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Sports in America
1940–1949
SECOND EDITION
Phil Barber
SERIES FOREWORD BY
LARRY KEITH
1940–1949, Second Edition
Sports in America
Copyright © 2010 Phil Barber

Foreword copyright © 2010 Larry Keith
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, elec-
tronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems,
without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, contact:
Chelsea House
An imprint of Infobase Publishing
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Barber, Phil.
Sports in America, 1940-1949 / Phil Barber. — 2nd ed.
p. cm. — (Sports in America)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60413-450-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-60413-450-X
ISBN-13: 978-1-4381-3073-6 (e-book) (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Sports—United States—History—20th century. I. Title. II.
Series.
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Produced by the Shoreline Publishing Group LLC

President/Editorial Director:â•‹James Buckley Jr.
Contributing Editors: Jim Gigliotti, Beth Adelman
Text design by Thomas Carling, carlingdesign.com
Index by Nanette Cardon, IRIS
Cover printed by Bang Printing, Brainerd, Minn.
Book printed and bound by Bang Printing, Brainerd, Minn.
Date printed: July 2010
Photo credits: AP/Wide World: 9, 13, 14, 19, 20, 25, 31, 33, 35, 39, 40, 41, 43, 49, 55, 57, 59, 62, 65, 67, 70, 71, 73,
77, 83, 85, 89; Baseball Hall of Fame: 24, 28, 35 (inset), 39, 44, 58; Corbis: 7, 8, 11, 16, 21, 22, 27, 30, 46, 47, 52, 54,
61, 68, 69, 72, 75, 78, 80, 82, 87, 88; Getty Images: 37, 50, 53, 80; Shoreline Publishing Group: 64, 81.
Sports icons by Bob Eckstein.
Printed in the United States of America.
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.

SPORTS I N AM ERICA 1940 –1949
Contents
Foreword 4
Introduction 6
1940 10
1941 18
1942 26
1943 34
1944 42
1945 48
Jackie Robinson, baseball player and barrier breaker (page 66)
1946 56
1947 66
1948 74
1949 84
Resources 90
Index 92
Foreword
BY LARRY KEITH
WHEN THE EDITORS OF SPORTS IN AMERICA epochal event reverberated throughout every part
invited me to write the foreword to this important of American society.
historical series I recalled my experience in the To be sure, black stars from individual sports
1980s as the adjunct professor for a new sports jour- had preceded him (notably Joe Louis in boxing
nalism course in the graduate school of Columbia and Jesse Owens in track), and others would follow
University. Before granting their approval, the fac- (Arthur Ashe in tennis and Tiger Woods in golf),
ulty at that prestigious Ivy League institution asked, but Robinson stood out as an important member of
Do sports matter? Are they relevant? Are they more a team. He wasn’t just playing with the Dodgers, he
than just fun and games? was traveling with them, living with them. He was
The answer—an emphatic yes—is even more a black member of a white athletic family. The ben-
appropriate today than it was then. As an integral efits of integration could be appreciated far beyond
part of American society, sports provide insights to the borough of Brooklyn. In 1997, Major League
our history and culture and, for better or worse, help Baseball retired his “42” jersey number.
define who we are. Sports have always been a laboratory for so-
Sports In America is much more than a com- cial awareness and change. Robinson integrated
pilation of names, dates, and facts. Each volume big league box scores eight years before the U.S.
chronicles accomplishments and expansions of the Supreme Court ordered the integration of public
possible. Not just in the physical ability to perform, schools. The Paralympics (1960) and Special Olym-
but in the ability to create goals and determine pics (1968) easily predate the Americans with Dis-
methods to achieve them. In this way, sports, the abilities Act (1990). The mainstreaming of disabled
sweaty offspring of recreation and competition, athletes was especially apparent in 2007 when
resemble any other field of endeavor. I certainly double amputee Jessica Long, 15, won the AAU
wouldn’t equate the race for a gold medal with the Sullivan Award as America’s top amateur. Women’s
race to the moon, but the building blocks are the official debut in the Olympic Games, though limited
same: the intelligent application of talent, deter- to swimming, occurred in 1912, seven years before
mination, research, practice, and hard work to a they got the right to vote. So even if these sports
meaningful objective. were tardy in opening their doors, in another way,
Sports matter because they show us in high they were ahead of their times. And if it was nec-
definition. They communicate examples of deter- essary to break down some of those doors—Title
mination, courage, and skill. They often embody a IX support for female college athletes comes to
heroic human-interest story, overcoming poverty, mind—so be it. Basketball star Candace Parker
injustice, injury, or disease. The phrase, “Sports is a won’t let anyone keep her from the hoop.
microcosm of life,” could also read “Life is a micro- Another area of importance, particularly as
cosm of sport.” it affects young people, is substance abuse. High
Consider racial issues. When Jackie Robinson of school, college, and professional teams all oppose
the Brooklyn Dodgers broke through major league the illegal use of drugs, tobacco, and alcohol. In most
baseball's “color barrier” in 1947, the significance venues, testing is mandatory, and tolerance is zero.
extended beyond the national pastime. Precisely The confirmed use of performance enhancing drugs
because baseball was the national pastime, this has damaged the reputations of such superstar ath-
4
letes as Olympic sprinters Ben Johnson and Marion outweighs the bad, that many of life’s success stories
Jones, cyclist Floyd Landis, and baseball sluggers took root on an athletic field.
Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez. Some athletes Any serious examination of sports leads to
have lost their careers, or even their lives, to sub- the question of athletes as standards for conduct.
stance abuse. Conversely, other athletes have used Professional basketball star Charles Barkley cre-
their fame to caution young people about submitting ated quite a stir in 1993 when he used a Nike shoe
to peer pressure or making poor choices. commercial to declare, “I am not paid to be a role
Fans care about sports and sports personalities model.” The knee-jerk response argued, “Of course
because they provide entertainment and self-identi- you are, because kids look up to you,” but Barkley
fy—too often at a loss of priorities. One reason sports was right to raise the issue. He was saying that, in
have flourished in this country is their support from making lifestyle choices in language and behavior,
governmental bodies. When a city council votes to young people should look elsewhere for role models,
help underwrite the cost of a sports facility or give ideally to responsible parents or guardians.
financial advantages to the owners of a team, it af- The fact remains, however, that athletes occupy
fects the pocketbook of every taxpayer, not to men- an exalted place in our society, especially when they
tion the local ecosystem. When high schools and are magnified in the mass media, sports talk radio,
colleges allocate significant resources to athletics, and the blogosphere. The athletes we venerate can
administrators believe they are serving the greater be as young as a high school basketball player or as
good, but at what cost? Decisions with implications old as a Hall of Famer. (They can even be dead, as
beyond the sports page merit everyone’s attention. Babe Ruth’s commercial longevity attests.) They are
In World War II, our country’s sporting passion honored and coddled in a way few mortals are. Re-
inspired President Franklin Roosevelt to declare grettably, we can be quick to excuse their excesses
that professional games should not be cancelled. He and ignore their indulgences. They influence the
felt the benefits to the national psyche outweighed way we live and think: Ted Williams inspired pa-
the risk of gathering large crowds at central loca- triotism as a wartime fighter pilot; Muhammad Ali's
tions. In 2001, another generation of Americans opposition to the Vietnam War on religious grounds,
also continued to attend large-scale sports events validated by the Supreme Court, encouraged the
because, to do otherwise, would “let the terrorists peace movement; Magic Johnson’s contraction of
win.” Being there, being a fan, yelling your lungs the HIV/AIDs virus brought better understanding
out, cheering victory and bemoaning defeat, is a to a little-understood disease. No wonder we elect
cleansing, even therapeutic exercise. The security them—track stars, football coaches, baseball pitch-
check at the gate is just part of the price of stepping ers—to represent us in Washington. Meanwhile,
inside. Even before there was a 9/11, there was television networks pay huge sums to sports leagues
a bloody terrorist assault at the Munich Olympic so their teams can pay fortunes for their services.
Games in 1972. Indeed, it has always been this way. If we, as a
The popular notion “Sports build character” nation, love sports, then we, quite naturally, will love
has been better expressed “Sports reveal character.” the men and women who play them best. In return,
We've witnessed too many coaches and athletes they provide entertainment, release and inspiration.
break rules of fair play and good conduct. The con- From the beginning of the 20th century until now,
victions of NBA referee Tim Donaghy for gambling Sports In America is their story-and ours.
and NFL quarterback Michael Vick for operating
a dog-fighting ring are startling recent examples. Larry Keith is the former Assistant Managing Editor
We’ve even seen violence and cheating in youth of Sports Illustrated. He created the editorial concept
sports, often by parents of a (supposed) future for SI Kids and was the editor of the official Olympic
superstar. We’ve watched (at a safe distance) fans programs in 1996, 2000 and 2002. He is a former
“celebrate” championships with destructive behav- adjunct professor of Sports Journalism at Columbia
ior. I would argue, however, that these flaws are the University and is a member of the North Carolina
exception, not the rule, that the good of sports far Journalism Hall of Fame.
5
Introduction
1940–1949
W HAT IS THE PLACE OF SPORTS
within the greater society? Do the
games exist merely to entertain, or can
fall of 1940, making it possible for the
government to draft men into the armed
forces, and within two years at least 31
they have larger impacts on the world and million men had registered for the draft.
its people? For decades, games and sports More than half of them wound up serving,
were seen by “serious” people as either and inevitably, some were drawn from the
distractions or as merely ways to build sports world. Stars and nobodies, veter-
a healthy body. However, as the world ans and rookies, all of them mobilized.
emerged from a destructive war, sports, The National Football League (NFL) lost
for perhaps the first time, helped to be- 638 of its players, coaches, and officials
come a force for change and for good. to the armed forces; 66 of them were
As the decade dawned, World War II decorated in battle and 21 died in combat,
gripped much of the world. By 1940, the including 12 active players.
United States was a behind-the-scenes The casualties certainly weren’t lim-
participant, sending arms and equipment ited to the big team sports. Torger Tokle, a
to allies that included Great Britain. But Norwegian immigrant who set an Ameri-
as the Axis powers—Germany, Japan, and can ski jump record in 1941, then broke it
Italy—gobbled up territory, it appeared twice more (topping out at 289 feet), died
inevitable that America would join the while fighting in the Italian mountains
fight outright. The decision was cemented with a U.S. ski-patrol force in 1944.
on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese Even the athletes who stayed in the
bombed the U.S. Navy fleet at Pearl Har- United States made sacrifices. Sports
bor in Hawaii. equipment manufacturers set a tone for
Soon many of America’s best young the era by urging their consumers to “use
men and women, and most of its natu- it up, wear it out, make do, or do without.”
ral resources, were headed for war. The With rubber in short supply, most tennis
Selective Service Act was passed in the and golf balls manufactured during World
6
Day of Infamy December 7, 1941: The USS Arizona blows up in Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack.
War II were made of a combination of National Anthem before every game, and
reclaimed and crude rubber, or a syn- they kept the tradition going even after
thetic alternative. Tennis players called the war ended. Major League Baseball
the mushy balls they played with “victory also began to play more night games dur-
balls.” Golfers complained that an aver- ing the war, in part to accommodate fac-
age drive of 225 yards shrunk to 210 with tory workers. The Westinghouse Electric
their new balls. Company supported the idea by reporting
Along the way, some now-revered that stadium lights would use less power
traditions were conceived. In baseball, than the desk lamps of individual fans
for example, crowds started singing the reading at home.
7
The Japanese, huge baseball fans Times on April 14, 1946. “To the dreamers
themselves, knew how important sports the game was a symbol of the things-that-
were to Americans. They tried to jam were, of the things-yet-to-be.”
broadcasts of the World Series over the America entered World War II in the
Armed Forces Radio Network, and U.S. throes of an economic depression. Now
soldiers reported their Japanese enemies the economy was humming, ramped up
shouted, “To hell with Babe Ruth!” as they by the war effort, and sports fans had
stormed fortified positions. money to spend. The 1945 World Series,
Finally, in 1945, after nearly four played just one month after the Japanese
years of intense fighting since the United surrendered, set records for attendance
States' official entry into the war, World (333,457 people) and gate receipts (nearly
War II came to an end. Americans cel- $1.6 million). In 1946, the Indianapolis
ebrated by flocking to ballparks, stadiums, Speedway welcomed 175,000 people to
courts, and rinks. Life returned to normal. the Indy 500 auto race, and basketball
“Dreams of baseball were dreams of san- crowds at all professional and college lev-
ity,” Arthur Daley wrote in The New York els totaled some 75 million. Clearly, Amer-
icans were ready for some recreation.
However, as events would prove,
Americans were ready for change, too,
and sports would lead the way. After being
sources of joy and diversion during the
war, baseball games soon became centers
of a a vast societal change.
Specifically, African-Americans were
demanding equality, and many whites
were ready to back them up. As baseball
commissioner Albert “Happy” Chandler
said, “If they [blacks] can fight and die
on Okinawa, Guadalcanal, in the South
Pacific, they can play ball in America.”
In 1946, two football teams in com-
peting leagues—the National Football
League’s Los Angeles Rams and the All-
America Football Conference’s Cleveland
Browns—suited up African-American
players. It was a relatively quiet achieve-
ment for the Rams’ Kenny Washington
Other Kinds of Uniforms Yankees superstar Joe DiMaggio (left) and Woody Strode and the Browns’ Bill
and Dodgers sparkplug Pee Wee Reese (second from right) were Willis and Marion Motley.
among many athletes who joined the armed forces during the war. By contrast, when Jackie Robinson
joined baseball’s Brooklyn Dodgers a
8
Lasting Impact Jackie Robinson's life had a positive impact on many lives. This rose
rests at his grave in 1997, 50 years after he shattered baseball's color barrier.
year later, it was one of the biggest sports the American League in 1948, and many
stories of the decade, or, some might say, of other teams soon followed suit.
the century. Baseball was by far the most If the 1940s brought growing pains
popular sport in the 1940s, and its color to some of the established professional
barrier had been silently enforced since sports, they announced the birth of oth-
the turn of the century. But Dodgers presi- ers. The National Basketball Association,
dent Branch Rickey decided the time had NASCAR, the Ladies Professional Golf
come to shatter that barrier, and he chose Association, and a legitimate professional
Robinson to do it. The 1947 season tested tennis tour all arose in the second half of
Robinson’s resolve, but by October he the decade.
helped Brooklyn get to the World Series Having survived the crucible of war
and was voted Rookie of the Year for both and having begun to fight the battle for
leagues. The game never looked back. The integration, American sports were ready
Cleveland Indians’ Larry Doby integrated for a golden age.
9
1940
the IOC canceled the Games for the first
War and Sports
time in the modern era.
The Olympic movement had been- The 1944 Olympic Games, scheduled
part of the international sports scene for London and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy,
since 1896. In Japan, the year 1940 was would be canceled as well.
supposed to be the year that that country
finally made a big mark on the worldwide
The Flying Dutchman
sports extravaganza. It was scheduled to
be the host of the Olympics that year. The Pole vaulting actually began as a
emerging country was scheduled to host contest of distance, not height. Vault-
both the Winter Olympics in Sapporo and ers would use poles to leap across wide
the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. canals or streams. However, by the time
By 1937, that plan had come undone. the Olympics began, using a pole to pro-
In 1931, the Japanese government invad- pel the athlete over a bar was the stan-
ed Manchuria in northern China. Japan dard. Still, like a too-wide canal, a barrier
attacked into the heart of China in 1937, remained: 15 feet.
beginning a war that would last seven Finally, Cornelius “Dutch” Warmer-
years and spread throughout the Pacific. dam cleared that elusive height on April
Not surprisingly, due to the conflict, Japan 13. Warmerdam, a 24-year-old high
canceled its Olympics. school teacher, was competing for the
As alternatives, the International San Francisco Olympic Club at Berkeley,
Olympic Committee (IOC) selected St. California.
Moritz, Switzerland, for the Winter Games Warmerdam’s record-breaking vault
and Helsinki, Finland, for the Summer measured 15 feet, 1 1/8 inches. This was
Games. However, plans there fell through, no lucky leap. Competing at Fresno, Cali-
as did additonal plans to hold the Winter fornia, on June 29, he bettered the mark
Games in Germany. Again, war cancelled by nearly two inches. And he continued to
those events, too. shatter his own record, inch by inch, until
Clearly, this was no time for interna- he hit 15 feet, 8 1/2 inches in 1943. "The
tional sports competitions. Unwillingly, Flying Dutchman" retired from the sport
10
Record Setter Warmerdam’s heroics made him a national sports icon.
in 1944, having topped 15 feet an incred- far lower than those today, but Dutch
ible 43 times. made his vaults with a wooden pole. The
Observers of the day swear no one modern fiberglass pole didn’t come along
has ever exhibited better form in the pole until the 1960s, and soon after, men were
vault than Warmerdam. His vaults are vaulting more than 17 feet.
11
berg (1911–1986; a .340 batting average
One Tough Feller
and 41 home runs in 1940) and first base-
The Cleveland Indians’ hard-throw- man Rudy York (33 homers and 134 RBI).
ing pitcher, Bob Feller (b.1918), had Their best pitcher, Bobo Newsom, won 21
been the class of the American League in games and lost only five.
1939, leading the league in wins (24), in- Pitching ruled the National League
nings pitched (296), and strikeouts (246). in 1940, and no team had better arms
So everyone expected him to have a big than the Cincinnati Reds. Their best was
season in 1940. They just didn’t know how Bucky Walters, who led the league in wins
quickly he’d get rolling. Feller took the (22) and innings pitched (305), and had a
mound on April 16 and threw a no-hitter, dazzling ERA of 2.48. The Reds were only
blanking the Chicago White Sox 1–0. It is average at the plate, but they had brilliant
still the only Opening Day no-hitter in fielders to back up the pitchers.
Major League Baseball history. The World Series in October went
The 21-year-old Feller had an ex- seven games, and was largely a contest
ceptional season. He won 27 games for between Walters and Newsom. Both were
the Indians, with 261 strikeouts in 320 nearly invincible. Walters won two com-
innings and a league-leading earned run plete games, giving up only eight hits and
average (ERA) of 2.61. (ERA is a key mea- three runs. Newsom won the first and
sure of a pitcher’s success; it shows how fifth games, even though his father died
many earned runs a pitcher allows every after watching the victorious game one.
nine innings.) Newsom valiantly pitched game seven on
just one day of rest, and lost to Derringer
as the Reds claimed their first champi-
Yankees Go Home
onship in 21 years on October 8. For the
The 1930s belonged to the New York Series, though, Newsom gave up a mere
Yankees. They won every World Se- four runs in 26 innings.
ries from 1936 through 1939, the first Undaunted by his personal losses,
team to win four baseball championships the colorful Newsom arrived at spring
in a row. In fact, they swept the Series in training the following season in a car
four straight games in both 1938 and 1939. with a neon sign that read “Bobo” and a
In 1940, the team was once again great, horn that played the popular song “Hold
led by outfielder Joe DiMaggio (1914– That Tiger.”
1999), but it didn’t finish at the top.
This time, the Bronx Bombers fell
Chicago Punts Football
short. In a tight, three-team race, it was
the Detroit Tigers who beat the Cleveland The University of Chicago football
Indians (by a game) and the Yankees team had plenty of success on the
(by two games) to take the pennant. The field. The school had, in fact, produced the
Tigers were powered by a couple of nation’s first Heisman Trophy winner, Jay
mighty sluggers: outfielder Hank Green- Berwanger, in 1935. But in 1940, univer-
12
sity President Robert Hutchins shocked (13–0), the University of Santa Clara (7–6),
the student body by announcing that the and Washington State University (26–14).
school was dropping its football program. Still, few thought Stanford could beat the
“There is no doubt that football has been University of Southern California (USC)
a major handicap to education in the on October 26. USC hadn’t lost a game
United States,” Hutchins said in an ad- since 1938 and had beaten Stanford three
dress. He noted with scorn that 50 percent times in a row.
of Big Ten football players were physical-
education majors.
The president wrapped up his argu-
ment by stating, “I think it is a good thing
for this country to have one important
university discontinue football.”
If Hutchins hoped for other colleges
to follow suit, he was disappointed. But
the University of Chicago still has no foot-
ball team—preferring, instead, to churn
out Nobel Prize winners.
T Time for Frankie

