Immortality & Honor: Incredible Impact of College Hoopdom on Memorial Day

May 25th, 2024 - 9:49

Hopefully, VP Kamala Harris, if not sleeping at ceremony like her boss, didn't cackle similar to a hyena again when telling Americans to "enjoy" the long weekend. It might not dawn on her, but some gave all (not bail money for "righteous" rioters) as we contemplate honoring authentic heroes with the 80th anniversary of D-Day on the horizon. The fallen didn't have to worry about manipulation of waiting lists and receiving proper medical care from the VA because they didn't make it back home alive. Unless you're an inferiority-complex coward comparable to BSNBC up-tight host Chris Hayes hyperventilating while uncomfortable with calling fallen military "heroes", hoops aficionado/despicable NOKO despot Kim Jong Un, #NewYorkSlimes op-ed writer or presstitute-promoted #QueenofDenial #ShrillaryRotten telling lies in front of caskets at Dover Air Force Base and promoting Russian collusion hoax, a Memorial Day weekend generates sobering reminders of what is really important to our freedom. It's definitely not cancel culture. College basketball ultimate-sacrifice contributions are aplenty, magnified in first-class significance when compared to low-class Logan Act scheming by FBI/CIA/DOJ upper brass regarding General Michael Flynn. Who do you really believe the memorialized specifically and military in general would and do support more - pushy ex-President Trump or pussy press pestilence infested by jet-lagged #CNNSucks, "dynastic" dolts at MSNBC fawning over "Weissmann" Report, #Dimorats dumpster diving with fossil John Dean and weepy Obama #MessMedia manipulating lackey "dude" Ben Rhodes on election night?

While Baylor's football program became Animal House, the school's basketball roster developed a reputation the previous decade for having some "soft" players who played with the fervor of a man holding his female companion's purse at the mall much of a shopping excursion afternoon. But Baylor is believed to be the only non-service academy in America to have two former athletes go on to win the Congressional Medal of Honor. Both men, Jack Lummus and John "Killer" Kane, earned the nation's highest military honor for heroics in World War II. Lummus played football, basketball and baseball for the Bears from 1938 through 1941. He was an All-Southwest Conference center fielder before signing with the NFL's New York Giants.

After one year of pro football, Lummus joined the U.S. Marines and was a platoon leader in the initial days of fighting on Iwo Jima. While leading a charge on enemy positions, Lummus stepped on a land mine and lost both legs. Despite heavy bleeding, he led his platoon to knock out several pockets of Japanese fire, a vital part of the U.S. victory. Alas, Lummus died of his wounds shortly after the battle.

Kane, who also played football and basketball, was one of the survivors on Baylor's ill-fated 1927 basketball squad that lost 10 of its 21-member traveling party in a bus-train wreck en route to Austin, Tex. As a result of the "Immortal Ten" tragedy, the remainder of the first of coach Ralph Wolf's 15 seasons was cancelled, and the first highway overpass in Texas was constructed.

Kane joined the Army Air Corps in 1932 and soon became a bomber commander of legendary proportions. It was said he was the best pilot and toughest commander in the Air Corps. It was often debated who feared him more - the Germans or his own men.

On August 1, 1943, Kane led what at the time was the deadliest air battle in history - a low-level, long-range bombing raid on Hitler's oil-refining complex in Rumania. The site produced a major portion of the Axis' fuel and was one of the most heavily-guarded locations in history.

Letting freedom ring on sacred line-of-duty ground, the heroism exhibited by ex-hoopers doesn't stop there. Al Brown, Creighton's leading scorer in 1925-26, survived the infamous Bataan Death March in the Philippines. Another survivor of the Bataan Death March was Johnny Winterholler, an All-Mountain States Conference second-team selection for Wyoming in 1937-38. Winterholler was serving with 4th Marine Regiment in 1942 when Corregidor fell to the Japanese. He was captured and spent 34 months as a POW. A hematoma pressed against his spinal cord and caused paralysis from the waist down. The Colonel never walked again and was eventually freed in February of 1945. Wheelchair basketball got its start at hospital where he was a member of the Rolling Devils. Albert "Doc" Brown, Creighton hooper in the mid-1920s, was the oldest survivor of the death march (105) at the time of his passing in mid-August 2011.

A hooper-turned-famous airman was Captain James Angelo Verinis (played for Connecticut in early 1940s), the co-pilot of the legendary B-17 bomber "Memphis Belle" inspiring the making of two motion pictures. Maurice "Footsie" Britt, a basketball letterman with Arkansas in 1939 although known more for football, became first recipient of the top three combat decorations in a single war (WWII) after taking part in the African, Sicilian and Italian campaigns. Britt was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor after suffering numerous wounds, including one causing his right arm to be amputated. In an intense fire fight, Britt personally killed five and wounded an unknown number of Germans, wiped out one enemy machine gun crew, fired five clips of carbine and an undetermined amount of M1 rifle ammunition plus threw 32 fragmentation grenades. Another multi-sport athlete of note was North Carolina State's Eddie Berlinski, a basketball letterman in 1936 and 1937 who made a daring escape with four dozen imprisoned U.S. Army officers from a German POW camp in early January 1945, braving frozen terrain and gunfire to make their way from infamous Oflag 64 for commissioned officers. Discharged with the rank of major, Berlinski had been at the camp in Poland more than two years following his capture in Tunisia.

