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Post by tog on Apr 19, 2012 18:17:23 GMT -6
I seem to remember some old stat about a very high percentage of officers in WWII playing high school football but can't find it. My google fu seems weak today.
Anyone have any ideas about what I am talking about?
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Post by Chris Clement on Apr 19, 2012 21:46:55 GMT -6
I've seen it as well but it has a flaw. Officers would have gone to HS, many of the men would not have. Therefore, many of the men would not even have had the opportunity.
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Post by tog on Apr 20, 2012 7:29:27 GMT -6
cclement, who do you remember saying it? Ike maybe?
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Post by Chris Clement on Apr 20, 2012 7:48:23 GMT -6
I recall it being phrased as a statistic, or maybe I remember it that way because my brain is wired for numbers.
I did find this: 355 of 638 NFL players in WWII were officers. That sounds like a stupefying percentage. But again, these would have been college-educated men in their 20's, so that figure is actually probably a bit lower than it should be.
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Post by groundchuck on Apr 20, 2012 8:52:07 GMT -6
The number heard at a football clinic was 85%. Maybe that's too high. But that is the number that stuck in my head.
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Post by jackedup on Apr 20, 2012 9:58:23 GMT -6
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Post by spreadattack on Apr 20, 2012 10:43:19 GMT -6
One of my favorite was Byron "Whizzer" White. Try this for a timeline:
While playing football at the University of Colorado, he was awarded the Rhodes Scholarship, but deferred it to play football for the Pittsburgh Pirates (now Steelers, obviously). He led the NFL in rushing as a rookie. As an encore, he goes off to Oxford to study for a year. Then he returns to the NFL, this time with the Detroit Lions, and leads the NFL in rushing again. His career is then cut short when he entered the Navy during World War II.
Then, after the war, he finds a pretty good second career after football: White graduated from Yale Law School, and became one of the longest sitting Supreme Court Justices, having been nominated to the court by JFK.
That's a well rounded man.
And don't forget of course Nile Kinnick, who won the Heisman trophy in 1939 and was killed during flight training as a Navy aviator.
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Post by joelee on Apr 23, 2012 11:58:06 GMT -6
I know the stat was taken from a commencement speech at West Point. I cannot remember the rest.
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Post by tog on Apr 23, 2012 12:53:55 GMT -6
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Post by fantom on Apr 23, 2012 16:22:01 GMT -6
Reminds me of one of my college coaches who played in the Marines during the Korean War. He said that before one game his coach gave the greatest motivational speech that he'd ever heard,
"If you lose this game every one of you swingin' richards is going straight to Korea".
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Post by tog on Apr 23, 2012 20:12:27 GMT -6
some real incentive there
would have loved to have seen that game
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Post by ajreaper on Apr 24, 2012 10:55:10 GMT -6
I do recall a quote from Douglas MacArthur I believe, that went something like this:
"this war was won on the playing fields of America" A reference to the advantages of having so many men involved in competative games and training for those contests in America. Hard to make a "soft" man much of a warrior.
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Post by John Knight on Apr 24, 2012 11:31:49 GMT -6
aj, was this what you were thinking?
"On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that on other days and other fields will bear the fruits of victory"
Douglas MacArthur
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Post by fantom on Apr 24, 2012 12:20:34 GMT -6
I don't remember who said it but I remember a quote that went something like, "I need a man for a difficult, dangerous mission. Get me an Army football player."
Here's the actual quote:
General of the Army George C. Marshall Chief of Staff during World War II said, "I want an officer for a secret and dangerous mission. I want a West Point football player."
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Post by ajreaper on Apr 25, 2012 13:12:13 GMT -6
aj, was this what you were thinking? "On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that on other days and other fields will bear the fruits of victory" Douglas MacArthur John my guess is it must be. |
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