Few college football teams were
more inept than the Stanford Uni-
versity Indians in 1939. The Indians fin-
ished 1–7–1, losing every Pacific Coast
Conference game they played. But in
1940, Stanford benefited from the deci-
sion at Chicago (see page 12) and hired
that university’s former coach, the inno-
vative Clark Shaughnessy. The coach had
developed a T-formation offensive
scheme, which sent men in motion before
the ball was snapped and used many
more passing plays than other formations,
and it was about to take the football world
by storm.
Stanford began the season in Sep-
tember against a pretty good University
of San Francisco team and won easily, Suited to the T Stanford quarterback Frankie Albert’s success with
27–0. The Indians proceeded to notch the T formation helped make it the standard for football teams.
victories against the University of Oregon
13
S P O RTS I N AM E R I CA 1940 –1949
The Beginning of the End
Before 1935, NFL teams passed the ball only out 1942 he caught 74 passes; the next highest total was
of desperation, or as a form of trickery. Don Hutson a distant 27. In 1944 he scored 29 points on four
(1913–1997) helped change that—not by throwing the touchdowns while also kicking five extra points (after
ball, but by catching it better than anyone had before. touchdowns) in a single quarter. He retired with 99
They called Hutson the Alabama Antelope. He was touchdowns—an NFL record that stood for 44 years.
fast, with reliable hands and great moves. One of his Hutson became the first receiver to regularly see
favorite moves involved grabbing a goal post (the posts double coverage (where two defenders cover a single
were on the goal line in those days) with one arm and offensive player). And even that usually wasn’t enough.
spinning himself away from a defender. “I just concede him two touchdowns a game and hope
During his 11-year career (1935–1945) with Green we can score more,” Chicago Bears owner George
Bay, Hutson led the NFL in receiving eight times. In Halas (1895–1983) said.
With three minutes to go, the game

was tied 7–7. Then, quarterback Frankie
Albert started faking handoffs and turn-
ing them into play-action passes (passes
made after pretending to hand off the
ball). This was the strength of the T, and
no one had ever handled the ball bet-
ter than Albert. He drove the Indians 80
yards for the go-ahead touchdown, then
intercepted a USC pass with a little over
a minute left and returned it for another
score. Stanford won 21–7.
Powered by Albert, fullback Norm
Standlee, and slashing halfback Pete
Kmetovic, the Indians finished the regu-
lar season 10–0 and wrapped up a magi-
cal season by defeating the University
of Nebraska 21–13 in the Rose Bowl on
January 1. Within five years, most foot-
ball teams in America—at every level of
play—were using the T formation.
A Movie Legend
The Gipper Future president Ronald
Reagan starred in a 1940 football movie. The University of Notre Dame was
one of the most successful and
14
popular college football programs in the football halfback. “Old 98”—a reference to
nation in this era. Part of the reason, of Harmon’s jersey number—played offense
course, was its enormous success, as the and defense for the Wolverines. He was a
school won national titles and dozens of productive passer and a sensational open-
games. However, in 1940, Notre Dame got field runner who shredded defenses in
a big boost from a Hollywood movie . . . 1939 and 1940, winning the Heisman
and a young actor played a part that would Trophy as a senior. In a win over the Uni-
make him famous. versity of California at Berkeley in 1940,
The movie, called Knute Rockne: All- he scored on sensational runs of 94, 72, 86,
American, was mostly about the great and 80 yards. He also scored three touch-
coach of the ”Fighting Irish.“ But the part downs and passed for another in the
of Notre Dame player George Gipp was Wolverines’ 40–0 rout of rival Ohio State.
played by actor Ronald Reagan. The part After college, Harmon signed with
called for Reagan to perform on the foot- the New York Americans of the American
ball field, showing off his athletic skills. Football League, a short-lived rival to the
Gipp was fated to die, however, giving the NFL. He later played two seasons (1946–
actor a famous death scene. Pat O’Brien, 47) for the Los Angeles Rams. That was
playing Rockne, then gave his famous
“Win One for the Gipper” speech that has
become a regular part of American sports
legend. Supposedly, several years after
Gipp died, Rockne did indeed encourage Justice on the Field
his team, behind at halftime, to come back
and win in memory of the fallen player. The NFL’s leading rusher in 1940 was a man who would gain
Decades later, when Reagan was more acclaim in a black robe than he ever did in a football
running for president, the role came to jersey. He was Byron “Whizzer” White (b.1917), who went on
identify him. He was known as “The Gip- to a 31-year tenure as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, after being
per” during his campaign and presidency. appointed by President John F. Kennedy in 1962.
The combination of the famous school, a White, a celebrated student-athlete at the University of
legendary scene, and the president of the Colorado, first led the professional league’s rushers as a rookie
United States combined to make a man with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1938. He then spent a year at
who played only two seasons of college Oxford University in Britain, studying on a Rhodes scholarship.
football one of the most famous collegians He returned to play for the Detroit Lions in 1940 and used his
of all time. shifty moves to rush for 514 yards. After one more season, he
left football and turned his attention to larger matters. His rise
to legal fame didn’t surprise any of his teammates.
The Prime of Old 98
As Lions coach George Clark once said, “While the other
At the turn of the decade, few ath- guys were playing cards for five cents a point, White would
letes could bring a crowd to its feet get out his glasses, his pipe, and his law books and start
like Tommy Harmon (1919–1990), the studying.”
University of Michigan’s do-everything
15
after being a fighter pilot in World War II, Stagg (1862–1965) said, “I’ll take Harmon
which would leave him with a Silver Star, on my team, and you can have the rest.”
a Purple Heart, and an injured leg. He just
wouldn’t be the runner who had thrilled 73–0!
fans at the collegiate level. The NFL’s fiercest rivalry of the era
Asked to compare some of the great pitted the Chicago Bears against the
backs he had seen over his long and deco- Washington Redskins. They played for the
rated career, famed coach Amos Alonzo league championship in 1937, and again
in 1942 and 1943. Each team had a great
passer, Washington’s Sammy Baugh
(1914–2008) and Chicago’s Sid Luckman
(1916–1998). Most important, the two team
owners—George Halas of the Bears and
George Preston Marshall of the Red-
skins—were proud and fiery men who
basically couldn’t stand one another.
After Washington edged Chicago 7–3
on November 17, Halas and his players
angrily complained about a controversial
call made in the final seconds. Marshall
responded by labeling the Bears “a bunch
of crybabies.”
With the Redskins winning the
Eastern Division on the strength of a 9–2
record and the Bears capturing the West-
ern Division at 8–3, the stage was set for
a rematch. Halas, the head coach as well
as the owner, fumed about Marshall’s
remark as the game approached. He also
recruited Stanford University coach Clark
Shaughnessy (see page 13), who tinkered
with the offense in the days leading up to
the grudge match on December 8.
The Redskins didn’t know what hit
them. Fifty-five seconds into the game,
Bears fullback Bill Osmanski took a hand-
off and blazed down the left sideline. End
George Wilson blasted two defenders out
Super Sid Chicago quarterback Sid Luckman led a 1940 title- of the way, and Osmanski was gone for a
game rout that set a standard for high scoring. 68-yard touchdown. The next time they
got the ball, Luckman drove the Bears 80
16
Other Milestones
yards and scored on a quarterback sneak.
On the first play of the next possession, of 1940
fullback Joe Maniaci raced 42 yards for a
touchdown. It was 21–0 at the end of the ✔ On February 28, WXBS (later WNBC) televised the first col-
first quarter, 28–0 at halftime, and it only lege basketball games. The broadcast was a doubleheader:
got worse in the second half. University of Pittsburgh versus Fordham University and New
This was the first pro football game York University versus Georgetown, at New York’s Madison
to be broadcast over an entire radio net- Square Garden.
work—120 stations via the Mutual Broad-
✔ The University of Illinois won the first intercollegiate gym-
casting System, which paid $2,500 for the
nastics team championship on May 11.
rights—and the announcer, the legendary
Red Barber (1908–1992), couldn’t believe ✔ Basketball’s Harlem Globetrotters defeated the Chica-
what he was seeing. “The touchdowns go Bruins to claim the World Championship Tournament.
came so quickly there for awhile, I felt The Bruins’ owner was George Halas, who ran the NFL’s
like I was the cashier at a grocery store,” Chicago Bears.
Barber said. “It is a very good thing I went
over the roster of the Bears. I believe I ✔ Belle Martel of Van Nuys, California, became the first
wound up having to say every player’s female boxing referee when she presided over eight fights in
name on the list. In fact, I believe they all San Bernardino.
scored touchdowns.”
Indeed, 10 different Bears took the
ball into the end zone. And Luckman
didn’t even play in the second half. Halas Washington replaced Baugh with Frank
pulled many of his starters as the mar- Filchock, but it hardly mattered. As Bears
gin grew. When the score reached 67–0, tackle George Musso said, “It was the per-
the public address announcer at Griffith fect football game. You can’t play better
Stadium bravely reminded Redskins fans than we did that day.”
that it was never too early to order tickets Marshall was predictably upset after
for 1941. He was drowned out by boos. the game. He told reporters his defense
By late in the game, footballs were looked like “a roomful of maidens [young
scarce because so many extra-point kicks women] going after a mouse,” and that his
had landed in the stands. So the offi- offense wasn’t much better.
cials ordered the Bears to run or pass for It was a dark day in the nation’s capi-
their conversions. They missed four extra tal, where politicians and generals already
points in all, detracting only a bit from worried about the German bombing of
the dizzying final score of 73–0. The NFL London and the occupation of Paris. But
has never had a bigger blowout, before in Chicago, for one day at least, there was
or since. pure joy.
In all, Chicago rushed for 381 yards,
completed 7 of 10 passes for another
138 yards, and intercepted eight passes.
17
1941
Whirlaway Crowned
On May 3, jockey Eddie Arcaro
(1916–1997) rode the horse Whirla-
way to a record time of 2:01 2/5 in the
Kentucky Derby. A week later the duo
claimed the Preakness Stakes. The Bel-
mont Stakes was nearly a month later, on
June 7, and more than 30,000 racing fans
turned out to see whether Arcaro and
Whirlaway could win racing’s coveted
Triple Crown.
Whirlaway was a spirited chestnut
colt, the son of Blenheim II and Dust-
whirl. He was bred on Calumet Farms, the
country’s premier Thoroughbred breeder. mark (the race was a mile and a half) and
Calumet’s owner, Warren Wright, missed won by three lengths, making Whirla-
the Belmont to attend his son’s graduation way the fifth horse to capture the Triple
ceremony, but insiders figured his ab- Crown. Arcaro never had to use the whip
sence was because he just wasn’t worried in this one.
about the race. His horse, after all, was a
heavy 1-to-4 favorite.
Conn’s Folly
Arcaro’s usual strategy aboard the
tireless Whirlaway was to hang back until Joe Louis was making a mockery of
the final stretch. “But at the mile post, boxing’s heavyweight division, de-
there was no pace,” he explained later. “It feating all challengers and making it look
was very slow. So I yelled to those other easy. When former light-heavyweight
jocks, ‘I’m leaving.’” champion Billy Conn, a tough Irish-
And so he was. Whirlaway bolted to American from Pittsburgh, moved up to
the front of the pack before the half-mile take a shot at Louis, nobody gave him
18
On the Way to 56 With this swing, Joe DiMaggio advanced his hitting streak to 39 consecutive games (page 20).
much of a chance. In fact, the only person attempt to tire him out. But he charged
who seemed to take Conn seriously was right at the champion and shocked the
Conn himself. “He won’t get away from crowd with his effectiveness. It was an
me when he’s hurt,” the brash 25-year-old action-packed fight. Conn was cut on the
told reporters, referring to Louis. bridge of his nose and over his right eye in
The two boxers met at the Polo the fifth round, while Louis got a bloody
Grounds in Manhattan on June 18. Pro- nose in the ninth round.
moters set up wooden chairs on the New By the 12th round, it was clear that
York Giants’ baseball field, and the 54,487 Conn had out-boxed Louis. Most ob-
in attendance included many uniformed servers agreed that all he had to do was
soldiers and sailors. Just about every- avoid the big man’s right cross for three
one expected Conn, who was 25 pounds more rounds, and Conn would be the new
lighter, to dance away from Louis in an heavyweight champion.
19
56 for 56
Throughout the decades, baseball
has generated millions of numbers.
Statistics such as batting average, number
of home runs, total strikeouts, and more
let fans compare the players from differ-
ent eras. Some of those numbers became
so well-known that they described in
mere digits incredible feats. For instance,
just say the number ”56” to a longtime
baseball fan and you’ll get only one an-
swer: Joe DiMaggio. In 1941, DiMaggio got
at least one hit in that many games in a
row. It was a streak that went 15 games
past any other before him, and no one has
come inside of a dozen games since.
Conn on the Canvas Joe Louis heads for a neutral corner while The Streak began on May 15. DiMag-
the referee moves in for the count after Louis decked challenger Billy gio got a single in four at-bats against
Conn in their June heavyweight fight, which Conn almost won. the Chicago White Sox. Then the center
fielder got hits in his next game, and the
next. DiMaggio stretched it to 20 straight
Louis knew it, too, so he came out games on June 3 and to 25 games on June
swinging in the 13th round. Instead of 10. Soon the entire nation was checking
covering up and moving away, Conn de- his performance in the morning papers
cided to trade punches with the cham- and getting radio bulletins on every at-
pion. It was a brave but foolhardy tactic. bat. Fans flocked to his games. Official
Louis stunned Conn with a thun- scorers admitted to feeling the pressure
derous right to the jaw, then launched a (they didn’t want to end or prolong the
left-right combination that knocked the streak on a questionable play), but the
challenger flat. The referee counted out unflappable DiMaggio never changed
Conn with only two seconds left in the expression.
round, and Louis remained heavyweight On June 28 he got a single and a
champion. double against the Philadelphia A’s, tying
After the fight, the two boxers were George Sisler’s (1893–1973) major-league
mutually respectful. “Joe, you should’ve let mark of 41 consecutive games with a hit.
me win that fight. Think of all the money DiMaggio broke the record the next day,
we could make on the return,” Conn said singling against the Washington Senators.
with a smile. He made it to 50 games on July 11, pound-
“I loaned you my title for 12 rounds,” ing a home run and three singles against
Louis replied, “and you couldn’t keep it.” the St. Louis Browns.
20
It all came to an end on July 17, be- DiMaggio nearly got another chance.
fore 67,468 people in Cleveland (to that The Indians went into the bottom of the
point, the largest crowd ever to see a night ninth trailing 4–1. But they scored twice
baseball game), but Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio and placed a man on third base with no
didn’t go quietly. In two of his first three outs. Had they gotten him home, DiMag-
at-bats against Indians pitcher Al Smith, gio was due to bat in the 10th inning. But
he ripped the ball down the third base base-running blunders sealed a 4–3 New
line. Each time, the Indians’ Ken Keltner York victory, and the end of the hitting
made a superb stop and threw across the streak at 56 games.
field for the out. Amazingly, DiMaggio got a hit in the
Smith walked DiMaggio in his second next game and began another streak of 16
at-bat. When DiMaggio came to bat in the games. His 56-game streak remains one
eighth inning, right-handed knuckleball of baseball’s most most memorable and
pitcher Jim Bagby was on the mound and enduring feats.
the bases were loaded. The crowd was on
pins and needles. The Yankees’ star hit a
The Hitting Machine
bouncing ball to deep shortstop, where
Cleveland player-manager Lou Boudreau During his sensational 56-game hit-
turned it into a double play. ting streak, Joe DiMaggio batted for
Mr. Triple Crown