Glenn Wilson, captain of Dartmouth's 18-7 team in 1954-55 when averaging around 11 ppg for the third straight season, joined the Air Force, where he served as a fighter pilot and flight instructor during the Cold War and Vietnam War. Wilson was shot down over North Vietnam and taken prisoner in early August 1967. As a POW, he spent 2,047 days in captivity and was tortured repeatedly until his release in early March 1973 as part of Operation Homecoming. Similarly, Carl Crumpler, a forward who scored 91 points for Alabama in 1947-48, was on his 45th combat mission in USAF on July 5, 1968, when forced to eject over North Vietnam and spent the next 1,714 days as POW in the Hanoi Hilton. More recently, Eric "Nasty Zasty" Zastoupil (2.5 ppg and 1.7 rpg for Army from 2006-07 through 2009-10) was on foot patrol in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in mid-August 2012 when an IED explosion blew off lower half of First Lieutenant's left leg.

A well-timed case of appendicitis may have spared life of Purdue All-American and eventual UCLA Hall of Fame coach John Wooden. Surgery had him deemed sufficiently unhealthy to where he wasn't deployed as planned in January 1945 aboard the USS Franklin on a Naval mission in the South Pacific where it endured a deadly siege from Japanese dive bombers in the Battle of Okinawa. More than 800 sailors died and nearly 500 were wounded for the highest casualty count by a U.S. fleet carrier surviving WWII.

Despite not serving in military, All-Americans weren't exempt from the horrors of war. Tennessee's Ernie Grunfeld, a Romanian-born Jewish child of Holocaust survivors, never saw his father's parents because they were murdered in Auschwitz and West Virginia's Jerry West was 12 when his brother, David, was killed during the Korean Conflict. Amid bugle playing "Taps" in the background and issuing kudos to research by baseballsgreatestsacrifice.com, San Diego State All-American Milky Phelps and a striking number of all-conference hoopers are among the following ex-players warranting we-regret-to-inform-you salutes during Memorial Day weekend for making the supreme sacrifice:

  • Kentucky players who competed multiple years for the Wildcats before they were killed during WWII included Mel Brewer (Army Second Lieutenant/died in France), Ken England (Army Captain of ski troop/Italy), James Goforth (Marine First Lieutenant/Marshall Islands) and Jim King (Army Second Lieutenant and co-pilot/Germany). Brewer, England and King were three of the top seven scorers for UK's first NCAA Tournament and Final Four team in 1942.

  • Bart Avery, an Alabama letterman in 1942 and 1943, was killed in action on April 6, 1945, as a newly-promoted Captain aiding final push against the Germans.

  • Dennis Bagley, a New Jersey native who emerged as top player for Belmont Abbey NC during second half of the 1960s, became a U.S. Marine who died in 1969 in an ammunition dump explosion in Quang Nam during the Vietnam War.

  • Gene Berger, a Syracuse letterman from 1939-40 through 1941-42, died in late summer 1961 during flight maneuvers in the Pacific after taking off in AD6 Skyraider plane from the USS Lexington aircraft carrier. He was a Commander in the U.S. Navy and a Naval aviator.

  • Walt Bernson, who averaged 3.3 ppg and 2 rpg for Columbia from 1957-58 through 1959-60, was an Army Private when he died at Fort Sill, Okla., in late September 1962.

  • Herb Bonn, a standout for Duquesne in the mid-1930s, was a Navy pilot conducting night navigation operation off Hawaii on April 7, 1943, when his aircraft crashed into the South Pacific Ocean (all 10 on board presumed dead).

  • Don Brown, Student Body President/son of famed comedian Joe E. Brown/guard for UCLA (class of '40), died in October 1942 when Army Air Corps captain's plane crashed near Palm Springs during a training exercise.

  • Frank Bryski, an All-SWC first-team selection for Baylor in 1939-40, was a Lieutenant who served in African, Sicilian and Italian campaigns prior to being killed in action in Italy on November 6, 1943.

  • Archie Buckley, letterman from 1928 to 1930 as a Washington State forward, was a Lieutenant in charge of physical conditioning of Navy pilots aboard the USS Saratoga aircraft carrier on February 21, 1945, when he was among 123 crew members dead or missing after five Kamikaze bomb hits.

  • John Burke, who played briefly for Georgetown in 1937-38, was a Lieutenant on May 8, 1943, when killed by friendly fire in a skirmish with Axis forces only two weeks before conclusion of the Tunisia campaign.

  • Young Bussey, a letterman for Louisiana State in the late 1930s, participated in numerous landing assaults in the South Pacific during WWII before dying as head beach-master in early January 1945 during invasion of Lingayen Gulf to liberate The Philippines from Japanese occupation. His landing craft took a direct hit from mortar while storming the beach. After reportedly having his left arm blown off, he was last seen signaling with his right arm for his men to take cover.

  • Robinson "Bob" Butler, a Texas letterman in 1936, was Navy fighter pilot on May 10, 1944, when he died. Stationed aboard an aircraft carrier in Hawaii, Lieutenant had been on sea duty about a month.

  • Bob "Ace" Calkins, UCLA's top scorer in the late 1930s before Jackie Robinson arrived, was navigator on B-17 airplane ("The Flying Fortress") gunned down during WWII. He later died in an Italian prison camp from wounds suffered in the crash.

