WALTER TRUMBULL '15 TELLS OF FOOTBALL MEN IN WAR

"When the Hun tried to force kultur down the throats of his neighbors and acquaintances, and lost a few fingers in the operation, football did its bit," writes Walter Trumbull '15 in the current issue of The American Legion Weekly, the official publication of The American Legion.

"When the call came nobody had to supply an ear trumpet to any of the amateur athletes of this country, and the response from the punters of the pigskin was close to 100 per cent. How well they played the game is evidenced by the fact that about half of the men connected with sport who today sleep over yonder are football men.

Football Men in Greater Game.

"There is hardly a college or university in the land that cannot proudly point to names on its roster of gridiron heroes of those who made good in the greater game. Among the first to seek and find the Great Adventure was Johnnie Poe; Johnnie Poe, of Princeton, and the Black Watch; Johnnie Poe who once sent the message to an eleven, 'If you won't be beat, you can't be beat.' Not a bad slogan for an army, that!

"One of the most gratifying things about picking an All-Service team has been the letters from coaches, many of them in the service themselves. To the query, 'Which of your football players were in the service?' man after man replied, 'all of our players were in the service.' The gridiron game proved its worth. The mimic battles were productice of the spirit that won a world war.

"George Daley voiced this truth in an article in the New York World. "Football," he said, 'with its close personal contact, keen strategy, sharp initiative and demand for high courage, develops the qualities which make good soldiers. The very character of the game precludes a man's being anything but a strong, virile, big-hearted American!'"