games was down. While play- ers made do with taped-up padding and cleats coming apart at the seams, national rationing of gasoline and rubber kept automobiles garaged and fans at home next to their radios. Meanwhile, the young National Football League was about to explode in popularity. Purists had traditionally considered professional ball the ugly, mercenary cousin of the star-studded college game. But since its creation in 1920, the NFL had quietly built a grudging fan base, offering a slightly rougher version of the rundominated college game. Then, in the midst of the Depression, league fathers looking to add some razzle-dazzle to the game moved end zone goalposts up to the goal line to increase scoring by making field goals easier and, more importantly, eliminated a rule that permitted quarterbacks to pass the ball only if they were at least five yards behind the line of scrimmage. With the passing game opened up, Chicago Bears coach George Halas unleashed quarterback Sid Luckman and his versatile new T-formation offense in the January 1940 NFL Championship Game. The Bears’ 73-0 thrashing of the Washington Redskins was broadcast on radio nationally —a first that made instant fans of millions of listeners. The manpower shortage that bedeviled the college game also took its toll on the NFL. By May 1942, the armed forces had claimed a third of the league’s 346 players, some of whom returned home on weekends to cheer on their former teammates. NATIONAL ARCHIVES OCTOBER 2007 CARDS COURTESY OF A.J. FIRESTONE,WWW.OLDFOOTBALL.COM AMERICA IN WWII 57
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