  • Captain Ken Cameron, who averaged 2 ppg for California in 1948-49 and 1949-50, was a Prisoner of War for more than 1,230 days after Navy pilot was shot down in mid-May 1967. He was tortured so severely with ropes and beatings his fellow POWs reported when they returned home that Cameron was in extremely poor physical and mental health. In solitary confinement a great deal of the time, he refused to eat more than a minimum of food so the North Vietnamese wouldn't force him to appear in propaganda films or meet antiwar delegations due to his appearance. He passed away in Hanoi in early October of 1970.

  • John Campbell, a four-year hooper for Dickinson PA, was a Second Lieutenant who failed to return from Army Air Corps sea sweep mission off northeastern Tunisia in late March 1943.

  • Jindrich "Henry" Chovanec, a Texas letterman from 1936 through 1938, was bomber pilot who died in late April 1943 when First Lieutenant tried to fly a battle-damaged plane that fell apart while starting to climb into sky for another WWII mission in New Guinea.

  • Edward Christl Jr., a center and Army team captain for the Cadets' unbeaten squad in 1944 (15-0), was a First Lieutenant during WWII the next year when he was killed in action in Austria in early May. Artillery forward observer heroically volunteered to lead an infantry squad against fierce resistance from German SS troops. Army's arena is named after him.

  • Frank Cleary Jr., a reserve forward for Georgetown in 1941-42, was a Marine Corps Lieutenant on June 16, 1944, when killed in action during the initial days of the Battle of Saipan.

  • Richard "Stretch" Clinite, who played for Navy in the late 1940s under coach Ben Carnevale, was killed in action on May 13, 1953, when his F9F-5 Panther was shot down by anti-aircraft artillery over Wonsan Harbor, Korea.

  • Bill Coleman, a Georgia Tech letterman in 1909, was in the Army in 1918 when he perished in plane crash in France during WWI.

  • Joe Comer, captain of George Washington's 1940-41 squad, was an Army Lieutenant two years later when he died in a military plane crash.

  • Andy Curlee, Auburn's captain in late 1930s, died on April 6, 1943, when the First Lieutenant was leading his squadron in Tunisia.

  • All-PCC second-team selection Bill Dahlke, Washington State's captain and runner-up in scoring for team winning 1937 Northern Division playoff, died on March 18, 1945, near the Rhine River. F-Company Captain was killed instantly by a panzerfaust rocket while interrogating a German prisoner with an interpreter.

  • Francis "Reds" Daly, a Georgetown letterman from 1938 through 1940, served as a Major in U.S. Marines and as battalion commander was killed in action during the Battle of Iwo Jima on February 22, 1945.

  • George Davison, a Washington State letterman in 1943, was a Second Lieutenant on March 18, 1945, when he was killed in action while his infantry regiment was attacking German Siegfried Line positions south of Zweibrucken.

  • Jack Dean, a starting forward as freshman for DePaul's 1944 NIT runner-up was assigned to the ill-fated USS Indianapolis, which was sunk by a Japanese submarine and suffered the greatest single loss of life at sea in history of U.S. Navy. Out of 1,196 men on board, almost 300 went down with the vessel in late July 1945. The remaining 900 or so men were left floating in shark-infested waters with no lifeboats and most with no food or water. Dean reportedly survived for about 2 1/2 days in the ocean before succumbing.

  • Colorado A&M's Lewis "Dude" Dent, voted the best all-around athlete in the Mountain States Conference in 1943, was an Army Lieutenant among forward observers giving firing coordinates on the radio when killed in action in France in August 1944.

  • Staff Sgt. Al Dente, who played for Seton Hall's 16-2 team in 1942-43, flew 31 missions with the U.S. Air Force (332nd Bomber Squadron/94th Bomber Division) over Germany before he was shot down and killed on November 4, 1944.

  • Edward Drake, who played for Rutgers in 1929-30, died on December 21, 1943, in a plane crash over the Mediterranean Sea shortly after his promotion to Major. He served with the Intelligence Division of the Army Air Forces for 16 months in North Africa.

  • Herman "Chuck" Drizen, a two-year starter for Villanova in the early 1940s, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor by Barack Obama in 2014. The Second Lieutenant in the Second Battalion/Company E" was among the first wave of Marines landing at Iwo Jima in late February 1945. Leader of an attacking platoon of 13, cut off from their unit, advanced about a 1/4 mile into enemy territory, destroying three tanks and killing an estimated dozen Japanese soldiers while suffering only one casualty. He died during the dreaded battle the next month on March 6.

  • Bob Duffey, a backup swingman for Georgetown's 1943 NCAA Tournament runner-up, was a Sergeant killed in action on November 13, 1944, in European theater combat (Hurtgen Forest). Teammate Lloyd Potolicchio, who matched DePaul legend George Mikan's 11-point output in the 1943 national semifinals when the Hoyas eliminated the Blue Demons before bowing to Wyoming in title tilt, joined the Air Force. Potolicchio was boom operator Master Sergeant when killed in a refueling mission on January 17, 1966, in a B-52 crash off the coast of southern Spain. His KC-135 tanker was completely destroyed when its fuel load ignited, resulting in the B-52G breaking apart with B28RI hydrogen weapons falling to earth and plutonium contamination occurring near the fishing village of Palomares. In March 2009, Time magazine identified the Palomares accident as one of the world's "worst nuclear disasters."