Jockey Eddie Arcaro was known as “The man to ride a horse since Paul Revere.”
Master,” and it wasn’t just because he He won the Triple Crown atop Whirla-
won so often—although winning was way in 1941 and with Citation in 1948,
certainly part of the legacy. (He won and he barely missed with Nashua in
4,779 races in his career, including five 1955, finishing a close second in the
Kentuckys Derby, six Belmont Stakes, Derby. Arcaro had an uncanny knack
and six Preakness Stakes.) What truly for avoiding bad position on the track,
defined Arcaro were his quiet confi- and he was one of the first jockeys to
dence in the saddle and his devotion switch the whip from hand to hand.
to his profession. After retiring, Arcaro was founder
George Edward Arcaro was born in and first president of the Jockeys Guild,
Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1916. By the time which provided health insurance and
he retired from racing in 1962, Sports employment benefits to the long-
Illustrated called him “the most famous Eddie Arcaro overlooked riders.
21
Joltin’ Joe
Someone once asked Joe DiMaggio why he played so hard day in
and day out. He replied, “There might be someone in the park who’s
never seen me play before.”
Or there might not be. Between 1936 and 1951, sports fans of
all stripes (and especially pinstripes) filled ballparks to see the man
they called the Yankee Clipper.
DiMaggio couldn’t hit the ball as far as his Yankees’ predeces-
sor, Babe Ruth (1895–1948), or the slugger who followed him to
Yankees’ fame, Mickey Mantle (1931–1995). But he could do it all.
He hit home runs (361), he hit for average (.325), and he ranged
around center field like a gazelle. With his long stride and fluid grace,
he made it all look easy. And while his reserved, private nature
might today be viewed as aloofness, in the 1940s DiMaggio was
considered the epitome of class. It didn’t hurt that he played for the
dominant team of the era, in the country’s biggest media market.
Raised in San Francisco, the son of a fisherman, DiMaggio pre-
ceded two brothers—Vince and Dom—in the big leagues. Dom was a
noted player in his own right. But it was Joe who inspired songs and
poems and married America’s biggest movie star, Marilyn Monroe,
in 1954. And it’s Joe who has come to symbolize the beauty and
Joe DiMaggio grace of sports in a purer time.
a robust .408 average. During that same since 1923, when Harry Heilmann of the
span, the Boston Red Sox’s Ted Williams Detroit Tigers led the league at .403. Now
(1918–2002) actually outdid Joltin’ Joe, Williams was making a serious run at the
hitting. 410. When DiMaggio’s streak mark. As August turned to September, his
ended, fans across the nation swiftly took average stood at .413. Then he went cold.
notice of Williams. On the last day of the season, Sep-
As noted with DiMaggio and the num- tember 28, with a doubleheader to play,
ber 56, baseball fans worship numerals. In Williams was batting .39955. His manager,
talking of batting skill, the benchmark is Joe Cronin (1906–1984), who was doubly
.400. That is, a player averaging a hit four busy hitting .311 as the Red Sox’s short-
times out of every 10 at-bats. With a .300 stop, knew that the league would round
average marking a player as a star, .400 up Williams’ average to an even .400. With
puts him into a rare stratosphere. In fact, Boston far behind the Yankees in the
it has become nearly unattainable. When standings, Cronin suggested the slugger
Williams came into his third pro season take the day off and preserve his mark.
in 1941, no American Leaguer had hit .400 Williams refused.
22
In the first game of the doubleheader
The NFL’s New Horseman
he had four hits, including a home run. He
got two more hits in the second game. All Since its start in 1920, the NFL had
in all, he went six for eight and raised his an elected president. But he had lit-
average to a sparkling .406. tle power when it came to setting policy
The average was only part of a phe- and punishing rule-breakers. NFL own-
nomenal season for Williams. He led the ers looked at baseball and its iron-fisted
league with 37 home runs, 145 walks, and commissioner, Judge Kenesaw Mountain
135 runs scored. Perhaps most impres- Landis (1866–1944), and decided they
sive, he struck out only 27 times. It has wanted similar leadership. Landis helped
been nearly 70 years since Williams hit baseball rebound from the 1919 Black Sox
.400. No one has done it since. The player World Series gambling scandal. His au-
who once set as a life goal to be the “best thority had organized the sport’s often-
hitter who ever lived” had made a pretty bickering owners.
good case that he was just that. The NFL owners sought someone
with a solid reputation and a recogniz-
Go-Go Gophers
The Big Ten Conference was the
seat of power in college football be-
fore World War II. And from 1933 through Fantasy Football
1941, the dominant Big Ten team was
Bernie Bierman’s University of Minnesota Sports has a long history of creative pranks and spoofs. One
Gophers. Minnesota’s apex came in 1940 popped up in 1941 and made John Chung one of America’s
and 1941, when the team went undefeated most talked-about athletes. One problem: Chung did not exist.
over the course of the two seasons (16–0) In the fall of 1941, reports were made about Plainfield Teach-
and claimed back-to-back national ers College, which piled up a number of lopsided victories
championships. behind John Chung, a sophomore halfback from China.
Not that the victories always came However, the school was actually the creation of Morris
easily. In 1940 Minnesota had narrowly Newburger, a Wall Street stockbroker with a little too much
beaten star halfback Tommy Harmon and time on his hands. Posing as public-relations director Jerry
the University of Michigan, winning 7–6. Croyden, Newburger began calling The New York Times with
In 1941 the Gophers trailed Northwest- scores and other details of Plainfield Teachers College games.
ern University 7–2 and seemed headed Without checking up on “Croyden,” The Times printed the
for defeat. But they called a play without results, and other newspapers followed.
a signal, caught Northwestern sleeping, On November 13, Newburger issued a press release stat-
and scored on a long touchdown run by ing, sadly, that Chung and his teammates had flunked their
Brad Higgins. midterm exams and would play no more games. Four days
Halfback Bruce Smith, the pride of later, Time magazine revealed the hoax.
the 1941 Minnesota squad, won the Heis-
man Trophy.
23
able name to do something similar. Their Game four, played in Ebbets Field,
choice was Elmer Layden, who had been Brooklyn, is one that lingers in the memo-
one of the famed Four Horsemen of the ry of New York sports fans. Through eight
University of Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish innings of another tense battle, Brooklyn
football team in 1924. Layden was now clung to a 4–3 lead. Casey had taken the
coaching the Fighting Irish and serving mound again, and he promptly retired
as the school’s athletic director. He was the first two Yankees (Johnny Sturm
just starting a new contract at the uni- and Red Rolfe) in the ninth inning. With
versity, but the NFL brass convinced him three balls and two strikes on New York’s
to accept their offer to be the league’s Tommy Henrich, the crowd stood in an-
commissioner. ticipation of a victory by the hometown
Carl L. Storck had been an NFL lead- Dodgers. Brooklyn catcher Mickey Owen
er since 1920 and its acting president signaled for a curveball. Of course, he
since 1939. He wasn’t thrilled about ac- wasn’t sure if Casey would be throwing
quiring a new boss in Layden. So Storck his sharp-breaking curve or his big loop-
resigned from the job. er. The pitch fooled the batter completely.
Henrich, a New York outfielder, swung
and missed, and umpire Larry Goetz sig-
One Strike Away
naled a strikeout.
The 1941 World Series Unfortunately, the pitch fooled Owen
matchup was half-familiar to as well. The ball glanced off his mitt and
sports fans. The American League shot back to the wall. If a pitch gets past
representative, Joe McCarthy’s the catcher on a third strike, the batter is
(1887–1978) New York Yankees, allowed to run to first base—and that’s just
were making their fifth appear- what Henrich did. The next man up, Joe
ance in six years. But the National DiMaggio, singled to left. Casey was com-
Leaguers, Leo Durocher’s (1905– ing undone. Before the inning was over he
1991) Brooklyn Dodgers, hadn’t yielded two-run doubles to both Charlie
been in the Series since 1920. Keller and Joe Gordon. The Yankees won
The subway rivals—Brook- 7–4 and then trampled the Dodgers 3–1 in
lyn is one of New York’s five bor- game five to win the title.
oughs, as is the Yankees’ home in
the Bronx—were evenly matched,
The War Comes to America
and the first three October games
were decided by one run each. The Though World War II had already
Yankees took the first game 3–2, cancelled the Winter and Summer
the Dodgers claimed game two Olympics (see page 10), its effects had not
A Winning Ticket A fan with by the same score, and New York been really felt in the American sports
this ticket watched the Dodgers scored twice in the eighth inning world. Some players were choosing to
beat the Yankees. against Brooklyn relief ace Hugh enlist in the armed forces, but not enough
Casey to win the third game 2–1. to truly affect rosters.
24
Other Milestones of 1941
✔ The Amateur Athletic Union ✔ The National Collegiate Athletic
adopted synchronized swimming Association (NCAA) basketball
(an artistic swimming routine) as tournament final was broadcast
a sanctioned sport for doubles nationally for the first time, by
and team events. The first cham- the Mutual Broadcasting Net-
pionship meet was held in Wil- work. The University of Wiscon-
mette, Illinois, on March 1. sin defeated Washington State
University, 39–34.
✔ Chicago and Green Bay tied
atop the West Division and met ✔ The NFL spurned Spalding and
in the first NFL divisional play- adopted the Wilson football as its
off December 14. Chicago won official ball. The move helped dif-
33–14, then beat the New York ferentiate the professional game
Giants 37–9 for the league title. NFL-champion Chicago Bears from college football.
However, a military draft was begun across the country. At the Polo Grounds
in 1940 and would call for hundreds of pro in New York and at Comiskey Park in
athletes, most from Major League Base- Chicago, public-address announcers in-
ball, to put down their gloves and take up terrupted their patter and directed all
arms for Uncle Sam. servicemen to report to their units. At
The first regular big-league player to Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C., the
get the call was Hugh Mulcahy, a pitcher announcer paged high-ranking govern-
for the Philadelphia Phillies. Mulcahy, ment and military officials, but he did not
drafted in March of 1941, missed almost mention the attack. For the fans in atten-
five full seasons. By the end of 1941, 328 of dance, as well as the officials and service-
607 major leaguers were in the military. men called from their seats, this was the
The involvement of athletes—and first time they had heard the news about
Americans from all other walks of life— the terrible attack and its effects.
spiraled upward after December 7. This The next day, America officially de-
was the morning Japanese planes at- clared war against the Axis powers of
tacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Japan, Germany, and Italy. The war’s im-
on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. pact on the world would be enormous. In
Because December 7 was a Sunday, the next few chapters, we’ll see often how
several NFL games were in progress it touched the world of sports, too.
25
1942
What a Comeback! A pair of siblings finally put Toronto on
For the Detroit Red Wings, it was the top. Don Metz passed to Nick Metz, who
tale of two seasons. They finished threaded a shot for a 4–3 lead.
fifth in the National Hockey League The Red Wings went after Broda with
standings, but in a small league, they still a vengeance, but referee Mel Harris whis-
made the playoffs. That was when they tled them for four penalties in the waning
seemed to have found some magic potion. minutes of the game. They couldn’t make
They were almost unstoppable. up the gap shorthanded (in hockey, when
Against all the odds, they made it to a player takes a penalty his team plays a
the Stanley Cup Finals. There they took man short). After the game ended, De-
on the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs troit coach Jack Adams and his players
were loaded, with stars such as goalie charged Harris to argue. A brawl ensued,
Turk Broda and the great Syl Apps. No leading to Adams’ suspension.
matter. The Red Wings kept rolling and Heartened by the win, Toronto came
won the first three games of the seven- back to tie the series on consecutive shut-
game finals. Then the Red Wings seemed outs by Broda. The Red Wings grabbed a
to return to regular-season form. 1–0 lead in game seven, in front of a then-
Playing before 13,694 crazed fans record crowd at Maple Leaf Garden. But
in Detroit in game four, the Maple Leafs resilient Toronto again came back, relying
were indeed on thin ice. The series looked on two goals by Sweeney Schriner to win
to be over when the Red Wings went 3–1 and earn its first Stanley Cup in a
up 2–0 in the first period. Then Toronto decade. The Maple Leafs were the only
regained its composure, fighting back to NHL team of the 20th century to come
tie the game at 2–2 in the second period. back from a 3–0 deficit in the finals.
Early in the third period, Detroit’s Carl (In 1945, the two teams tangled for
Lipscombe drilled a 35–foot slapshot that the title again. This time, Toronto spurted
fooled Broda and put the home team up to a three-game lead, only to see De-
3–2. It was Apps who bailed out the Maple troit storm back to tie it. The Maple Leafs
Leafs this time, sneaking in front of the avoided a reversal of fortune by winning
net and flicking in the puck to tie it at 3–3. another game seven.)
26
Comeback Kings The 1942 Maple Leafs, seen here against the New York Rangers, won the Stanley Cup.
in the Pacific, the U.S. government insti-

