About this item
During World War I, American army camps, navy stations and marine barracks formed football's first true all-star teams, competing against each other and top colleges while raising millions of dollars for the war effort. More than fifty college football hall-of-famers, dozens of future generals, and two Medal of Honor winners would play for, coach, or promote military teams during the war, including Dwight Eisenhower, Walter Camp, and George Halas.In War Football: World War I and the Birth of the NFL, Chris Serb recounts a fascinating chapter of military and sports history. He details three of the best but long-forgotten seasons of American football, when college amateurs mixed with blue-collar pros on the field of play. These games showed investors a lucrative market for teams of post-collegiate stars and made players realize that their football careers didn't have to end after college.
About the Author
After working at multiple Chicago-area magazines in the 1990s, Chris Serb had the opportunity to join the Chicago Fire Department in 1999. Fortunately, he didn't have to choose between his two passions, since his firefighter schedule gave him ample time to write. Over the next 20 years, Chris churned out hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles; self-published his first book, Sam's Boys: The History of Chicago's Leone Beach and Legendary Lifeguard Sam Leone, in 2000; and conventionally published his second book, War Football: World War I and the Birth of the NFL (Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group) , in 2019.War Football looks at the long-forgotten all-star army, navy, and marine football teams that emerged during World War I, accelerating the development of the professional game after the war. With stories about several of the military's best teams and documentation of the 240-plus military football veterans (including 7 Hall of Famers) who played or coached in the early NFL, Serb shows how War Football led directly to the founding of the league. The Professional Football Researchers Association selected War Football as winner of the 2019 Nelson Ross Award, for outstanding achievement in pro football historical research.A lifelong Chicagoan, Chris currently lives on the city's Northwest Side with his wife Emily (a high school English teacher and exceptional editor) and their two young daughters. He holds a bachelor's degree in English from the College of the Holy Cross; a master's in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism; and an M.B.A. from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. Chris is currently Captain of Truck 11 on the Chicago Fire Department, where he has earned several department, city, and state commendations over his 20-plus year career.