  • Pete Edmond, Texas letterman from 1913 to 1916, died on October 11, 1918, charging a German machine-gun position in the Battle of the Argonne Forest, one of the bloodiest campaigns in the history of American warfare.

  • Second Lieutenant John Eggleton (Alfred NY) was an Army platoon leader on December 11, 1942, when he died while engaging German tanks and artillery on road outside Tunis in North Africa.

  • Roy Engelbretson, a Creighton letterman in the late 1930s, died from wounds in Belgium in late January 1945. He had just been promoted to Army Captain.

  • Charles "Herb" Fash averaged 7.2 ppg for Saint Louis from 1933-34 through 1935-36 before 1B played six years as a farmhand with the St. Louis Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers. On January 21, 1945, the Lieutenant was one of 52 sailors killed when a torpedo bomber, returning from a South Pacific sortie, made a routine landing on the USS Hancock, taxied and disintegrated in an explosion as one of its 500-pound bombs detonated on the aircraft carrier.

  • Pecos Finley, an All-Border Conference first-team selection in 1937-38 as New Mexico A&M's top scorer for team undefeated in league competition before participating in 1939 NIT, died in Japanese POW camp in 1942 following Bataan Death March.

  • Alexander "Pat" Finnegan Jr., who averaged 1.8 ppg for Georgetown during WWI-shortened 1917-18 season, was a Second Lieutenant on October 2, 1918, when he passed away in Philadelphia during an influenza pandemic. He had been assigned as an instructor to Temple University.

  • Bob Fischer, letterman in 1941 and 1942 as a Notre Dame guard, was serving with an Army squadron on November 17, 1944, when he was killed while bailing out of his fighter plane as it went down in flames over Italy.

  • William Gamber, a hooper for Tri-State IN, was a pilot who died with three aspiring Army Air Corps fliers on November 18, 1942, on a routine training mission after leaving Mather Field in Sacramento. In 1947, it was determined their plane crashed hundreds of miles off course into 13,841-foot-high Mount Darwin in Kings Canyon National Park after a hiker initially discovered some of the wreckage on a glacier. Sixty-three years later, climbers discovered his body entombed in ice.

  • Jay Gano Sr., who averaged 3.4 ppg for Idaho in 1947-48, was a 1st Lieutenant in 2nd Infantry when killed on October 10, 1951, on Heartbreak Ridge in North Korea.

  • Bob Gary, captain for Washington & Lee VA, was a navigator on a routine training flight in early February 1944 when his bomber crashed Southeast of El Paso.

  • Montana State's Cyrus Gatton, a pilot with the 11th Aero Squadron, was killed in action in Europe the first week in November 1918, a week before the Armistice was signed ending World War I.

  • James Gillespie, Georgia letterman in 1939, served with the Navy Seabees when killed in action on Guam.

  • John Goodrich, named outstanding all-around athlete in the class of 1940 for St. Lawrence NY, was a Naval patrol bomber pilot lost in action in 1944 over the English Channel.

  • Eddie Grant, who played basketball for Harvard at the turn of the 20th Century before becoming an infielder for 10 years in the majors, died from shelling on October 5, 1918, in the Argonne Forest, France, during WWI while in charge of his battalion after his commanding officer was killed.

  • Chester Granville, a Texas letterman from 1939 through 1941, enlisted in Army Air Corps in early February 1943. First Lieutenant fighter pilot died during a training flight in inclement weather over the English Isles while his squadron underwent a transition from P-38 aircraft to the P-51 types. Designated missing in action, his aircraft was never found.

  • Ralph Greear, a football lineman who also played basketball with Texas in the early 1930s but didn't letter, was killed in action in late November 1944 when shot while leading his platoon in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest in southwest Germany near Belgium, which occurred over a span of three months and has been called the longest battle the U.S. Army was ever involved.

  • Frank Haggerty, St. John's senior co-captain in 1939-40 who averaged 5 points per game in his three-year career under legendary coach Joe Lapchick, was a Second Lieutenant in Air Force. Haggerty was killed instantly on training mission in fall of 1942 when his Warhawk fighter plane crashed into the Catawba River in Charlotte area.

  • Mason "Tex" Harris, a San Diego State letterman from 1938 through 1940, was killed in action in Germany on March 3, 1945. Serving in an armored division under General Patton, he was one of the valiant men holding out at Bastogne, France, when surrounded by the enemy.

  • Homer L. Hazel, an Ole Miss hoops letterman in 1940 and 1942, died in 1942 as an Aviation Cadet in training accident in Pensacola, Fla. The son of former Rebels basketball and football coach Homer H. Hazel was their gridiron co-captain and All-SEC left guard in 1941.

  • Frank Hebenstreit Jr., who played for Creighton in the early 1940s, was an Army Second Lieutenant in mid-August 1944 when he died in France. While pursuing retreating German tanks, he was struck by direct fire and sustained wounds proving fatal.

  • John "Frank" Hill, a Clemson letterman in 1942 and 1943, was an Army First Lieutenant killed in action in Germany on April 10, 1945. His division was isolated at a location deep in the enemy's rear.

  • Henry "Red" Hinkley, a letterman for Southern Illinois from 1940-41 through 1942-43, was fighting with U.S. Army at an island near New Guinea, sought for its strategic location to refuel aircraft, when killed by machine gun fire on June 7, 1944.

