Team For America

Football is much more than a game to us. And never before was there a game as important as the one played by two service academies Army and Navy, in December 1944th Randy Roberts, distinguished professor of history at Purdue University, tells the incredible story of a one-game Army-Navy football game that almost did not play that won and the people gathered in the war.

On 3 December 1944 The Army coach Earl "Red" Blaik received a telegram from a man he knew very well, a man who had great respect for the game of football. Telegram to Blaik and congratulated his troops for his team lost its fiercest rival the Naval Academy, a day earlier. Telegram from General Douglas MacArthur, who at that time in the Philippines.

Team USA begins with the story of Blaik and how he came to be the head football coach at Army. Roberts is not a great job of analyzing not only Blaik's coaching prowess, but also the personality of man. An interesting story in the book is the original "Fifth Down" game. True college football fans know the Colorado-Missouri game in the late 1980s when they got fifth. Well, what many do not know is from the 1940 game between Cornell, one of the top-ranked teams in the nation at the time, and Dartmouth, and then trained a Red Blaik.

Roberts then dives into the army slew of players who were important parts of the Blaik in the great plan to turn the Army football. Where you May have heard of Glenn Davis and Felix "Doc" Blanchard, both Heisman Trophy winners, you May not be as familiar with George "Barney" Poole, DeWitt "Tex" Coulter, Max minors or Doug Kenna.

The story of how these people came to West Point and stories about their sporting talents and toughness are very intriguing. You will learn military programs in place that takes the best and the brightest and most talented athletic people across the country will be primarily at the Naval Academy. As a result, from 1939 to 1943 Navy defeated Army five straight times and the Cadets scored just six points in those five losses. Blaik then understand how to be part of that talent at West Point and the tide began to shift.

What makes the story all the more incredible is the time period in which it occurs. United States was a nation at war. It was during the meal and the draft. The academies are producing future leaders in our military and our troops need them now! Cadets at West Point are being pushed through your normal four-year program in two and a half. Universities across the country canceled their football programs because of the war. Even the focus of the book, 1944 game between the two academies, came under scrutiny and was almost canceled.

This is a compelling story of our precious game, the young people, the difficulties of the country, about the service. For true fans of college football, this game was in December 1944, without a mask, the face of the ball that was slightly thicker than today, and this was perhaps the most important game in the history of sports. Read for the U.S. team and find out why.