thedrifter
11-23-08, 07:30 AM
Returning soldiers fine fame on the gridiron
By Archibald McKinlay
Times Columnist | Sunday, November 23, 2008
It’s hard to say when it began, but let’s say it began with Johnny Green.
Johnny had been a terrific guard for the University of Michigan, a champion wrestler, and an ebullient representative of the UM athletic department. During World War II, he also taught servicemen how to perform judo.
When his number came up in the draft, he flunked the physical. He also flunked out of the Marines, Navy, and Merchant Marines. So he took his degree and started playing for the Detroit Lions, becoming a starter and co-captain.
Naturally, when World War II ended, he was drafted into the Army and wound up on permanent KP in Texas, or some other Dickensian occupation. So when General Merriweather, the high llama of Percy Jones General Hospital and its landlord, Fort Custer, discovered Green, the general offered to liberate him.
The quick-witted Green started to bargain, which was like the low man on the totem pole trying to get something without giving something in exchange. Essentially, Green said he would come up to Michigan, coach a team, play a bit, and generally help Merriweather achieve his objectives.
He also talked Merriweather into playing football in the middle of the week. He said that veterans returning to school caused their schools to overflow with talent and make it almost impossible to give everyone playing time. So why not let the surplus play the Percy Jones Generals at Fort Custer for the amusement of the hospital patients. Percy Jones was the second (to Walter Reed) largest Army hospital in the U.S., occupying facilities of former spas, with a substantial annex at Fort Custer.
Thus, a football team was put together from a pool of good-to-great players, plus imports like Green from throughout America, and me.
The elements of this phenomenon included: bands from both the post and Battle Creek High School; cheerleaders, both W.A.C.s and high school acrobats; a homecoming queen; extravagant publicity in the general press and post paper; and everything else you can think of that heightens the effect of football. Every day of the season was a revelation for me, who had never started a single game in high school, and everything was first class.
From the beginning, we were a success. In our first possession, Bob Fowler, our lightening fast halfback (9.7 in the 100-yard dash) launched a pass in my general direction. I had run a hook and, seeing that I was covered, I rolled out and then just kept running down the field because I didn’t know what else to do. Bob, not an accurate passer but a strong one, threw the proverbial long one down the field to an area that had nobody in it.
I shifted into high speed, ran under the ball, caught it, and made it to the 7-yard line. The play had covered about 50 yards. On the next play Bob took off around right end and scored. We never looked back.
We ended the season ranked the second best service team in the country. And I left the Post Tavern in downtown Battle Creek flying so high that my date, a Kalamazoo coed, practically had to hold me down to keep me from flying off the reservation.
The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.
Ellie
By Archibald McKinlay
Times Columnist | Sunday, November 23, 2008
It’s hard to say when it began, but let’s say it began with Johnny Green.
Johnny had been a terrific guard for the University of Michigan, a champion wrestler, and an ebullient representative of the UM athletic department. During World War II, he also taught servicemen how to perform judo.
When his number came up in the draft, he flunked the physical. He also flunked out of the Marines, Navy, and Merchant Marines. So he took his degree and started playing for the Detroit Lions, becoming a starter and co-captain.
Naturally, when World War II ended, he was drafted into the Army and wound up on permanent KP in Texas, or some other Dickensian occupation. So when General Merriweather, the high llama of Percy Jones General Hospital and its landlord, Fort Custer, discovered Green, the general offered to liberate him.
The quick-witted Green started to bargain, which was like the low man on the totem pole trying to get something without giving something in exchange. Essentially, Green said he would come up to Michigan, coach a team, play a bit, and generally help Merriweather achieve his objectives.
He also talked Merriweather into playing football in the middle of the week. He said that veterans returning to school caused their schools to overflow with talent and make it almost impossible to give everyone playing time. So why not let the surplus play the Percy Jones Generals at Fort Custer for the amusement of the hospital patients. Percy Jones was the second (to Walter Reed) largest Army hospital in the U.S., occupying facilities of former spas, with a substantial annex at Fort Custer.
Thus, a football team was put together from a pool of good-to-great players, plus imports like Green from throughout America, and me.
The elements of this phenomenon included: bands from both the post and Battle Creek High School; cheerleaders, both W.A.C.s and high school acrobats; a homecoming queen; extravagant publicity in the general press and post paper; and everything else you can think of that heightens the effect of football. Every day of the season was a revelation for me, who had never started a single game in high school, and everything was first class.
From the beginning, we were a success. In our first possession, Bob Fowler, our lightening fast halfback (9.7 in the 100-yard dash) launched a pass in my general direction. I had run a hook and, seeing that I was covered, I rolled out and then just kept running down the field because I didn’t know what else to do. Bob, not an accurate passer but a strong one, threw the proverbial long one down the field to an area that had nobody in it.
I shifted into high speed, ran under the ball, caught it, and made it to the 7-yard line. The play had covered about 50 yards. On the next play Bob took off around right end and scored. We never looked back.
We ended the season ranked the second best service team in the country. And I left the Post Tavern in downtown Battle Creek flying so high that my date, a Kalamazoo coed, practically had to hold me down to keep me from flying off the reservation.
The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.
Ellie