  • Ernie Holbrook was a three-year letterman as USC forward and hero of 1935 PCC playoff series against Oregon State. He died in mid-December 1944 during opening salvos of the Ardennes offensive in Luxembourg during the Battle of the Bulge.

  • Bob Holmes was a forward who helped guide Central Methodist MO to MCAU title in 1942-43. In the Marines invasion of Iwo Jima in mid-February 1945, he was mortally wounded while spraying the enemy with machine gun fire. Holmes subsequently was buried at sea.

  • Thomas P. Hunter, a three-year letterman who was a sophomore member of Kansas' 1940 runner-up, was killed in action against the Japanese on Guam, July 21, 1944, while fighting with the Ninth Marines as a First Lieutenant. Hunter was elected posthumously as captain of the Jayhawks' 1945-46 squad that compiled a 19-2 record.

  • John "Jack" Inglis, a standout for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (N.Y.), was a Navy Seaman in fall of 1918 when stricken with influenza and dying while on furlough.

  • Dave Kanning, who averaged 3.4 ppg and 4 rpg for Navy in 1961-62 and 1962-63, was an instructor pilot aboard a T-34B on June 2, 1980, when killed in an aircraft accident near Fairhope, Ala.

  • Track star Jack Kelleher, who briefly played hoops for Washington State's 1941 NCAA Tournament runner-up, died in mid-September 1944 from wounds the Infantryman incurred in France in an assault of Germany's Siegfried Line.

  • Nile Kinnick, Iowa's Heisman Trophy winner as a quarterback-halfback in 1939, played basketball for the Hawkeyes during his sophomore year, averaging 6.1 ppg to finish as their second-leading scorer. After bypassing pro football to attend law school, he was killed in a plane crash on June 2, 1943, on a routine training flight from the aircraft carrier USS Lexington off the coast of Venezuela while serving in the Navy. Kinnick's body never was recovered after his attempt to land in the water following a serious oil leak.

  • Fred Koss, a freshman player for Florida in 1964-65, died on July 7, 1972, when Weapons System Officer's F-4 Phantom jet was shot down as First Lieutenant returned from a bombing mission during the Vietnam War. His brother, Bill, averaged 2.8 ppg and 2.3 rpg with the Gators from 1962-63 through 1964-65 under coach Norm Sloan.

  • Eugene Leger, a letterman for Maine from 1940 through 1942, was killed at Tinker Field in Oklahoma City on January 28, 1946, when fire swept the hangar where he was working on B-29's slated to photograph the Bikini tests.

  • George Lenc, a four-year letterman for Augustana IL in the late 1930s, was completing cadet training as a bombardier and navigator in mid-November 1942 when his bomber crashed near Pasco, Wash.

  • Felix Little, a player for Catawba NC in the late 1930s, was a Navy bomber pilot among nine crew and passengers who perished on December 18, 1944, when a port engine exploded and plane crashed while leaving runway in Brazil.

  • Si Lobello, LIU's leading scorer for 1941 NIT titlist, served in the U.S. Army in the European Theater during WWII. He went missing during the Battle of the Bulge in early March 1945 and was later found to be killed in action.

  • James Loenshal, a Dickinson PA hooper, was co-pilot on a mission to bomb an oil refinery near Vienna on February 7, 1945, when the Lieutenant in Army Air Force's aircraft disintegrated in mid-air upon receiving a direct hit from enemy anti-aircraft artillery.

  • Tom Lombardo, a roster member of St. Louis' hoops squad in 1942 before transferring to Army where he was captain and QB of undefeated 1944 national football champion, was a First Lieutenant mortally wounded in combat on a hilltop in late September 1950 during the Korean Conflict.

  • Walter "Whitey" Loos, an EIBC honorable mention selection as a Carnegie Tech PA center, died as a navigator in B-24 plane crash in Brazil in mid-January 1944 on the final leg of a journey to Europe.

  • Harry Martin, who played for Syracuse in 1916-17, was killed in 1923 when his plane crashed during takeoff at Kelly Field, Tex. Lieutenant and Army aviator served in the AEF in France during WWI.

  • Neil Martin, an Arkansas letterman in the late 1930s, was a Flight Leader for 3rd Squadron "Hells Angels" killed in action in Burma on December 23, 1941. In the midst of large air battle, Martin's P-40B Tomahawk was believed to be shot down by a Japanese bomber gunner. He was the first "Tiger" to die in combat.

  • All 11 regulars on Pittsburgh's 1941 Final Four team participated in World War II and one of them, Harry Matthews, was killed in action.

  • Center Bill Menke, the third-leading scorer for Indiana's 1940 NCAA champion who supplied a team-high 10 points in the Hoosiers' national semifinal victory over Duquesne, later became a Navy pilot and served in World War II. In January 1945, he was declared missing in action (and presumed dead) when he didn't return from a flight in the Caribbean.

  • John Messina, a member of coach Frank Keaney's innovative fast-break system at Rhode Island State in the mid-1930s, was a First Lieutenant U.S. Army paratrooper when killed on July 13, 1943, during the invasion of Sicily.

  • Joe Minsavage appeared in 12 games for Syracuse before joining the Navy. On June 19, 1943, he was aboard Liberty Ship Henry Knox in the Indian Ocean when torpedoed by a Japanese submarine while en route to Iran. He was lost at sea.