Troubled Times
tuted an evening blackout for the West
As battles raged on Midway Island Coast. As a result, the Rose Bowl—the
in the Pacific and in North Africa, most prestigious college football bowl
among other hot spots in World War II, the game—was moved to Durham, North
American public looked to sporting events Carolina. Despite its home-field advan-
for a sense of normalcy. But geopolitics tage, on January 1, Duke University fell to
and sports quickly started to mix. Oregon State University, 20–16.
In fact, the first day of the new year Other sports were also disrupted.
brought a shocking development. With Neither the Indianapolis 500 auto race nor
Japanese submarines supposedly lurking the U.S. Open golf tournament was held
27
the radio.) Some older athletes who were
not eligible for the draft enlisted none-
theless, lending their names to the war
effort. Charlie Gehringer, who had played
19 fine seasons with Detroit, joined the
Navy at the age of 39. He ran a physical-
fitness program and rose to the rank of
lieutenant commander. Ted Lyons, the
Chicago White Sox’s top pitcher for most
of his 20 seasons, enlisted in the Marines
at age 42.
Play Ball!
In 1942, Americans had a lot more
on their mind than baseball. World
War II was raging in Europe and Asia.
Millions of American families were af-
fected as loved ones entered the service
. . . and in many cases did not come home.
Amid all this, Major League Baseball com-
missioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis
contacted President Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Green Light Letter" This letter from President Franklin and offered to suspend baseball if the
Delano Roosevelt to Commissioner Landis gave Major League president felt that that would suit the
Baseball the “green light” to keep playing during the war years. needs of the country and the war effort.
(In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson had
halted all “nonessential industries” near
in 1942, nor would they be for the next the end of World War I, cutting short the
three years. In the NFL, Chicago Bears 1918 baseball season, although the World
owner George Halas left for the Navy on Series had gone on that year and no sea-
November 1, and his backup quarterback, sons were canceled.)
Young Bussey, departed about the same Roosevelt’s reply to Landis is remem-
time. Halas returned in 1945; Bussey died bered as the “Green Light Letter.” It read,
in action. in part:
In Major League Baseball, stars such “I honestly feel that it would be best
as the Detroit Tigers’ Hank Greenberg for the country to try to keep baseball
and the Cleveland Indians’ Bob Feller going. There will be fewer people un-
joined the military. (Feller’s Navy enlist- employed and everybody will work lon-
ment, two days after Pearl Harbor on ger hours and harder than ever before.
December 9, 1941, was broadcast live on And that means that they ought to have a
28
chance for recreation and for taking their in the bottom of the ninth were an omen.
minds off their work even more than be- St. Louis took the next four games, all
fore. . . . Here is another way of looking at of them close. Outfielder Enos Slaugh-
it—if 300 teams use 5,000 or 6,000 players, ter scored the winning run in game two,
these players are a definite recreational then third baseman Whitey Kurowski’s
asset to at least 20,000,000 of their fel- two-run homer for St. Louis struck the
low citizens—and that in my judgment is final blow in the ninth inning of game
thoroughly worthwhile.” five. The Cardinals were—finally—World
Series champions.
Flight of the Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals’ narrow
misses were becoming all too famil-
iar in baseball, having finished second in
the National League in 1939 and 1941,
and third in 1940. They seemed to take a
step backward in 1942, but suddenly
caught fire in mid-August and finished
two games ahead of the second-place
Brooklyn Dodgers.
The Cardinals didn’t have a lot of
pop; they hit only 60 home runs as a team.
But their pitching was virtually flawless,
led by Mort Cooper (22–7, 10 shutouts,
1.78 ERA) and Johnny Beazley (21–6, 2.13
ERA). As a staff, St. Louis’ pitchers posted
a stunning ERA of 2.55. Perhaps more im-
portant, the team was managed expertly
by Billy Southworth, who regularly used
13 position players and eight pitchers .
In the American League, the New
York Yankees’ pitching staff of Red Ruff-
ing, Spud Chandler, Ernie Bonham, and
Hank Borowy was nearly as proficient as
the Cardinals’. When the two teams met
in the World Series in October, most fans
expected a pitching duel.
Ruffing dominated game one, tak- The Home Front The cover of the 1942 World Series program
ing a no-hitter into the bottom of the featured a young boy buying war stamps, sales of which went
eighth inning. He got his record seventh to aid the U.S. military during World War II.
Series win, but the Cardinals’ four runs
29
His success came as a surprise to
some who rememberd him as a high
school senior in San Diego, California. In
those days, Williams stood 6-foot-3 and
weighed just 145 pounds. A Detroit Tigers’
scout told Williams’ mother that her son
would probably die if he tried the major
leagues. Fortunately for baseball fans in
the 1940s and 1950s, Williams gained 60
pounds and developed into a menacing
presence at the plate.
His batting eye was practically per-
fect; it is said that his eyesight was so
good he could figure out which way a
pitch was spinning before he began his
swing. He was a strict pull hitter (that is,
as a left-handed hitter, he hit most of his
balls to right field; a righty pull hitter usu-
ally hits to left field), but would adjust his
swing when absolutely necessary—such
as in 1946, when he hit a ball down the
third-base line and wound up with an
The Splendid Splinter Ted Williams had nearly as many nick- inside-the-park home run to clinch the
names as he had clutch hits. He was known at various times as American League pennant. It was the
Teddy Ballgame, The Kid, and the Splendid Splinter, the latter a only pennant the Red Sox won in his 17
play on his skills with a wood bat and his lean frame. full seasons with the team.
Williams’ career statistics—includ-
ing 521 home runs and 1,839 RBI—are
doubly impressive when you consider
Teddy Ballgame
that he spent three years in the military.
He was an average fielder and not From 1943–45 he was a pilot and a flight
much of a baserunner. But as a pure instructor in the Navy. Later, during the
hitter, well, he was really something to Korean War, he rejoined, this time with
see. Ted Williams, the Boston Red Sox’s the Marines, and became a jet fighter
“Splendid Splinter,” was the self-pro- pilot. His uncanny eyesight made him a
claimed “greatest hitter who ever lived.“ fine airman as well as a tremendous bats-
In 1942 Williams had one his finest man. He was good young and old, with 145
seasons. He won the American League RBI for the Red Sox at the age of 21, and
Triple Crown, batting .356 with 36 home a .316 average at the age of 42. Appropri-
runs and 137 RBI, leading the league in ately, he hit a home run in his final at-bat
all three batting categories. on September 28, 1960.
30
While he never came close to any whiz-
G.I. Joe (and Airman Ted)
zing bullets, he proved to be a tireless and
The war presented a problem for important participant. Over his four-year
millions of Americans, including tour of duty, Louis traveled more than
athletes. Were they needed at home, 70,000 miles and fought 96 exhibition
where they had families and job commit- matches. In 1944 he starred in The Negro
ments, or should they fight for the Allies Soldier, a film directed by Frank Capra
in Europe or the Pacific? Baseball’s big- that was designed to encourage African
gest stars, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams, Americans to enlist in the military.
both accepted deferments that kept them More important than the diversion he
out of the military. (Deferments are rules offered were the cultural changes Louis
set up to let people who have other im- helped effect. Assigned to a base at Fort
portant roles in society avoid the danger Riley, Kansas, in 1942, he met a young
of military service.) The 25-year-old Wil- college football star and soldier named
liams was the sole supporter of his di- Jackie Robinson, who later joined Louis
vorced mother, while 28-year-old
DiMaggio had a wife and an infant.
But they were criticized in the news-
papers and occasionally reprimanded by
fans, and the pressure finally got to be
too much. Soon after the end of the 1942
season, DiMaggio joined the Army as a
sergeant and Williams entered Navy flight
school. Each lost three prime seasons,
though neither saw actual combat time
during the war.
Frozen Gloves
Although most sports continued to
be played as America entered the
war, the National Boxing Association con-
cluded that boxing was inappropriate. So
the association froze all titles on October
16 and encouraged its competitors to join
the military effort, even if it was only to
promote physical education, sell war
bonds, or put on boxing exhibitions to lift G.I. Joe Boxer Joe Louis enlisted in the
the morale of the troops. Army. He spent his service fighting not at
Joe Louis, the renowned heavyweight the front, but in the ring.
champion, joined the Army on January 10.
31
as one of the decade’s towering sports black soldiers from attending movies to-
figures. Robinson complained that he and gether. Louis complained, and a superior
18 other black soldiers were being im- officer revoked the order. He also fired
properly denied entrance into the officer- the commanding officer. “If whites and
candidate program. blacks were all fighting the same war,”
Louis took up the issue with Truman Louis asked, “why couldn’t their morale
Gibson, special advisor on Negro affairs be lifted at the same theater?”
to the secretary of war, and with Brigadier Louis was honorably discharged
General Donald A. Robinson, command- from the Army in 1945, taking with him a
ing officer of the Cavalry Training Center Legion of Merit award for his service.
at Fort Riley. Louis even threatened to
pull out of his scheduled exhibitions, and
Redskins’ Revenge
Robinson and his comrades were admit-
ted to officer-candidate schools within a The Chicago Bears’ 73–0 romp in the
week. All became officers. 1940 NFL Championship Game pro-
On another occasion, a British the- pelled the team to a new level of confi-
ater denied Louis admission, explaining dence. The Bears won the title again in
that the American commanding officer 1941, and looked even stronger in 1942 as
gave an order prohibiting his white and they went 11–0 and outscored their op-
Our Man in St. Louis

Watching young Stan Musial stride to the plate for der injury ended that dream, but he got his chance as
another appearance at Ebbets Field, the Brooklyn a hitter when he was called up from a minor-league
Dodgers fans could only sigh, “Here comes that man team late in 1941. By 1943 he was voted Most Valu-
again.” On the road or at home in St. Louis, he be- able Player of the National League.
came “Stan the Man,” one of baseball’s most beloved Stan the Man retired with more than two dozen
players. National League records. He was the first player to log
Musial’s career with the Cardinals lasted 22 sea- 1,000 games at each of two positions—outfield and
sons. Using an unconventional, corkscrewed batting first base. He played in 24 All-Star Games (there were
stance, he was a rare combination of power and con- two per season from 1959 to 1962), and his statue
tact, a man who blasted 475 career home runs yet hit now stands in front of Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
.310 or better in each of his first 16 full seasons. As longtime broadcaster Harry Carey said, “He
Musial turned down a basketball scholarship to was the greatest star—the character, the soul, the
the University of Pittsburgh in 1938, opting to sign accessibility. Nobody combined that with as much
with the Cardinals as a left-handed pitcher. A shoul- baseball greatness as Musial.”
32
✔ The NHL discontinued regular-sea-
son overtime games because of wartime
blackout restrictions.
✔ Stanford University defeated Dart-

mouth College 53–38 to win the NCAA
basketball championship in March.
✔ The Indianapolis 500 was canceled

due to the war and gasoline rationing.
Frank Sinkwich
✔ Golfer Byron Nelson won his second
✔ Frank Sinkwich, the University of
Master’s tournament in April, edging
Georgia’s electrifying halfback, won
Ben Hogan.
the Heisman Trophy, given to college
✔ Swimmer Gloria Callen was the Asso- football’s best player. Soon after, he
ciated Press female athlete of the year. enlisted in the Marines.
ponents 376–84. The team known as the the Redskins stiffened. They answered
“Monsters of the Midway” seemed to be the Bears with a 38-yard touchdown pass
invincible in every way. from Sammy Baugh to Wilbur Moore,
The Washington Redskins also had then added a short plunge over the goal
an impressive season in 1942, finishing line by Andy Farkas in the third quarter.
10–1. But bettors made them 22-point Washington's underrated defense didn’t
underdogs in the 1942 Championship allow another point. The final was 14–6.
Game on December 13. Chicago, after Baugh completed five of 13 passes for
all, had won 24 consecutive games, if you 66 yards, nowhere near his usual produc-
include postseason and preseason. Plus, tion. But the versatile star made one of the
nobody believed Washington could men- game’s biggest defensive plays, intercept-
tally recover from the historic beating it ing a pass in the end zone.
had taken two seasons earlier. Another Chicago drive ended on
Sure enough, the Bears went up 6–0 downs after officials called back a touch-
in the second quarter, scoring when 230- down because of a penalty. “I guess this
pound tackle Lee Artoe picked up a fum- kinda makes up for that thing in 1940,”
ble and ran 50 yards for a touchdown. But Baugh said afterward.
33
1943
sagged. In 1944, the New York Yankees’
Sports and the War
Nick Etten led the American League with
By 1943, World War II had affected a mere 22 home runs.
every part of American life. Sports College football may have been hit
was no exception. Major League Baseball hardest. By 1943, more than 300 colleges
had to change the balls themselves, for had abandoned the sport, including such
instance. The bits of rubber normally used powerhouses as the University of Ala-
were needed for use by the military, so bama, Stanford University, Fordham Uni-
baseball used blatta, another gummy sub- versity, and Georgetown University.
stance. Whether because of the modified The 1943 Army–Navy game, mean-
ball or because so many of the game’s best while, was played at the West Point (New
hitters were in military uniform, offense York) Army Academy, rather than its
usual big-city venue. The academy lim-
ited tickets to on-duty Army personnel
and civilians living within 10 miles of the
Crowned in Absentia stadium. Several U.S. Congressmen pro-

tested, but under-secretary of war Robert
P. Patterson remained firm, saying it was
In 1943, no college football player could escape the shadow necessary “because of transportation and
of “Accurate” Angelo Bertelli, dynamic quarterback of the fuel shortages.”
top-ranked Fighting Irish of the University of Notre Dame. But In the NFL, retired players returned
Bertelli got his draft notice just after midseason and spent to fill spots created by current players
the rest of the schedule in Marine boot camp at Parris Island joining the military. Bronko Nagurski
Marine Base in South Carolina. hadn’t played in five seasons. But the Chi-
Amazingly, Bertelli won the Heisman Trophy, anyway. The cago Bears coaxed the legendary fullback
vote wasn’t even close. He was unable to attend the award out of retirement at the age of 34, and he
ceremony on December 3, though. He was busy cleaning his helped them to their third championship
rifle and doing push-ups in the dirt. in four years.
Even golf, that supposed refuge of the
upper class, felt the pinch. By 1943, Sam
34
You Go, Girls Women got their chance on the diamond during World War II with
their own pro baseball league.
Snead, Jimmy Demaret, Lloyd Mangrum, Wrigley, owner of the Chicago Cubs, tried
and other top golfers were in the armed something new. He noted a boom in wom-
forces. Mangrum, in fact, was wounded en‘s softball and so he started the All-
twice during the Battle of the Bulge. American Girls Softball League, composed
of the Kenosha (Wisconsin) Comets, the
Racine (Wisconsin) Belles, the Rockford
Diamonds Are a Girl’s
(Illinois) Peaches, and the South Bend
Best Friend (Indiana) Blue Sox.
Fans looking for pro baseball were At first, the league used a 12-inch
left with teams that were a far cry ball and pitched it underhand. But it soon
from their pre-war rosters. To fill baseball changed into true baseball, and in 1945
fans’ need for the game—and with an eye the league changed the word Softball in
toward making some money—Philip K. its name to Baseball. The only difference
35
from the men’s game—besides the pastel to small industrial centers such as Kal-
skirts—was a smaller diamond, with 72 amazoo and Battle Creek, Michigan; Fort
feet between bases instead of 90. These Wayne, Indiana; and Peoria, Illinois. (It
short base paths helped Sophie Kurys did not fare as well in larger cities such
steal 201 bases in 203 attempts in 1943. as Chicago and Milwaukee.) Attendance
This was an era when women flooded grew annually until it peaked in 1948,
into jobs traditionally occupied by their when the 10-team league drew almost a
husbands and brothers, including heavy million fans. It even spawned a rival, the
manufacturing. Some men worried about National Girls Baseball League.
a loss of femininity, and Wrigley insisted Popularity declined after that, how-
that his players adhere to a strictly lady- ever, as the novelty wore off and fans ei-
like image. This theme was continued by ther returned to men’s baseball or stayed
advertising executive Arthur Meyerhoff, home to watch the new medium of tele-
who purchased Wrigley’s share in 1944. vision. The AAGBL folded after the 1954
Wrigley and Meyerhoff instructed season. Curiously, the league that opened
scouts to weigh both physical appearance so many doors for female athletes was ex-
and ability when evaluating prospects. tremely slow to hire African Americans.
In spring training of 1943 and 1944, the
league sent its athletes to an evening
Sugar and the Bull
charm school conducted by Helena Ru-
binstein’s well-known Chicago beauty Everyone associated with boxing
salon. They were coached on subjects respected the skills of Sugar Ray
such as posture, fashion, applying make- Robinson, but Jake LaMotta, who spent
up, and table manners. time in reform school before entering the
A dress code distributed in 1951 ring and becoming the “Bronx Bull,” never
read, “Masculine hair styling, shoes, coats, feared him. The two boxers tangled six
shirts, socks, T-shirts are barred at all times over their careers, and each fight
times.” Getting ejected from a game cost a seemed to be bloodier and more intense
player a $10 fine ($10 was a lot for women than the last. “I fought Sugar so often, I
making $50 to $85 per week); appearing almost got diabetes,” LaMotta joked.
“unkempt” in public drew an even stiffer Robinson, who usually fought as a
penalty. Each team had a chaperone to welterweight, beat LaMotta, a middle-
ensure proper behavior. weight, in 1942. He defeated plenty of
“When I first started, I thought, ‘Gosh, other foes, too. He was, in fact, 40–0 (with
how the heck are we going to play ball 29 knockouts) when he met LaMotta
in those things?’” Racine’s Anna May again on February 5, 1943. This time the
Hutchison said of the skirts. “But once Bronx Bull handed Robinson his first
you got used to them they were just your professional loss, taking a 10-round deci-
uniform and that was it.” sion. Barely three weeks later, February
In general, the AAGBL was a huge 26, Robinson won a decision over LaMotta
hit. The league successfully expanded in another 10-rounder.
36
The two met twice again in 1945. And
Ride ’em, Cowboys!
on February 14, 1951, before 15,000 fans
in Chicago, welterweight champion Rob- Basketball, especially on the high
inson beat middleweight champion La- school and collegiate levels, always
Motta in a 13th-round technical knockout, has been associated with the Midwest.
claiming his second championship belt. Powerful teams had emerged on both
By the end of the fight, now called the coasts in the 1930s. But it wasn’t until 1943
“Valentine’s Day Massacre,” the Bronx that the Rocky Mountain zone made its
Bull was hardly able to raise his hands mark. The team that did it was the Cow-
in defense. boys of the University of Wyoming.
“Jake was the toughest guy I ever The Cowboys were coached by Ev
fought,” Robinson said. “I hit him with Shelton, who took over the program in
everything, and he’d just act like you’re 1939. Shelton won 328 games with the
crazy. I never did knock him off his feet.” Cowboys, and after his death was elected
Robinson did, however, serve as LaMotta’s to the National Basketball Hall of Fame.
best man when his rival got married late The 1943 squad was Shelton's crown-
in life. ing glory. The team was led by Kenny
Sugar Was One Sweet Boxer

