Last Team Standing -
How the Steelers
and the Eagles - 'The Steagles' -
Saved Pro Football During World War II
by Matthew Algeo
Overview
From the Publisher
During World War II, the national Football League faced a crisis unimaginable today: a shortage of players. By 1943, so many players were in the armed forces that the league was forced to fold one team (the Cleveland Rams) and merge two others: the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles. Thus were the “Steagles” born. The Steagles included military draft rejects, a superstar lured out of retirement, and even a few active-duty servicemen who got leave for the games. Yet, somehow, this motley crew posted a winning record-the first in Eagles’ history and the second in Steelers’ history. A book about football, about life during the war, Last Team Standing is, above all, about those of the Greatest Generation who, against all odds, contributed to America’s war effort in the unlikeliest ways.
My thoughts
Matthew Algeo can tell a good story. This book is no exception.
The football part of this book was good all by itself, but the perspective of football in a time of war and the military draft is eye-opening. Why this isn't a story Americans know by heart is beyond me because it's a story worth telling and a story worth remembering.
If you want to see what I mean, please visit my Last Team Trivia page using facts from this book!
Favorite Passage
Then, at around 2:45 p.m., the Teletype machine pounded out an enigmatic message: CUT FOOTBALL RUNNING.
But then came this: PEARL HARBOR BOMBED.
Then this: WAR ON.
The writers huddled close around the machine, silent and disbelieving. They were the only people in the stadium with any knowledge of the events unfolding, at that very moment, half a world away.
"For a few moments it was our exclusive secret," Povich later wrote. "And hard to grapple with was the stupefying news."