  • Dick Montonati, a multiple-sport athlete for Ripon College WI, died in a crash of light observation plane in the fall of 1963 while a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army.

  • Bob Morris, who averaged 6.5 ppg for Gettysburg PA in 1964-65, was killed in March of 1972 when U.S. Air Force captain's plane crashed in northeast Spain.

  • Harry Mosher, who led Hartwick NY with 23.2 ppg in 1964-65, was a 2nd Lieutenant in U.S. Army in early February 1968 when killed in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive.

  • Wayne "Gus" Nees, a Kansas letterman in the late 1930s under coach Phog Allen, died on May 18, 1943, on Kiska in the Aleutian Islands. Nees was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart.

  • Dick "Hook" Nein, who played for Navy in 1950-51, was a Lieutenant upon perishing on routine gunnery mission when his F86 crashed on November 8, 1954, as student pilot flew from Nellis AFB in Nevada.

  • Fred Norton, who played hoops from 1915 through 1917 as Ohio State's first four-sport varsity letterman, was leader of the 27th "Eagle" Pursuit Squadron. First Lieutenant posthumously earned Distinguished Service Cross during WWI. In late July 1918, he absorbed two anti-aircraft rounds to the chest in a dogfight. Norton managed to land his Nieuport 8 behind Allied lines but it took two days for his fellow soldiers to transport him to the hospital, where he died from his wounds and complications from pneumonia.

  • Army Air Force Lieutenant Ralph Nutter, who played for McNeese State's first basketball team when the Louisiana school was a junior college, died in a plane crash in June 1943.

  • Mortimer "Whitey" O'Connell Jr., who averaged from 2.5 ppg to 6.3 ppg for Rutgers from 1929-30 through 1931-32, died on March 15, 1945, in a hospital in France.

  • Kenneth Omley, who averaged just over 2 ppg for Rutgers each season from 1938-39 through 1940-41, died on November 25, 1944, as a result of wounds the Major in Army Air Corps received in a plane crash while returning from London to his base at Ireland.

  • Harry "Porky" O'Neill paced Gettysburg PA to two Eastern Pennsylvania Conference championships in the late 1930s and caught one game for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1939. After surviving the worst of the horrific fighting at Iwo Jima, the Marine first lieutenant was killed instantly on March 6, 1945, by a sniper's bullet piercing his throat and severing his spinal cord as he prepared to bed down on a starlit night. Gettysburg teammate Gerst Buyer, a First Lieutenant, had died on May 25, 1944, in Italy amid heavy Armored Division tank losses.

  • First Lieutenant Jim O'Sullivan (Bates ME) was killed in action in the South Pacific on April 3, 1943, when Marine pilot crash landed at Guadalcanal after returning from a task force coverage mission.

  • Captain Scott Pace, who played for Army in 2002-03, died in Afghanistan on June 6, 2012, when the helicopter he was piloting on patrol crashed after riddled by Taliban machine-gun fire.

  • Carroll Bruton Parker, a Baylor letterman in 1944, was a seaman who was mortally wounded and died while being rushed to the hospital after Japanese conducted a single-bomber air raid in one of its desperate attempts to stop the American occupation of Leyte.

  • Charles "Stubby" Pearson, captain of Dartmouth's 1942 national runner-up and valedictorian of his class the same year after earning All-EIBL first-team honors the previous season, was killed in action on March 30, 1945, while dive-bombing a Japanese ship off the Palau Islands. He reportedly was diving far below the pull-out altitude the U.S. Navy asked of its dive-bomber pilots. Pearson, who also served as captain of the school's football squad, was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

  • Clyde Pennington, a Clemson letterman in 1935 and 1936, was an Army First Lieutenant who died in a non-battle accident in North Africa on July 23, 1943.

  • Four-sport letterman Tommy Peters, an All-Southern Conference first-team selection when leading league in scoring with 17.5 ppg in 1942-43, died during WWII on April 9, 1945, while with the Seventh Army in Germany after only one season at Davidson. Because communications were out, Lieutenant did not know of the company withdrawal to alternate positions. Covering his platoon, he delayed the enemy in their attack by his continuous small arms fire and innumerable grenades, accounting for an estimated 50 enemy casualties.

  • San Diego State's Atwell Milton "Milky" Phelps, the NAIA Tournament's first bona fide standout when he sparked the Aztecs to the 1941 title after two runner-up finishes, gave his life for his country during WWII in the crash of a Navy torpedo bomber. He was in a training flight accident in November 1942 while preparing to become an Air Force pilot.

  • Curtis Popham, Texas' co-captain in 1943, was killed on his 22nd birthday (January 13, 1945). Popham's B-17, on what was to be their final mission, was hit by flak at an altitude of approximately 28,500 feet and exploded over Worth, Germany.

  • Les Powell, who averaged 11.1 ppg and 6.1 rpg for Utah State in 1965-66 and 1966-67, was a Corporal killed in action in Vietnam by a land mine in April 1969.

  • Dale Brough Rex, a 6-7 center for Brigham Young in the early 1940s, was killed in action on December 18, 1944, while serving in the 5th Infantry in Europe. Three months earlier, he earned the Distinguished Service Cross after swimming across a 300-foot cold German river (Moselle) four times in order to help the wounded and weary during a retreat.