Sugar Ray Robinson brought life to (109 by knockout) and claiming six
boxing’s oldest cliché of being “pound world championships. In 202 career
for pound” the greatest fighter ever. fights, he failed to go the distance
He was born Walker Smith, Jr., on May only once.
3, 1921, in the same impoverished “Robinson could deliver a knock-
Detroit neighborhood that produced out blow going backward,” Bert Sugar
Joe Louis. He became “Ray Robinson” wrote in The Ring. “His footwork was
when he borrowed a friend’s union superior to any that had been seen up
card for an amateur boxing tourna- to that time.”
ment. The “Sugar” came from New Robinson was a flamboyant
York City gym owner George Gainford, character who drove a pink Cadillac,
who tried to explain how sweet the owned a Harlem, New York, nightclub,
moves of his young fighter were. and traveled around Europe with a
Robinson had a very long career, unusual for an large entourage that included a valet, a barber, and
athlete in such a physically demanding sport. He a mascot who was a dwarf. He made a lot of money
fought professionally for 25 years, winning 175 fights and spent every penny of it.
37
Sailors, still the only player in Wyoming in that slow-paced era. The NCAA tour-
basketball history to earn All-America nament in March proved to be a tough
honors three times. A native of Hillsdale, ride, though. Wyoming scraped by in its
Wyoming, Sailors is credited (by some, first two games, beating Oklahoma 53–50
anyway) with inventing the jump shot; and Texas 58–54. The championship game
certainly his success helped popularize was more one-sided. The Cowboys beat
the shot (before then, players normally Georgetown 46–34,and Sailors was named
shot while standing on the floor). Sailors the tournament MVP.
was the college basketball player of the Two days later, Wyoming faced off
year in 1943. with St. John’s University, the NIT cham-
The Cowboys breezed through a pion, in a benefit game for the Red Cross.
31–2 season, even though they played This one went into overtime, but Wyoming
just nine home games. The only games again came out on top, 52–47 in hostile
they lost were to Duquesne, early in the Madison Square Garden in New York.
schedule, and the Denver Legion team. Sailors then left for two years of mili-
They beat Regis 101–45, an unlikely score tary service, but returned to gain further
All-America recognition in 1946.
The Other Arms Race

Hostilities at Home As the season wore on, more and
more players left their Major League
World War II had a terrible effect on Europe, as millions lost Baseball teams to join various branches
their lives and hundreds of cities and towns were destroyed of the military. Still, some teams managed
or damaged. The changes in America were not as violent, but to keep enough players to remain at the
they were enormous. More than 1.6 million people moved top of the league. The New York Yankees
from the South to find work and housing in northern cities that lost most of their top hitters to the servic-
were home to war-materials factories. Many of these uprooted es, but their outstanding pitching staff
families were African-American, and the demographic shift stayed home. Spud Chandler was particu-
was not always a smooth one. larly successful, going 20–4 with a league-
In Detroit, called the “arsenal of democracy” at the time best ERA of 1.64 in 1943. Starting pitchers
because of its munitions plants, interracial tension heated to Ernie Bonham and Hank Borowy also
the boiling point. A riot erupted in June, and Briggs Stadium stayed with the Yankees.
was right in the middle of the violence. On June 23, the Detroit Likewise, the St. Louis Cardinals had
Tigers and Cleveland Indians played a baseball doubleheader a fairly full complement of arms. In fact,
with 350 armed troops stationed in the stands. the top three pitchers in the National
The riots finally ended with 34 people dead, 700 injured, League in ERA were all Cardinals: Howie
and 1,200 in jail. Clearly, Nazi Germany was not the only Pollet, Max Lanier, and Mort Cooper. Coo-
country struggling with issues of race and identity. per went 21–8, maintaining his position as
the league’s most feared thrower. St. Louis
also had Stan Musial, who hit .357.
38
Another Battle Teams like Iowa Preflight (in the dark uniforms) were cheered on by stands filled with Navy men.
The Yankees won the American came home on a sacrifice fly by shortstop
League pennant by 13 1/2 games, the Frankie Crosetti.
Cardinals took the National League flag In this pitcher-dominated era, the
by 18 games, and the two teams faced off two teams combined to hit a mere .222 in
in October in a World Series rematch. the Series.
This time, New York turned the tables.
A year earlier, St. Louis committed 10
Go Iowa Preflight!
errors but still managed to win four
of five games. The Cardinals made 10 To play or not to play? That was the
errors in five games again, and this year question faced by America’s college
it cost them. Compounding the defen- coaches and military leaders. Some felt
sive lapses was a lack of timely hitting; that sports helped prepare soldiers for
St. Louis left 37 runners on base in five physical work as well as teamwork. Oth-
games in the Fall Classic. ers thought that sports took attention
Chandler pitched two complete away from vital work for the war. One
games and surrendered only one earned supporter of college sports was Com-
run. The Yankees’ Marius Russo, who mander Tom Hamilton, head of the U.S.
went 5–10 during the season, started game Navy and Marine Corps. Hamilton advo-
four, pitched a complete game, and scored cated football, in particular, as a form of
the winning run when he doubled and combat preparation. So colleges with
39
Naval training programs were allowed to Mary’s Preflight, and Second Air Force.
suit up sailors in football uniforms. The 1944 bowl lineup included something
What’s more, many Navy and Marine called the Treasury Bowl, with Randolph
bases fielded their own teams. And they Field defeating Second Air Force 13–6.
were among the best in the nation. In
1943, the Associated Press Top 20 College
Triple Threat
Football Teams included Iowa Preflight,
Great Lakes Naval Station, Del Monte By 1943, Sammy Baugh clearly was
Preflight, March Field, and Bainbridge the best overall player in the NFL.
Navy Training School. Randolph Field While leading the Washington Redskins,
tied a strong University of Texas team in the agile passer from Texas was, without
the Cotton Bowl in January. question, the league’s first great quarter-
The next year, four of those teams back. His skills and leadership made
made the Top 20 again (all but Del Monte), Washington a perennial contender. In
along with Randolph Field, Norman Pre- 1943, however, Baugh outdid even his own
flight, El Toro Marines, Fort Pierce, St. amazing accomplishments. He set a stan-
dard for all-around football skill that has
never been matched.
First he set a league record with six
touchdown passes against the Brooklyn
Dodgers (an NFL team from 1930 to 1944
that played under the same name as the
local baseball team). Two weeks later he
set another record by intercepting four
passes from his safety position.
When the season was over, Baugh
wound up leading the league in passing (a
completion rate of 56 percent), intercep-
tions (11), and punting (45.9-yard aver-
age). It was a rare football Triple Crown.
Longtime Sports Illustrated writer Peter
King called it “the best season a pro foot-
ball player ever had.” No player since has
ever led the league in even two of those
categories in a career, let alone a season.
Baugh took Washington to the 1943
NFL Championship Game. But he got
Mr. Everything Sammy Baugh of the kicked in the head while making a tackle
Redskins was the NFL’s best passer, punter, in the first half, and missed much of the
and defensive back in 1943. game. The Chicago Bears won 41–21 on
December 26.
40
✔ Count Fleet, ridden by jock- only one of them. (The record
ey Johnny Longden, became is now held by relief pitcher
the sixth horse ever to win the Mike Marshall of the Los An- T
Triple Crown, capturing the geles Dodgers, who pitched in
Kentucky Derby, Preakness 106 games in 1974.)
Stakes, and Belmont Stakes—
✔ In a cold, steady rain, the
which he won by 25 lengths.
New York Giants and Detroit
✔ Relief pitcher Ace Adams Lions battled through the NFL’s
set a 20th-century record by last scoreless tie on Novem-
pitching in 70 baseball games ber 7. Neither team’s offense
for the New York Giants. He drove inside the opponent’s
pitched a complete game in Johnny Longden on Count Fleet 15-yard line.
Not surprisingly, the two coaches never

Steagles and Carpets became friends.
How did the NFL cope with the loss The players were required to work at
of players to the military? Like other least 40 hours a week in factories making
leagues, it had smaller rosters for every armaments. They trained at the Univer-
team. However, two teams lost so many sity of Pennsylvania six evenings a week.
players, they almost couldn’t play. What “You worked all day, and you practiced all
they did instead was cooperate in difficult night, and by the end of the day you were
times in a way that would probably shock tired as hell,” Hinkle said.
modern sports team owners. The Steagles were surprisingly good
Instead of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1943. They went 5–4–1. Hinkle led
and Pittsburgh Steelers cancelling their a strong ground attack with 571 yards
1943 seasons, they merged for one year. rushing.
The “new” team was officially known as The merger officially ended on the
the Phil–Pitt Eagles–Steelers. Sports fans final day of the season. The Eagles flew
quickly dubbed them the Steagles. solo in 1944 and narrowly missed the
Philadelphia’s Earle Neale and Eastern Division title with a record of
Pittsburgh’s Walt Kiesling shared the 7–1–2. The Steelers, however, still needed
head-coaching duties. Neale directed the help. This time they merged with the Chi-
offense, Kiesling the defense, and they cago Cardinals, forming a conglomerate
barely kept their hands off one another’s that stumbled to an 0–10 record, getting
throats. Neale cursed a mistake-prone outscored 328–108 along the way. The
Steelers’ player at one practice, and Kies- name of this team was Card–Pitt. To fans,
ling pulled all the Steelers off the field. they would always be the Carpets.
41
1944
a 15-year-old pitcher on the mound. Joe
A Little Less Than Usual
Nuxhall’s first appearance was about what
By this year, the events of World War you would expect from a kid too young to
II were drawing to a close. Among drive—five runs and five walks surren-
the most important military moments dered in two-thirds of an inning. Nuxhall
were the bombing of Tokyo in April and didn’t appear in another major league
Allied forces’ landing on the French beach game for eight years, but then fashioned a
of Normandy on June 6. Events in the solid pro career, mostly with the Reds.
world of sports continued to be trivial in One owner was so distraught about
comparison. However, the games did go the sad state of Major League play that
on, even if the players were not quite all he suggested they just stop playing. Alva
Major League quality. Bradley, owner of the Cleveland Indians,
Only 40 percent of the players who agreed with Spink. He urged his fellow
had started on Opening Day of 1941 team owners to suspend operations in
were around to do the same in 1944. 1944, and for the remainder of the war,
All nine of the New York Yankees’ describing the baseball of the era as “a
1941 starters had gone to war. To fill low form of comedy.” The other owners
in, many teams welcomed back aging sternly shot down the idea.
stars. Once-speedy outfielder Johnny
Martin returned to the St. Louis Cardinals
Beware the Blitz
for 40 games at the age of 40. He hit .279
after a three-year absence. Jimmie Foxx The University of Utah basketball
(1907–1967), one of the all-time great hit- team had no shortage of hurdles to
ters, rejoined the Chicago Cubs. The next overcome during the 1943–44 season. The
year he even pitched for the Philadelphia players were young (most of them under
Phillies. One measure of the talent drain 19 years old) and not particularly tall (av-
during the war: Foxx posted a very low eraging six feet). They also had no confer-
ERA of 1.59 in 22 2/3 innings. ence (it had dissolved during the war) and
It wasn’t just veterans. The Cincinnati no gymnasium (the Army took it over).
Reds set a record that still stands by putting The Utes practiced in local church gyms.
42
A Separate Game Forced into internment camps, Japanese Americans still played baseball (page 44).
They overcame all of it with flair, and This time the school accepted, and it
pretty soon people were calling them rolled to the title game, where it outlasted
the Blitz Kids. After charging through a Dartmouth College 42–40.
regular-season schedule that included But even that was not the end of the
many armed-forces teams, Utah declined season. A Red Cross benefit game in April
an NCAA tournament bid and joined a paired the champions of each tourna-
strong field in the National Invitation ment. So Utah got a shot at St. John’s Uni-
Tournament (NIT). There they fell to Uni- versity, which had won the NIT. The Utes
versity of Kentucky, 46–38 on March 26. won 43–36, led by freshman All-American
The Utes weren’t finished in 1944, Arnie Ferrin’s 17 points.
though. When the University of Arkan- It was a strange path to the top of the
sas bowed out of the NCAA tournament college basketball world, but Utah was
in March, organizers again invited Utah. happy to be there.
43
Helping at Home
The sports world came to the • Teams held “salvage days,” at which fans
aid of the war effort in a num- could get into games free if they brought
ber of interesting ways. Of scrap metal, kitchen fat, or scrap paper to
course, the major form of aid donate.
came from the athletes them- • More than 75 percent of all sports equipment
selves, many of whom served with was provided to military teams.
distinction. Other ways sports helped out included:
• At Major League Baseball stadiums, foul balls
• Players visited factories to cheer workers and were often retrieved and sent to military bases
promote the sale of war bonds. to be used by soldiers. The proceeds from the
• Soldiers and other military members were 1942 All-Star Game also helped provide bats,
welcome free at all ballparks. More than 4.5 balls, and other equipment for fighting men
million took advantage of the offer. and women.
structing fields and ordering equipment