  • Charles Richardson, a three-year letterman for Gettysburg PA from 1963-64 through 1965-66, was a First Lieutenant piloting a Cessna Super Skymaster that crashed in South Vietnam on October 8, 1968. He was with a psychological air unit equipped with loudspeaker used to urge Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops to defect.

  • Robert Roach, a member of Omaha's squad before entering the military, was a Second Lieutenant in the Army Air Forces in July 1945 when he died in the crash of his plane in Arizona, where he was an instructor.

  • Foy Roberson Jr., a three-year letterman for North Carolina from 1938 through 1940, was killed in a collision at sea on December 21, 1941, while Second Lieutenant in Army Air Corps piloted a military aircraft.

  • Jim Robertson was an All-Northwest Conference selection for Willamette OR in 1941-42. The Marine Corps airman's bomber, damaged by Japanese anti-aircraft fire during South Pacific mission (stronghold of Kavieng on island of New Ireland), overshot an island runway attempting landing in heavy rain and crashed into a lagoon shortly before midnight on April 20, 1944.

  • John Rundell, a Wisconsin letterman from 1938 through 1940, was an Army Staff Sergeant when killed in action in Germany's Hurtgen Forest in late November 1944.

  • Glenn Sanford, who enrolled at Hillsdale MI in the late 1930s, was an Army Second Lieutenant stationed in Oakland area in early November 1943 when his plane spiraled into the ocean on a routine patrol along the coast.

  • James Scondras, a Holy Cross letterman in 1941 and 1942, was a First Lieutenant in U.S. Marines when killed by Japanese mortar fire on February 25, 1945, during the Battle of Iwo Jima.

  • Don Scott, who made a free throw for Ohio State's national runner-up in inaugural NCAA Tournament championship contest in 1939, died on October 1, 1943, when U.S. Army Air Forces captain's B-26 Marauder bomber crashed in England while in training after football All-American halfback already completed nine bombing missions during WWII.

  • Bernie "Lavoice" Scudday, a juco recruit who lettered for Texas in 1942, was a First Lieutenant in Air Force on June 27, 1944, when killed after pilot's plane was hit by flak in the flight deck over France during a bombing run, went into a steep dive, crashed and exploded.

  • Reedy Sears, Austin Peay State's top scorer in 1941-42, was on his 26th mission with Army Air Corps on October 17, 1944, when he died. After his aircraft was shot down over Cologne, Germany, he was killed by ground fire while either parachuting from disabled plane or trying to evade capture.

  • Joseph "Ed" Shytle, who played in North Carolina's first-ever NCAA playoff game in 1941, was a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was wounded at the Battle of Saipan and evacuated to the field hospital, where he died on July 8, 1944.

  • Wilmeth Sidat-Singh, Syracuse's first African-American athlete in the late 1930s, became a fighter pilot in unit known as the Tuskegee Airmen. On May 9, 1943, Sidat-Singh was on a training run over Lake Huron when he radioed his engine was on fire. He ejected from the plane but, upon striking the water, Sidat-Singh's parachute pulled him down and caused drowning.

  • Lieutenant General George Simler, who scored 29 points in 14 games as a Maryland freshman in 1940-41, was killed in a T-38 jet crash on takeoff at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas on September 9, 1972, shortly before he was to have been promoted to full general and assigned to head the Military Airlift Command at Scott AFB in Southern Illinois.

  • Eber Simpson, who played for Army in 1941-42 and 1942-43, was the son of an Army Colonel who followed in his father's footsteps, serving in the Air Corps flying 102 missions and 193 sorties in the European Theater. Still in the service in mid-September 1946, he was returning home to Eau Claire, Wis., when his flight was grounded due to bad weather. Following a delay, the plane was cleared to depart but crashed shortly after takeoff, killing Captain Simpson and the four other men on board.

  • Carleton MN captain F. Wayne Sparks, a "Little All-American" forward in 1936-37, died in a bomber crash during WWII.

  • Captain James Standish, who was on Connecticut's roster in 1932-33, died in spring of 1943 after Army Camp Operation in Oklahoma.

  • Roger Stearns, a Maine letterman in 1940-41, was Second Lieutenant killed in action in Northern Italy on April 22, 1945.

  • Len Supulski, a standout end who also played basketball for Dickinson PA, died in the crash of a B-17 bomber during a routine Army Air Corps training flight near Kearney, Neb., in late August 1943.

  • Charles Taggart, who played in 39 games for Syracuse in the early 1930s, was in the Navy on board the USS Frederick C. Davis on April 24, 1945, when the destroyer escort was torpedoed by a German U-boat.

  • Sgt. Brooks Taylor, a star hooper for Pacific (Ore.) from its class of '43, fell to a Japanese sniper in a fierce battle at Sanananda in the New Guinea jungle.

  • Burton "Stretch" Thomson, a 6-6 letterman for Iowa State in 1936 and 1937, was an Army Captain in early 1942 when the Japanese captured Corregidor in the Philippines. In mid-May, he was bound after traitorous sergeant in his unit betrayed him to the enemy, taken to a remote area and executed. His remains were recovered in 1946.

  • Herb Tompkins, a three-year letterman for San Diego State and member of 1941 NAIB national championship team, was a Navy Corps officer who died when jet aircraft exploded and crashed near Kerr, Tex., on October 25, 1953.