Baseball in the Camps
from mail-order catalogs.
In 1944, baseball was the game that “Right near our block was an open
best defined and united Americans. space, so we started digging out the sage-
It was an ironic and poignant twist, then, brush from the desert floor,” recalled
that baseball flourished in a most unlikely Howard Zenimura, whose father, Kenichi,
place—the internment camps built for designed the baseball diamond at Gila
Japanese Americans. River. “Pretty soon people came by to ask
Fueled by shrill newspaper com- us what we were doing. We told them we
mentaries, racism, and a general feeling were building a ballpark, and then ev-
of paranoia, President Roosevelt signed erybody was out there with their shovels
Executive Order 9066 in February 1942, clearing that space.”
which mandated the mass eviction and Most of the diamonds were actu-
incarceration of all people of Japanese de- ally built outside the barbed wire of the
scent living on the West Coast. By October camps. (With hundreds of miles of desert
of that year, most of these American citi- in every direction, it did not seem to mat-
zens had been assigned to 10 internment ter.) Some camp teams were allowed to
camps—infamous and desolate places travel for exhibition games, while others
such as Manzanar and Tule Lake in Cali- welcomed teams from outside the camps.
fornia, and Gila River in Arizona. The games were highlights of an other-
Baseball was extremely popular in wise dreary existence.
Japan, and had long been important in There were 32 teams, split among
the Japanese-American community, so three divisions, at Gila River alone. The
the detainees immediately set about con- Tule Lake Baseball Convention, which
44
began May 2, 1944, attracted more than last 11 Browns in the sixth game. Where
9,000 fans. the Cardinals’ defense had abandoned
Of course, devotion to baseball was them against the Yankees in 1942 and
not the only example of Japanese-Ameri- 1943, this time they made only one error,
can loyalty. The 100th Infantry Battalion, while it was the American Leaguers who
made up of second-generation Nisei from committed 10.
Hawaii, was among the most decorated The Browns returned to their losing
U.S. Army units of its size. ways by 1946, and remained in or near the
basement until moving to Baltimore and
becoming the Orioles in 1954.
Meet Me in St. Louis
If the wartime manpower shortage Kids Behaving Badly
lowered the level of Major League College basketball was gaining pop-
Baseball play, at least it leveled the play- ularity in the mid-1940s. But the
ing field. And that was good news for the game was rocked on October 2 when
St. Louis Browns, the American League’s “Phog” Allen (1885–1974) of the Univer-
most downtrodden team. sity of Kansas, one of the nation’s most
Entering the 1944 season, the Browns respected coaches, charged that gamblers
had enjoyed exactly one winning year in were inducing college players to throw
their last 14. During the 1930s they had games (to lose intentionally) or shave
lost 90 or more games in eight of 10 years. points (win, but score fewer points—a
In 1944 the St. Louis players averaged benefit to gamblers). Allen warned of “a
nearly 32 years of age. The Browns had no scandal that will stink to high heaven.”
stars. Yet by season’s end they had edged But college presidents took no action.
the Detroit Tigers by a game and won the
A.L. pennant.
With the Cardinals claiming their
third straight National League pen-
nant, the World Series became an all-St. Two-Armed Tigers
Louis affair. Opposing managers Billy
Southworth (Cardinals) and Luke Sewell The Detroit Tigers’ Paul “Dizzy” Trout and Hal Newhous-
(Browns), because of the wartime housing er were an unstoppable one-two pitching combination in
shortage, actually shared an apartment. 1944. Newhouser, known as “Prince Hal,”, had a 29–9 record
All six games were played in October at with an ERA of 2.22. Trout’s numbers were 27–14 and 2.12.
Sportsman’s Park. Together they combined for a staggering 664 innings and 58
The Browns played tough and took a complete games.
lead of two games to one. After that, Harry Alas, Trout and Newhouser got little help from the rest of
“The Cat” Breechen and the splendid the team's pitching staff. No other Tigers’ pitcher even had a
Mort Cooper pitched complete games winning record in 1944, and the team finished one game out
for the Cardinals to win games four and of first place.
five, and reliever Ted Wilks retired the
45
The Kansas coach was right. In Janu- scandal, followed by the mighty Univer-
ary 1945, five Brooklyn College players sity of Kentucky in 1951.
admitted to accepting bribes. In time, four By the time the sport was cleaned up,
other New York-area colleges were hit by eight colleges and about 40 players were
similar accusations. And it wasn’t just a implicated.
Big Apple problem. Bradley University (in
Peoria, Illinois) and University of Toledo
Invincible Army
(in Ohio) eventually got sucked into the
At a time when most colleges were
struggling just to find players for
their teams, the Army had an advantage.
If an active serviceman had previous col-
lege playing experience, the U.S. Military
Academy could offer him three more
years of athletic eligibility and keep him
out of the draft until graduation. In ex-
change, the athletes were required to
cram their four-year officers’ training into
three years. Few could resist the deal.
These uneven standards gave Army a
powerful team in an era of shaky squads,
and the result was fearsome to behold.
The Black Knights of Army, coached
by Colonel Earl “Red” Blaik (1897–1989),
simply crushed the opposition in 1944.
They won with scores such as 83–0, 76–0,
and 62–7. Even mighty Notre Dame stood
no chance. Army beat the defending na-
tional champion 59–0 to hand the Fighting
Irish its worst loss ever.
The Black Knights’ biggest test came
against archrival Navy, which entered the
game ranked second after Army. The game
was close until the fourth quarter, when
fullback Felix “Doc” Blanchard (1924–
2009) powered one touchdown drive and
halfback Glenn Davis (1924–2005) capped
Water Star Named the top athlete in America for 1944, the another with a 50-yard sprint. Army pre-
multitalented swimmer Ann Curtis would go on to win 31 vailed 23–7.
national championships at a variety of distances. Army was so loaded with talent in
1944 that Blanchard and Davis—known as
46
✔ The NCAA/AAU (Amateur Athletic ✔ On June 10, a rare triple tie ended
Union) Joint Basketball Rules Commit- a horse race at the Aqueduct race track
tee outlawed goaltending—interfering in Long Island, New York. Bossuet,
with a shot after the ball has begun Brownie, and Wait a Bit crossed the
the downward part of its arc toward finish line simultaneously in the Carter
the basket—unless the shot is clearly Handicap.
short of the basket.
✔ The NFL legalized coaching from
✔ Robert Hamilton, a relative un- the bench. Before the change, coaches
known, beat golf legend Byron Nelson (such as Curly Lambeau of Green Bay,
by a shot in the PGA Championship pictured at left) could not yell instruc-
tournament in August. Curly Lambeau tions to their players on the field.
“Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside”—were not in Indoors she claimed the 220-yard and
the regular starting lineup. As freshmen, 440-yard races.
they left that honor to the upperclassmen. Curtis was a national sensation at the
Still, they got enough carries to rush for age of 18, and the AAU acknowledged it
1,002 yards between them, and Davis set by awarding her the 1944 Sullivan Award
an NCAA record with 20 touchdowns in (named for James E. Sullivan, who found-
a single season. ed the AAU in 1888) as the top overall
athlete. She was the first woman to win
Curtis Swims to the Top the award since its inception in 1930, and
The nuns of Ursuline Convent she’d be the only one to claim the honor
School in Santa Rosa, California, until diver Patricia McCormick in 1956.
taught Ann Curtis how to swim. Curtis She also was named female athlete of the
was born in 1926, and by the age of 11 she year by Associated Press in 1944.
won a freestyle race for girls under 16. The only thing that took away from
Her mother held her out of major adult Curtis’ amazing year was the cancellation
competition until 1943. The next year, her of the 1944 Summer Olympics in London.
career took off. She would have been favored to win sev-
Curtis won the Amateur Athletic eral gold medals. Curtis got her chance in
Union (AAU) national outdoor swimming London in 1948, and swam well enough to
championships in the 100 meters, the 400 win individual gold and silver medals and
meters, the 800 meters, and the one mile. also a relay gold.
47
1945
War and Peace Playing Over There
By 1945, the tide of World War II had For nearly four years, America’s
turned in favor of the Allied forces. fighting forces obtained hope and
But the fighting remained heavy early in relief from the stress of battle through
the year, and the toll back home was as spectator sports. As the war wound down,
severe as ever. some of those soldiers got their own op-
The 1945 All-Star Game was canceled portunities to play ball.
at the government’s request. Meanwhile, Soon after the liberation of Rome
the Brooklyn Dodgers signed Floyd “Babe” on June 4, 1944, for example, officials or-
Herman, a one-time star who hadn’t ganized a Spaghetti Bowl football game.
played in eight seasons (he was now 42). Less than three weeks after Japan signed
Hod Lisenbee pitched for the Cincinnati articles of surrender aboard the USS Mis-
Reds in 1945, at the age of 46. The Detroit souri on September 2, officially ending
Tigers were jokingly called the Nine Old World War II, The New York Times an-
Men. They averaged nearly 35 years in nounced that the winner of the Mediter-
age. Experience paid off, however, when ranean Theater baseball championship
they won the 1945 World Series over the would meet the winner of the European
Chicago Cubs. Theater in a best-of-five series. And in
But none of the stories epitomized the October the 508th Parachute Regiment
lean mid-40s better than that of Pete Gray. met a U.S. Air Force team in a football
The outfielder appeared in 77 games for game held in Frankfurt on the Main, Ger-
the St. Louis Browns, hitting .218 and many. Some 20,000 soldiers were on hand
striking out only 11 times in 234 at-bats. to watch the action.
Not bad for a man with one arm. Many American soldiers remained
Gray had lost his arm in a farm ac- in Europe even after the war was over,
cident. He played with a tiny glove. He leading to further sporting events in 1946.
would catch the ball, toss it up, drop the The Spaghetti Bowl returned, this time in
glove, grab the ball, and then throw it. He Florence, where it attracted 25,000 specta-
was an inspiration to many. tors. There was also a GI World Series for
48
Peace This couple celebrates the end of hostilities in the East: Victory in Japan (V-J) Day.
the championship of occupied Germany, The ultimate expression of sports-

with the 60th Infantry Regiment of the as-triumph came in 1945, though. That
9th Division winning four of six games was when American soldiers who had
against the 508th Parachute Regiment. recently liberated Berlin at the end of the
Right-hander Carl Scheib won two games long war etched a baseball diamond into
in the GI World Series, then went on to the field of Nuremberg Stadium, where
win 45 games with the Philadelphia Ath- huge Nazi rallies had so recently honored
letics in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Adolf Hitler.
49
Another random document with
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Pagans who are intermixed among them, are Musselmen in their
faith. Their dwellings are in tents which are composed of hides, and
their wealth consists in the multitude of their cows and sheep.
Four days are employed in crossing these fortunate districts: the
sixth conducts the caravan to the entrance of the vast and burning
Desart of Bilma. Surrounded by this dreary solitude, the Traveller
sees with a dejected eye the dead bodies of the birds that the
violence of the wind has brought from happier regions; and as he
ruminates on the fearful length of his remaining passage, listens
with horror to the voice of the driving blast, the only sound that
interrupts the awful repose of the Desart.
On the eleventh day from their entrance on these scorching
sands, the caravan arrives in the fertile plains that encompass the
Town of Domboo, the approach to which is enlivened by the
frequent appearance of the majestic Ostrich, and of the gay but
fearful Antelope.
From thence, in about five days, they reach the City of Kánem,
the capital of an extensive and fertile province, of which it bears the
name, and in which the inhabitants, who are composed of
Musselmen and Pagans, breed multitudes of cattle, and raise
innumerable horses for the service of the King.
A journey of ten days more concludes their labour, and brings
them to the imperial City of Bornou.[13]
Bornou, the name which the natives give to the country, is
distinguished in Arabic by the appellation of Bernou or Bernoa, a
word that signifies the land of Noah, for the Arabs conceive that, on
the first retiring of the deluge, its mountains received the Ark.
The Climate, as may naturally be expected in a kingdom which
seems to be bounded by the 16th and the 26th parallels of latitude,
is characterized by excessive, though not by uniform heat. Two
seasons, the one commencing soon after the middle of April, the
other at the same period of October, may be said to divide the year.
The first is introduced by violent winds that bring with them, from
the South East and South, an intense heat, with a deluge of sultry
rain, and such tempests of thunder and lightning as destroy
multitudes of the cattle, and many of the people. During the rainy
period (the continuance of which is from three to nine successive
days, with short intervals from the occasional changes of the wind to
the North or West) the inhabitants confine themselves closely to
their dwellings; but the rest of the first season, however sultry and
however occasionally wet, is not incompatible with the necessary
labours of the husbandman and the shepherd.
At the commencement of the second season in the latter part of
October, the ardent heat subsides; the air becomes soft and mild;
the weather continues perfectly serene; and as the year declines, an
unwelcome coolness precedes the rising of the sun.
The inhabitants, though consisting of such a multitude of nations
that thirty languages are said to be spoken in the empire, are alike
in their Complexion, which is entirely black, but are not of the Negro
cast.
In a climate so warm, the chief recommendations of Dress are
decency and ornament: among the poorest, therefore, by whom the
first only is regarded, a kind of girdle for the waist is sometimes the
only covering; but in general a turban, consisting, as in Barbary, of a
red woollen cap, surrounded by folds of cotton, together with a
loose robe of coloured cotton of a coarser kind, are also worn.[14]
The Grain that constitutes the principal object of culture in
Bornou is Indian corn, of two different kinds, which are distinguished
in the country by the names of the gassób, and the gamphúly.
The gassób, which in its general shape resembles the common
reed, is of two species; the first grows with a long stalk that bears
an ear, which in length is from eight to twelve inches, and contains,
in little husks or cavities, from three to five hundred grains, of the
size of small pease. The second species, which is common in Tripoli,
differs no otherwise from the first than in the shorter size of the ear.
The gamphúly is distinguished from the gassób, by the bulk of
the stalk, for that of the gamphúly is much thicker, by the number of
its ears, for it has several on the same reed, and by the size of the
grain, which is considerably larger. This kind of corn is frequently
seen in Spain, and is there called Maize.
Wheat and barley are not raised in Bornou; but the horse-bean
of Europe and the common kidney-bean are cultivated with great
assiduity, as they are used for food, both by the slaves and by the
cattle.[15]
In the culture of these different grains, the hoe alone is
employed, as the use of the plough is still unknown to the people.
The women divide with the men the labours of their husbandry; for
while the latter, with their hoes, open the ground, and form the
trenches in straight lines parallel to each other, the women follow
and throw in the seed: nor is this the only part which they take in
the business of the field; for to them, as soon as the weeds begin to
rise on the ridges of the lines in which the grain is sowed, the hoe is
constantly transferred.
The sowing season commences at the end of the periodical rains
of April; and such in that climate is the rapid vegetation, that on the
9th of July the gassób is reaped; but the gamphúly, a grain of slower
growth, is seldom cut till the month of August or September.
Such are the several species of corn that, among the people of
Bornou, supply the place of the wheat, the barley, and the oats of
Europe. Two species of roots are also used as wholesome and
substantial food: the one, which is called the Dondoo, produces a
low plant, with branches that spread four or five feet upon the
ground, and leaves that resemble those of the garden-bean. At the
end of five months, from the time of its being planted, the leaves fall
off, and the root is taken from the ground, and being cut into small
pieces, is dried in the sun, in which state it may be kept for two
years. Its further preparation consists in reducing it to a fine powder,
and mixing it with palm oil till it assumes the consistency of paste.
The other root is that of a tree, of which the name had escaped
the Shereef’s recollection: boiling is the only process that is requisite
in preparing it for use.
The same character of sufficiency which marks the catalogue of
the different kinds of grain in Bornou, belongs also to the list of its
various Fruits; for though neither olives nor oranges are seen in the
empire, and even figs are rare, and though the apples and plumbs of
its growth deserve no commendation, and the dates are as
indifferent as they are scarce, yet grapes, and apricots, and
pomegranates, together with lemons and limes, and the two species
of melons, the water and the musk, are produced in large
abundance.[16] But one of the most valuable of its vegetable stores,
is a tree which is called Kedéynah, that in form and height resembles
the olive, is like the lemon in its leaf, and bears a nut, of which the
kernel and the shell are both in great estimation, the first as a fruit,
the last on account of the oil which it furnishes when bruised, and
which supplies the lamps of the people of Bornou with a substitute
for the oil of olives.
To this competent provision of such vegetables as are requisite to
the support, or grateful to the appetite of man, must be added a
much more ample and more varied supply, of Animal Food.
Innumerable flocks of sheep, and herds of goats and cows, (for
there are no oxen) together with multitudes of horses, buffaloes,
and camels, (the flesh of which is in high estimation) cover the vales
or pasture on the mountains of Bornou.[17]
The common, though not the Guinea fowl is also reared by the
inhabitants; and their hives of bees are so extremely numerous, that
the wax is often thrown away as an article of no value in the market.
Their game consists of the Huaddee, and other species of
antelopes, of the partridge, the wild duck, and the ostrich, the flesh
of which they prize above every other.
Their other wild animals are the lion, the leopard, the civet cat,
the small wolf, the fox, the wild dog, that hunts the antelope; the
elephant, which is not common, and of which they make no use; the
crocodile, the hippopotamus, which is often killed on the banks of
the river that runs from the Neel Shem, (the Nile of Egypt) to the
Desart of Bilma; and a large and singular animal, which is
distinguished by the name of Zarapah, and which is described as
resembling the camel in its head and body, as having a long and
slender neck like the ostrich, as being much taller at the shoulders
than the haunches, and as defended by so tough a skin, as to
furnish the natives with shields that no arrow or javelin can pierce.
[18]
Bornou, like other countries that approach the Equinoctial, is

much infested with different kinds of dangerous or disgusting
reptiles, especially snakes and scorpions, centipedes and toads.
Of its beasts of burthen the variety is as ample as the numbers
are abundant; for the camel, the horse, the ass, and the mule, are
common in the empire.
The dog, with which the inhabitants pursue their game, appears
to be their only domestic animal.
In the mountains of Tibesti, and perhaps in other parts of the
empire, the herdsmen, probably for the sake of a more easy change
of pasture, prefer a residence in tents to stationary dwellings; and
those, it seems, are not manufactured, like the tents of the Zahara,
from the camel’s hair; but are composed of the hides of cows, a
more durable and impervious covering.
Through all the empire of Bornou the same mode of building,
and with the difference of a greater or a smaller scale, the same
form in the plan of the houses universally prevails.—Four walls,
inclosing a square, are erected; within those walls, and parallel to
them, four other walls are also built: the ground between the walls
is then divided into different apartments, and is covered with a roof.
Thus the space within the interior walls determines the size of the
court; the space between the walls determines the width of the
apartments; and the height of the walls determines the height of the
rooms. In a large house the rooms are each about twenty feet in
length, eleven feet in height, and as many in width.
On the outside of the house, a second square or large yard,
surrounded by a wall, is usually provided for the inclosure and
protection of the cattle.[19]
Such is the general plan of a Bornou house. For the construction
of the walls the following method is constantly pursued: a trench for
the foundation being made, is filled with dry and solid materials
rammed in with force, and levelled; on these a layer of tempered
mud or clay is placed; and in this substitute for mortar a suitable
number of stones are regularly fixed. Thus with alternate layers of
clay and stones the wall proceeds; but as soon as it has reached the
height of six or seven feet, the workmen suspend its progress for a
week, that it may have time to settle, and become compact; for
which purpose they water it every day.
When the walls are finished they are neatly plaistered, both
within and without, with clay or mud, tempered with sand; for the
country furnishes no lime.
The roofs are formed of branches of the palm tree, intermixed
with brushwood; and are so constructed as at first to be waterproof;
but such is the violence of the wind and rain, that the end of the
second year is the utmost period of their brief duration.[20]
Much less attention is given to the furniture than is bestowed on
the structure of the houses; for the catalogue of the utensils is
extremely short. Among the lower classes of the inhabitants it
consists of the mats covered with a sheep-skin, upon which they
sleep; of an earthen pot; of a pan of the same materials; of two or
three wooden dishes, a couple of wooden bowls, an old carpet, a
lamp for oil, and perhaps a copper kettle.
Persons of a superior rank are also possessed of leathern
cushions, that are stuffed with wool; of several brass and copper
utensils, of a handsome carpet, and of a sort of candlesticks; for
instead of the vegetable oil which is used by the common people,
they employ the light of candles manufactured from their bees wax
and the tallow of their sheep.
Bornou is situated at the distance of a day’s journey from a river
which is called Wed-el-Gazel, from the multitude of antelopes that
feed upon its banks, and which is lost in the deep and sandy wastes
of the vast Desart of Bilma.[21]
From the symmetry of the houses, and the general resemblance
which they bear to each other, a regular arrangement of streets
might, with the utmost ease, have been given to their towns. In
Bornou, however, a different system has prevailed; for even in the
capital, the houses, straggling wide of each other, are placed without
method or rule; and the obvious propriety of giving to the principal
mosque, a central situation, exhibits the only proof of attention to
general convenience.[22]
The King’s palace, surrounded by high walls, and forming a kind
of citadel, is built, perhaps with a view to security, in a corner of the
town.[23]
Markets for the sale of provisions are opened within the city; but
for other articles, a weekly market, as in Barbary, is held without the
walls.
£. s. d.
The common price in Bornou of a cow or a bull is a
0 6 0
mahaboob of Tripoli, or
A sheep, 0 3 0
An ostrich, 0 6 0
An antelope, 0 1 6
A camel from 6l. to 7l. 10s. or at a medium, 6 15 0
A horse from 3l. to 7l. 10s. or at a medium, 5 5 0
In general, the towns have no other defence than that which the
courage of the inhabitants affords: but the capital is surrounded by a
wall of fourteen feet in height, the foundations of which are from
eight to ten feet deep, and which seems to be built with
considerable strength. To this defence is given the additional security
of a ditch, which encompasses the whole; and care is taken, that at
sun-set the seven gates which form the communication with the
country shall be shut.[24]
The great population of Bornou is described by the indefinite and
metaphorical expression of a countless multitude.
In Fezzan the price of all things is measured by grains of gold;
and where the value is too small to be easily paid in so costly a
metal, the inhabitants have recourse to corn, as a common medium
of exchange. But in Bornou, as in Europe, the aid of inferior metals
is employed, and copper and brass (which seem to be melted
together, and to be mixed with other materials) are formed into
pieces of different weights, from an ounce to a pound, and
constitute the current species of the empire.[25]
Dominions so extensive as those of Bornou have seldom the
advantage of one uniform language; but an instance of so many
different tongues, within the limits of one empire, as are spoken in
that kingdom, and its dependencies, has still less frequently
occurred, for they are said to be more than thirty in number.
Of the language, however, which is current in the capital, and
which seems to be considered as the proper language[26] of Bornou,
the following specimen is given by the Shereef.
One is expressed by Lakka Eight is expressed by Tallóre
Two Endee Nine L’ilkar
Three Nieskoo Ten Meiko
Four Dekoo Eleven Meiko Lakka
Five Okoo Twelve Meiko Endee
Six Araskoo Thirteen Meiko Nieskoo
Seven Huskoo Fourteen Meiko Dekoo.
Two different Religions divide the sentiments, without disturbing
the peace of the kingdom.
The ruling people profess the Mahometan faith;[27] and though
the antient Paganism of the dependent nations does not appear to
subject them to any inconvenience, a considerable part are converts
to the doctrines of the Prophet.
An elective monarchy constitutes the Government of Bornou,[28]
and like the similar system of Cashna, endangers the happiness,
while it acknowledges the power of the people. On the death of the
Sovereign, the privilege of chusing among his sons, without regard
to priority of birth, a successor to his throne, is conferred by the
nation on three of the most distinguished men, whose age and
character for wisdom, are denoted by their title of Elders; and whose
conduct in the State has invested them with the public esteem.
Bound by no other rule as to their judgment or restraint, as to their
will, than that which the expressed or implied instruction of electing
the most worthy may form, they retire to the appointed place of
their secret deliberation, the avenues to which are carefully guarded
by the people: and while the contending suggestions of private
interest, or a sense of the real difficulty of chusing where judgment
may easily err, and error may be fatal to the State, keeps them in
suspence, the Princes are closely confined in separate chambers of
the Palace. Their choice being made, they proceed to the apartment
of the Sovereign elect, and conduct him, in silence, to the gloomy
place in which the unburied corpse of his father, that cannot be
interred till this awful ceremony is passed, awaits his arrival. There,
the Elders point out to him the several virtues and the several
defects which marked the character of his departed parent; and they
also forcibly describe, with just panegyric, or severe condemnation,
the several measures which raised or depressed the glory of his
reign. “You see before you the end of your mortal career; the
eternal, which succeeds to it, will be miserable or happy in
proportion as your reign shall have proved a curse or a blessing to
your people.”
From this dread scene of terrible instruction, the new Sovereign,
amidst the loud acclamations of the people, is conducted back to the
Palace, and is there invested by the electors with all the slaves, and
with two-thirds of all the lands and cattle of his father; the remaining
third being always detained as a provision for the other children of
the deceased Monarch. No sooner is the Sovereign invested with the
ensigns of Royalty, than such of his brothers as have reached the
age of manhood prostrate themselves at his feet, and in rising press
his hands to their lips—the two ceremonies that constitute the
declaration of allegiance.
If any doubt of their sincerity suggests itself to the King or to the
Elders, death or perpetual imprisonment removes the fear; but if no
suspicion arises, an establishment of lands and cattle from the
possessions of their father, together with presents of slaves from the
reigning monarch, are liberally bestowed upon them.
Often, however, the most popular, or the most ambitious of the
rejected Princes, covering his designs with close dissimulation, and
the zeal of seeming attachment, creates a powerful party; and
assured of Foreign aid, prepares, in secret, the means of successful
revolt. But, stained with such kindred blood, the sceptre of the
victorious Rebel is not lastingly secure—one revolution invites and
facilitates another; and till the slaughter of the field, the sword of
the executioner, or the knife of the assassin has left him without a
brother, the throne of the Sovereign is seldom firmly established.
Such, in the Mahometan empires of Bornou and of Cashna, is the
rule of succession to the monarchy; but the Pagan kingdoms
adjoining, with obviously less wisdom, permit the several sons of the
late Sovereign, attended by their respective partizans, to offer
themselves, in person, to the choice of the electors, and be actually
present at the decision; an imprudence that often brings with it the
interference of other States, and unites the different calamities of
foreign and intestine war.
Those of the Royal Children of Bornou who are too young to take
their share in the reserved part of their deceased father’s
possessions, are educated in the Palace till the age of maturity
arrives; at which time their respective portions of lands and cattle
are assigned them.
To the four lawful wives of the late Sovereign, a separate house,
with a suitable establishment, is granted by the reigning Monarch;
and such of his numerous concubines as were not slaves, are at
liberty to return to their several friends; and, together with leave to
retain their cloaths, and all their ornaments, which are often
valuable, have free permission to marry.
In the empire of Bornou, as in all the Mahometan States, the
administration of the provinces is committed to Governors,
appointed by the Crown; and the expences of the Sovereign are
partly defrayed by his hereditary lands, and partly by taxes levied on
the people.
The present Sultan, whose name is Alli, is a man of an
unostentatious plain appearance; for he seldom wears any other
dress than the common blue shirt of cotton or of silk, and the silk or
muslin turban, which form the usual dress of the country. Such,
however, is the magnificence of his seraglio, that the ladies who
inhabit it are said to be five hundred in number; and he himself is
described as the reputed father of three hundred and fifty children,
of whom three hundred are males; a disproportion which naturally
suggests the idea that the mother, preferring to the gratification of
natural affection, the joy of seeing herself the supposed parent of a
future candidate for the empire, sometimes exchanges her female
child for the male offspring of a stranger.
Equally splendid in his stables, he is said to have 500 horses for
his own use, and for that of the numerous servants of his household.
In many of the neighbouring kingdoms, the Monarch himself is
the executioner of those criminals on whom his own voice has
pronounced the sentence of death; but the Sultan of Bornou, too
polished, or too humane, to pollute his hands with the blood of his
subjects, commits the care of the execution to the Cadi, who directs
his slaves to strike off the head of the prisoner.
The Military Force of the Sultan of Bornou consists in the
multitude of his horsemen; for his foot soldiers are few in number,
and are scarcely considered as contributing to the strength of the
battle.[29] The sabre, the lance, the pike, and the bow, constitute
their weapons of offence; and a shield of hides composes their
defensive armour. Fire-arms, though not entirely unknown to them,
for those with which the Merchants of Fezzan occasionally travel, are
sufficient to give them an idea of their importance and decisive
effect, are neither used nor possessed by the people of Bornou.
When the Sovereign prepares for war, and levies an army for the
purpose, he is said to have a custom, (the result of idle vanity or of
politic ostentation) of directing a date tree to be placed as a
threshold to one of the gates of his capital, and of commanding his
horsemen to enter the town one by one, that the parting of the tree
in the middle, when worn through by the trampling of the horses,
may enable him to judge of the sufficiency of their numbers, and
operate as a signal that his levy is compleat.
In their Manners, the people of Bornou are singularly courteous
and humane. They will not pass a stranger on the road till they have
stopped to salute him: the most violent of their quarrels are only
contests of words; and though a part of the business of their
husbandry is assigned to the women, yet, as their employment is
confined to that of dropping the seed in the furrows, and of
removing the weeds with a hoe, it has more of the amusement of
occasional occupation, than of the harshness of continued labour.
Passionately attached to the tumultuous gratifications of play, yet
unacquainted with any game but drafts, they often sit down on the
ground, and forming holes to answer the purpose of squares, supply
the place of men with dates, or the meaner substitute of stones, or
of camel’s dung. On their skill in the management of these rude
instruments of the game, they stake their gold dust, their brass
money, and even their very cloaths; and as the bye-standers on
these occasions constantly obtrude their advice, and sometimes
make the moves for the person whose success they wish, their play
is usually accompanied by that conflict of abuse, and vehemence of
scolding, which mark and terminate the sharpest of their quarrels.
Such is the amusement of the lower classes of the people; those
of a superior rank are devoted to the more difficult and more
interesting game of chess, in which they are eminently skilled.
In countries that afford without cultivation, or that give in return
for slight exertions of labour, the principal requisites of life, few
articles of export are likely to be found. Those of the Bornou Empire
consist of—
Gold Dust,[30] Ostrich Feathers,[30]

Slaves, Salt, and
Horses, Civet.
By what means the gold dust, that appears to be a principal
article of trade, is procured by the inhabitants, whether from mines
in the country, or by purchase from other nations, the Shereef has
not explained. But of their mode of obtaining the Slaves, which
constitute another extensive branch of their commerce, he gives the
following account:
South East of Bornou, at the distance of about twenty days
travelling, and separated from it by several small desarts, is situated
an extensive kingdom of the name of Begarmee, the inhabitants of
which are rigid Mahometans, and though perfectly black in their
complexions, are not of the Negro cast. Beyond this kingdom to the
East are several tribes of Negros, idolaters in their religion, savage in
their manners, and accustomed, it is said, to feed on human flesh.
They are called the Kardee, the Serrowah, the Showva, the Battah,
and the Mulgui. These nations the Begarmeese, who fight on
horseback, and are great warriors, annually invade; and when they
have taken as many prisoners as the opportunity affords, or their
purpose may require, they drive the captives, like cattle, to
Begarmee. It is said that if any of them, weakened by age, or
exhausted by fatigue, happen to linger in their pace, one of the
horsemen seizes on the oldest, and cutting off his arm, uses it as a
club to drive on the rest.
From Begarmee they are sent to Bornou,[31] where they are sold
at a low price; and from thence many of them are conveyed to
Fezzan, where they generally embrace the Musselman faith, and are
afterwards exported by the way of Tripoli to different parts of the
Levant.
Such is the mode of obtaining the greatest part of the slaves who
are annually sold in Bornou; but as several of the provinces of the
empire are inhabited by Negros, their insurrections, real or
pretended, afford to the Sovereign an opportunity of increasing his
income by their sale.
A more politic and more effectual mode of aiding his finances is
fruitlessly offered by the salt lakes of the Province of Domboo: for, as
the great Empire of Cashna is entirely destitute of salt, and none is
found in the dominions of the Negros, the sole possession of this
article might insure to the King of Bornou a constant and ample
revenue of the best kind, a revenue collected from the subjects of
Foreign States; but such is the prevalence of antient custom over the
obvious suggestions of policy, that the people of Agadez, a Province
of the Cashna Empire, are annually permitted to load their immense
caravans with the salt of Bornou, and to engross the profits of this
invaluable trade. The salt is collected on the shores of the several
lakes which produce it, and the only acknowledgement that the
Merchants of Agadez give in return for the article, is the trifling price
which they pay in brass and copper (the currency of Bornou) to the
neighbouring peasants.
The civet, which forms another article of the export trade of
Bornou, and the greatest part of which is sent to the Negro States
who inhabit far to the South, is obtained from a species of wild cat
that is common in the woods of Bornou and of Cashna.
This animal is taken alive in a trap prepared for the purpose, is
placed in a cage, and is strongly irritated till a copious perspiration is
produced. Its sweat, and especially the moisture that appears upon
the tail, is then scraped off, is preserved in a bladder, and constitutes
the much valued perfume. After a short interval the operation is
renewed, and is repeated, from time to time, till at the end of twelve
or fourteen days the animal dies of the fatigue and continual
torment. The quantity obtained from one cat is generally about half
an ounce.
Of Manufactures, none for exportation are furnished by the
people of Bornou; but the Shereef remarks that, for their own
consumption, they fabricate from the iron ore of their country,
though with little skill, such slight tools as their husbandry requires.
[32]
In return for their exports, they receive the following goods:

Copper and Brass, which are brought to them from Tripoli, by the
way of Fezzan, and which, as already mentioned, are used as the
current species of Bornou;
Imperial Dollars, which are also brought to them from Tripoli by
the Merchants of Fezzan, and are converted by their own artists into
rings and bracelets for their women;
Red Woollen Caps, which are worn under the turban;
Check Linens,
Light coarse Woollen Cloths,
Baize,
Barakans,
Small Turkey Carpets,
Plain Mesurata Carpets.
C H A P T E R VII.
Rout from Mourzouk to Cashna — Boundaries of the Empire — Its

Language, Currency, and Trade.
EQUALLY connected by their commerce with Cashna and Bornou,

the Fezzanners dispatch to the former as well as to the latter, and
always at the same season, an annual caravan. From Mourzouk,
their capital, which they leave at the close of October, they take their
course to the South South West, and proceed to the Province of
Hiatts, the most barren, and the worst inhabited district of their
country.
Five of the fourteen days which are requisite for this part of their
rout, are consumed in the passage of a sandy desart, in which their
usual expedient of covering their goat skins, both within and
without, with a resinous substance, prevents but imperfectly the
dreaded evaporation of their water.
From the Province of Hiatts they cross the low mountains of Eyré,
which separate the Kingdom of Fezzan from the vast Empire of
Cashna; and leaving to their right the small river which flows from
these hills, and is lost in the deep sands of a neighbouring desart,
they enter a wide heath, uninhabited, but not destitute of water. The
sixth day conducts them from this extended solitude to the long
desired refreshments of the Town of Ganatt, where the two next
days are devoted to repose.
From thence, by a march of nineteen days, during six of which
they are immersed in the heats of a thirsty desart, they pass on to
the Town of Assouda, which offers them equal refreshments with
Ganatt, and equally suspends their journey.
On leaving Assouda, they traverse a delightful country, as fertile
as it is numerously peopled; and while the exhilarating sight of
Indian corn and of frequent herds of cattle accompanies and chears
their passage, the eighth day introduces them to the large and
populous City of Agadez, the capital of an extensive province.
Distinguished as the most commercial of all the towns of Cashna,
and, like Assouda and Ganatt, inhabited by Mahometans alone,
Agadez naturally attracts the peculiar attention of the Merchants of
Fezzan. Many of them proceed no further; but the greatest part,
committing to their Agents the care of the slaves, cotton, and senna,
which they purchase in the course of a ten days residence, continue
their journey to the South.
In this manner, if the camels are compleatly loaded, seven and
forty days, exclusive of those which are allotted to refreshment and
necessary rest, are employed in travelling from Mourzouk to Agadez.
At the end of three days more, amidst fields that are enriched
with the luxuriant growth of Indian corn, and pastures that are
covered with multitudes of cows, and with flocks of sheep and goats,
the Traveller reaches the small Town of Begzam; from which,
through a country of herdsmen, whose dwellings are in tents of
hides, the second day conducts him to the Town of Tegomáh. There,
as he surveys the stoney, uninhabited, desolate hills that form the
chearless prospect before him, he casts a regretful eye on those
verdant scenes that surrounded him the day before. Employed for
two days in the passage of these dreary heights, he descends on the
third to a deep and scorching sand, from which he emerges at the
approach of the fifth evening, and entering a beautiful country, as
pleasingly diversified with the natural beauties of hills and vales and
woods, as with the rich rewards of the husbandman’s and the
shepherd’s toil, he arrives in seven days more at the City of Cashna,
the capital of the empire of which it bears the name, and the usual
residence of its powerful Sultan.
The country to which the Geographers of Europe have given the
name of Nigritia, is called by the Arabs Soudán, and by the natives
Aafnou, two words of similar import, that, like the European
appellation, express the land of the Blacks, and like that too, are
applied to a part only of the region to which their meaning so
obviously belongs.—Yet, even in this limited sense, the word Soudán
is often variously employed; for while some of the Africans restrict it
to the Empire of Cashna, which is situated to the North of the Niger,
others extend it, with indefinite comprehension, to the Negro States
on the South of the river, and applying it as a means of expressing
the extended rule and transcendant power of the Emperor of
Cashna, call him, with extravagant compliment, the Sultan of all
Soudán.
His real sovereignty is bounded, on the North, by the mountains
of Eyré, and by one of those districts of the great Zahara, that
furnish no means of useful property or available dominion; on the
South, by the Niger; and on the East, by the Kingdom of Zamphara
and the Empire of Bornou. Its western limit is not described by the
Shereef; nor is any thing said of the Capital, except that it is situated
to the North of the Niger, at the distance of five days journey, and
that its buildings resemble those of Bornou.
The observations which introduced the account of Bornou, have
already announced the remarkable similarity, as well with respect to
climate, soil, and natural productions, as with regard to the colour,
genius, religion, and political institutions of the people, that prevails
between that powerful State and its sister Kingdom of Cashna.
The rains, indeed, are less violent than those of Bornou. It
exclusively furnishes the Bishnah, a species of Indian corn that
differs from the gamphúly, in the blended colours of red and white
which distinguish its grain. Its monkeys and parrots (animals but
seldom seen in Bornou) are numerous, and of various species. The
meridian of its capital is considered as a western limit, in that
parallel of latitude, to the vegetation of grapes and the breed of
camels; for between Cashna and the Atlantic few camels are bred,
and no grapes will grow. The manners of the common people are
less courteous in Cashna than in Bornou, and their games are less
expressive of reflection; for their favourite play consists in tossing up
four small sticks, and counting those that cross each other, as so
many points of the number that constitutes the game. But the
circumstances of chief discrimination between the empires are, those
of language, currency, and certain articles of commerce.
Of the difference between the Languages of Bornou and of
Cashna, the following specimen is given by the Shereef.
In the Language of Bornou In the Language of Cashna
is expressed is expressed
1 Lakkah 1 Deiyah
by by
2 Endee 2 Beeyou
3 Nieskoo 3 Okoo
4 Dekoo 4 Foodoo
5 Okoo 5 Beát
6 Araskoo 6 Sheedah
7 Huskoo 7 Bookai
8 Tallóre 8 Tàkoos
9 L’ilkar 9 Tarráh
10 Meikoo 10 Goumah
Meiko Goumah sha
11 11
Lakkah Deiyah
Meiko Goumah sha
12 12
Endee Beeyou
Meiko Goumah sha
13 13
Nieskoo Okoo
Meikoo Goumah sha
14 14
Dekoo Foodoo
The Currency of Cashna, like that of the Negro States to the
South of the Niger, is composed of those small shells that are known
to Europeans and to the Blacks themselves by the name of Cowries,
and to the Arabs by the appellation of Hueddah.—Cardie, which is
another term for this species of Negro money, and the specific
meaning of which the Shereef has neglected to explain, is said to be
given to it by the idolatrous tribes alone; a circumstance that seems
to indicate superstitious attachment.—Of these shells, 2,500 are
estimated in Cashna as equal in value to a mitkal of Fezzan, which is
worth about 675 piastres of Tripoli, or ten shillings and three half-
pence sterling.
Among the few circumstances which characterize the Trade of
Cashna, as distinguished from that of Bornou, the most remarkable
is, that the Merchants of the former kingdom are the sole carriers, to
other nations, of a scarce and most valuable commodity, which is
only to be obtained from the inhabitants of the latter. For though the
salt of Bornou supplies the consumption of Cashna, and of the Negro
Kingdoms to the South, yet its owners have abandoned to the
commercial activity of the Merchants of Agadez, the whole of that
profitable trade.
The lakes, on the dreary shores of which this scarce article of
African luxury is found, are separated from Agadez by a march of
five and forty days, and are encompassed on all sides by the sands
of the vast Desart of Bilma, where the ardent heat of a flaming sky
is returned with double fierceness by the surface of the burning soil.
A thousand camels, bred and maintained for the purpose, are said to
compose the caravan which annually explores, in the savage
wilderness, the long line of this adventurous journey. Perilous,
however, and full of hardships as their labour is, the Merchants find
an ample recompence in the profits of their commerce; for while the
wretched villagers who inhabit the neighbourhood of the lakes, and
collect the salt that congeals upon the shores, are contented to
receive, or obliged to accept a scanty price, the value that the
Merchants obtain in the various markets of Cashna, of Tombuctou,
and of the countries to the South of the Niger, is suited to the high
estimation in which the article is held.
Attentive in this manner to the means of profiting by the produce
of a neighbouring country, the people of Agadez are equally anxious
to avail themselves of the commodities that are furnished by their
own; for knowing the superior quality of the senna which grows
upon their mountains, they demand and receive from the Merchants
of Fezzan a proportionable price.
The senna of Agadez is valued in Tripoli at fourteen or fifteen
mahaboobs, or from 4l. 4s. to 4l. 10s. per hundred weight, while
that of Tibesti is worth no more than from nine to ten mahaboobs,
or from 2l. 14s. to 3l. sterling. From Tripoli the senna is exported to
Turkey, Leghorn, and Marseilles.
Of the other articles of sale which the extensive Empire of
Cashna affords, the principal are—
Gold Dust—the value of which appears to be estimated at a
higher rate in Cashna than in Fezzan; for in the former the worth of
an ounce of 640 grains (which is the weight of an ounce in Fezzan,
Cashna, and probably in all the States between that kingdom and
the Niger) is said to be nine mitkals, or 4l. 10s. sterling; whereas an
ounce of the same weight is worth in Fezzan but 4l. In Cashna the
value of an English ounce of 480 grains is consequently 3l. 7s. 6d.
whereas in Fezzan it is only 3l.
Slaves—In what manner these are obtained, does not distinctly
appear; but the value of a male slave is said to be from 15 to 20,000
cowries, or from 3l. to 4l. sterling:
That of a female slave is described as being two-thirds of the
former, or from 10,000 to 13,334 cowries, which in English money
would be from 2l. to 2l. 13s. 4d.
Cotton Cloths—which are the general manufacture of Cashna, of
Bornou, and of the Negro States to the South of the Niger:
Goat-skins—of the red and of the yellow dyes:
Ox and Buffalo Hides:
Civet—the mode of obtaining which, as well as the principal
markets for its sale, were described in the account which has been
given of the trade of Bornou.
In return for these articles the inhabitants of Cashna receive—
Cowries—a sea shell which is brought from the coast, and
constitutes the common specie of the empire:
Horses and Mares—which are purchased from the Merchants of
Fezzan; but whether bred in that country, or procured from the
Arabs, or from the people of Bornou, is not mentioned by the
Shereef:
Red Woollen Caps,
Check Linens,[33]
Light coarse Woollen Cloths,
Baize,
Barakans or Alhaiks,
Plain Mesurata Carpets,
Silk, wrought and unwrought,
Tissues and Brocades,
Sabre Blades,
Dutch Knives,
Scizzars,
Coral,
Beads,
Small Looking-Glasses,
Tickera—a paste which is prepared in Fezzan from dates and the
meal of Indian corn, and which, whenever they travel, is in great
request among the people of Fezzan:
Gooroo Nuts—which are brought from the Negro States on the
South of the Niger, and which are principally valued for the pleasant
bitter that they communicate to any liquid in which they are infused.
C H A P T E R VIII.
Countries South of the Niger.
THE account which the Shereef has given of such of the kingdoms
to the South of the Niger as he himself has visited, is too deficient in
geographical information to furnish a clear and determinate idea of
this part of his travels: and though the names of the principal States
in whose capitals he traded, or through whose dominions he passed,
may be used with advantage as the means of future enquiry, and are
therefore inserted in the map which accompanies this Narrative; yet
the places assigned them must be considered as in some degree
conjectural. That the line of his journey was towards the Gold Coast,
there is, however, the strongest reason to believe; and the following
brief account of his remarks may lead to conclusions which are
neither uninteresting nor unimportant.
From that part of the Niger which forms the southern limit of the
great Empire of Cashna, to the Kingdom of Tonouwah, which
borders on the coast of the Christians, and of which the Town of
Assenté is said to be the capital, a succession of hills, among which
are mountains of a stupendous height, diversifies or constitutes the
general face of the country. Most of the lands are described as
already cleared, but some particular districts are still incumbered
with woods of a vast extent; and though for the most part the
highlands are pastured by innumerable stocks of sheep, and by
herds of cows and goats, and the vales exhibit the captivating view
of successive villages, encompassed with corn and rice, and fruits of
various kinds, yet there are places of native sterility and eternal
barrenness.
The combined occupations of the shepherd and of the
husbandman compose the general employment of the people; while
the cotton cloth, and the goat-skins of the red and of the yellow
dyes, that are offered in several of the towns for sale, announce the
rudiments of future manufactures, and perhaps of an extensive
commerce.
Exempted by the nature of their climate from many of those
hardships from which, in other countries, dress is the principal
protection, a large proportion of the inhabitants wear only the
covering that decency requires. But most of the Mahometans, as the
mark of a religion which they are proud to profess, adorn their heads
with the folds of the turban, and also adopt, at least in some of the
States, the cotton shirt, which is so much worn in the empires of
Cashna and Bornou.
Tents, which are formed of the hides of cows or of buffaloes, and
which are peculiarly suited to the shepherd life, are the only
dwellings of multitudes of the Negros; while the huts, which others
erect with the branches of trees, are of a construction almost equally
simple.
Several of the towns are described as surrounded by walls; and
bows and arrows are mentioned as the common instruments of war.
In the description of their Governments, a few instances of small
Republics are given; but most of their States are monarchical; and of
these, the inhabitants of the Mahometan Kingdom of Degombah are
distinguished by the custom of taming the Elephant, and by that of
selling for slaves the prisoners they take from such of the bordering
nations as motives of religion or of avarice prompt them to invade.
Such, however, is the mildness of the Negro character, that even
the asperities of religious disagreement appear to have no effect on
their general conduct; for there is reason to believe, from the
Shereef’s account, that the Musselman and the Pagan are
indiscriminately mixed, that their cattle feed upon the same
mountain, and that the approach of evening sends them in peace to
the same village: and though the nations who are attacked by the
people of Degombah punish with death, as guilty of atrocious
injustice, such of the invaders as the chance of war throws into their
hands, yet those of the Mahometans who visit them for the purposes
of trade, are received with protection and respect.
To the Merchants of Fezzan, who travel to the southern States of
the Negros, the purchase of gold, which the dominions of several,
and especially of those of Degombah, abundantly afford, is always
the first object of commercial acquisition. The other articles which
they obtain, consist of
Slaves,
Cotton Cloth,
Goat-Skins, of a beautiful dye,
Hides of Buffaloes and Cows, and
A species of Nut—which is much valued in the kingdoms to the
North of the Niger, and which is called Gooroo. It grows on a large
and broad leafed tree that bears a pod of about eighteen inches in
length, in which are inclosed a number of nuts that varies from
seven to nine. Their colour is a yellowish green; their size is that of a
chesnut, which they also resemble in being covered by a husk of a
similar thickness; and their taste, which is described as a pleasant
bitter, is so grateful to those who are accustomed to its use, and so
important as a corrective to the unpalatable or unwholesome waters
of Fezzan, and of the other kingdoms that border on the vast
Zahara, as to be deemed of importance to the happiness of life.
No commercial value appears to be annexed to the fleeces which
the numerous flocks of the Negro kingdoms afford; for the cotton
manufacture, which, the Shereef says, is established among the
tribes to the South of the Niger, seems to be the only species of
weaving that is known among them. Perhaps the dark colour of the
fleece, as disqualifying it for the dye, may be one reason, and its
coarse and hairy nature may be another, of the little esteem in which
it appears to be held.
In return for the articles which they sell to their foreign visitors,
the Negros receive—
Salt, from the Merchants of Agadez,
Dutch Knives,
Sabre Blades,
Carpets,
Coral,
Beads,
Looking-Glasses,
Civet,
Imperial Dollars and Brass—from both of which the Negro artists
manufacture rings and bracelets for their women.
Fire Arms are unknown to such of the nations on the South of
the Niger as the Shereef has visited; and the reason which he
assigns for it is, that the Kings in the neighbourhood of the coast,
persuaded that if these powerful instruments of war should reach
the possession of the populous inland States, their own
independence would be lost, have strictly prohibited, and by the
wisdom of their measures, have effectually prevented this dangerous
merchandize from passing beyond the limit of their dominions.
C H A P T E R IX.
General View of the Trade from Fezzan to Tripoli, Bornou, Cashna,

and the Countries on the South of the Niger.
IN the general description of Fezzan, an account was given of the

various articles of native produce which supply the wants, or
contribute to the trade of its people; but of their Foreign Commerce,
for which, like the Dutch in Europe, they are eminently
distinguished, the detail was purposely deferred: for till a previous
account of the countries to which that commerce is established had
been exhibited, no adequate conception of its nature or extent could
be easily conveyed.
At the latter end of October, when the ardent heat of the
Summer months is succeeded by the pleasant mildness and settled
serenity of Autumn, the several caravans that are respectively
destined for Tripoli and Bornou and Cashna, and the Negro Nations
beyond the Niger, take their departure from Mourzouk, the capital of
Fezzan. The parties which compose them are generally small; for
unless information has been received that the road is infested with
robbers, ten or a dozen Merchants, attended by twice as many
camels, and by the necessary servants, constitute the usual strength
of the caravan; but if an attack is apprehended, an association of
forty or fifty men, with muskets for their defence, is formed; and as
none of the Africans to the South of Fezzan (the people of Agadez
and the nations on the coast excepted) have yet possessed
themselves of fire-arms, the collective force of such a number is
sufficient to insure their safety.
Their store of provisions usually consists of dates; of meal
prepared from barley, or from Indian corn, and previously deprived
of all its moisture in an oven temperately heated; and of mutton,
which is cured for the purpose, by the treble process of being salted
and dried in the sun, and afterwards boiled in oil or fat; a process
which gives it, even in that climate, a lasting preservation.
In all the principal towns to which they trade, the Merchants of
Fezzan have Factors, or confidential Friends, to whose care, till their
return, or till their instructions as to the market shall arrive, they
consign such Negros as they purchase, perfectly assured that the
slaves will be forwarded by the Agents according to the orders they
receive; but their gold dust, as being more easily conveyed, and less
dependent for its value on the choice of the market, is seldom
entrusted to the Factor.
The caravans which proceed to Tripoli are freighted partly with
trona, the produce of their native land, and partly with senna and
gold dust and slaves, the produce of the southern countries with
which they trade; and in return they bring back the cutlery and
woollens (particularly red woollen caps) and silks, wrought and
unwrought, together with the Imperial dollars, the copper and the
brass, which are requisite for the consumption of those countries or
for their own.
The caravans which travel to Bornou are loaded with the
following goods:
Brass and Copper—for the currency of Bornou. The caravan
which Mr. L u c a s accompanied from Tripoli to Mesurata, had brought
ten camel loads or forty hundred weight of these metals for the
Bornou market: their value in Bornou is about four shillings sterling
for each pound weight.
Imperial Dollars—which are called in Arabic Real Abotacia, and
the value of which, in comparison with the dollars of Spain, is, at
Tripoli, as 365 piastres to 340, or nearly as 16 to 15:
Red Woollen Caps,
Check Linens,
Light coarse Cloth,
Baize,
Barakans or Alhaiks,
Small Carpets of Turkey,
Small plain Carpets of Mesurata,
Tissues and Brocades—for the Royal Family and other persons of
rank,
Sabre Blades,
Dutch Knives,
Scissars,
Coral,
Beads,
Gooroo Nuts—that grow on the South of the Niger, and are much
valued in Bornou for the pleasant taste which they communicate to
water.
Of the native produce of Fezzan the only article which is brought
as merchandize to Bornou is a preparation of pounded dates, and of
the meal of Indian corn, highly dried in an oven. It is called Tickera,
and is valued, especially by Travellers, as a portable and highly
salubrious food.
In return for the goods which they bring to Bornou the Merchants
take back with them,
Slaves,
Gold Dust,
Civet—for the markets on the South of the Niger.
The exports from Fezzan to Cashna and its dependent States,

consist of the following articles:
Cowries—a sea shell (in Arabic, called Hueddah) which
constitutes the circulating specie of this empire, and of the Negro
kingdoms, and which the Merchants procure from the Southern
nations who border on the coast; 17,062 are considered in Cashna
as equivalent to an English ounce (480 grains) of gold:
Brass—from which the Smiths of the country manufacture rings
and bracelets for their women:
Horses,
Red Woollen Caps,
Check Linens,
Light coarse Cloth,
Baize,
Barakans, or Alhaiks,
Plain Mesurata Carpets,
Tissues and Brocades,
Sabre Blades,
Dutch Knives,
Scissars,
Coral,
Beads,
Tickera—a preparation of pounded dates, and the meal of Indian
corn, which is manufactured in Fezzan:
Gooroo Nuts—which are brought from the Negro Countries on
the South of the Niger.
The articles received in return, are—
Gold Dust:—of which an English ounce (or 480 grains) appears to
be valued at 3l. 8s. 3d. though in Fezzan it seems to be worth no
more than 3l. The Fezzanners, in all probability, make themselves
amends by the price which they charge upon their goods.

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Printed in the United States of America.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

T Time for Frankie

With three minutes to go, the game

Mr. Triple Crown

in the Pacific, the U.S. government insti-

Flight of the Cardinals

Our Man in St. Louis

✔ Stanford University defeated Dart-

✔ The Indianapolis 500 was canceled

Crowned in Absentia stadium. Several U.S. Congressmen pro-

Sugar Was One Sweet Boxer

The Other Arms Race

Not surprisingly, the two coaches never

structing fields and ordering equipment

the championship of occupied Germany, The ultimate expression of sports-

Bornou, like other countries that approach the Equinoctial, is

Gold Dust,[30] Ostrich Feathers,[30]

In return for their exports, they receive the following goods:

Rout from Mourzouk to Cashna — Boundaries of the Empire — Its

EQUALLY connected by their commerce with Cashna and Bornou,

Countries South of the Niger.

General View of the Trade from Fezzan to Tripoli, Bornou, Cashna,

IN the general description of Fezzan, an account was given of the

The exports from Fezzan to Cashna and its dependent States,

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