  • Bill Torphy, a member of Indiana's "Hurryin' Hoosiers" 1940 NCAA Tournament titlist coached by Branch McCracken, was killed in action in the hedgerows of Normandy, France, in summer of 1944 during more than two months worth of battles ensuing after D-Day invasion. Torphy, a forgotten member of national kingpin because he didn't receive a spot on 12-man traveling team during the national playoffs, is the subject of a documentary Not Pictured.

  • Ed Tuttle, a forward for Lenior-Rhyne NC, was an Air Cadet in the spring of 1942 when his plane collided head-on with another during training in Florida.

  • Francis Wai, a juco transfer who played multiple sports including basketball for UCLA in the late 1930s, became the first American of Chinese descent to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the United States' highest military honor. On October 20, 1944, the Army captain commanded a group of trapped soldiers at Red Beach in Leyte, Philippine Islands. Repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire so troops could advance, Wai lost his life as the unit captured the last Japanese pillbox.

  • Jimmy Walker was an All-SEC Tournament selection in 1934 and 1935 as an Alabama forward. While on duty as first lieutenant with the Navy, he was seriously wounded in an accident and died on December 22, 1943, in Brazil.

  • William Ward, a Maine letterman in 1938-39, was taken prisoner with the fall of Bataan and died at Cabanatuan Prison Camp, Luzon, on July 20, 1942.

  • Four-time All-MCAU forward Eugene "Peaches" Westover, class of '38 for Drury MO, was killed December 12, 1944, at the Battle of the Bulge while private first class served in Armored Division.

  • Claude Whitney, an Indiana letterman in 1910 and 1911, was killed during World War I.

  • W.C. Williams, a Clemson letterman in 1940, was an Army Air Corps Major who died while piloting personnel on a ferrying mission in a plane accident in Alaska's Aleutian Islands on August 29, 1944.

  • Charles Wilson Jr., a Maine letterman from 1937-38 through 1939-40, was Commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Army Air Forces. Flying instructor was killed at Londonderry, N.H., on September 30, 1943.

  • John Winzler, an All-Yankee Conference first-team selection for Connecticut in 1941-42, was a first lieutenant with the Marine Corps when wounded in the Battle of Iwo Jima. Doctors reportedly did not want him to return to battle, but he insisted on returning to Fifth Division before dying in action on March 3, 1945.

  • Billy Wohn, a guard for Rice in 1952-53, died in a plane accident in August 1953 while on active duty in the Naval ROTC.

  • Henry Woodward, a Clemson letterman from 1933 through 1935, was an Army Major killed in non-battle jeep accident on the Pennsylvania turnpike during maneuvers late in 1943.

  • Gene Wright played for Georgia Tech in 1943-44 before he was called into the Navy between the regular season and SEC Tournament. He died months later on Utah Beach in the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944.

  • Oliver "Ott" Young, top scorer for Arkansas' freshman squad in 1941 before withdrawing from school in wake of Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the next season when Razorbacks were SWC co-champions, died on February 3, 1945 on Luzon Island in the Philippines. Army Sergeant, a heavily-decorated combat veteran (two silver stars/bronze star/purple heart), was killed by machine-gun fire during an effort to secure a vital roadway.

  • Gene "Little Zipper" Ziesel, who also played football for Creighton, was an Army First Lieutenant co-pilot on a bomber shot down from behind by a German plane at high altitude on January 11, 1943, over Italy. The B-24 became engulfed in flames and exploded before hitting the ground. Previously, he was interned in neutral Turkey after his plane was grounded there before escaping.

Numerous standout players had their college playing careers sidetracked by WWII. Following is a list of All-Americans who had their college days interrupted in the mid-1940s while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces:

Air Force - Charles Black (Kansas) and Jack Parkinson (Kentucky).

Army - Don Barksdale (UCLA), Lew Beck (Oregon State), A.L. Bennett (Oklahoma A&M), Gale Bishop (Washington State), Vince Boryla (Notre Dame/Denver), Harry Boykoff (St. John's), Bob Brannum (Kentucky), Arnie Ferrin (Utah), Alex Groza (Kentucky), Ralph Hamilton (Indiana), Walt Kirk (Illinois), Allie Paine (Oklahoma), Don Rehfeldt (Wisconsin), Jack Smiley (Illinois), Odie Spears (Western Kentucky) and Gerry Tucker (Oklahoma).

Marine Corps - Aud Brindley (Dartmouth), John Hargis (Texas), Mickey Marty (Loras), Andy Phillip (Illinois), Gene Rock (southern California) and Kenny Sailors (Wyoming).

Navy - Bobby Cook (Wisconsin), Howie Dallmar (Stanford/Penn), Dick Dickey (North Carolina State), Bob Faught (Notre Dame), Harold Gensichen (Western Michigan), Wyndol Gray (Bowling Green State), Hal Haskins (Hamline), Leo Klier (Notre Dame), Dick McGuire (St. John's) and John Oldham (Western Kentucky).

In an incredible achievement, Phillip and Tucker returned to first-team All-American status in 1946-47 after missing three seasons while serving in the military. Black and Sailors also returned to All-American acclaim after missing two seasons. Meanwhile, Whitey Skoog served in the U.S. Navy before becoming a three-time All-American with Minnesota in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Gus Broberg, an aviator with the Marines after being named an NCAA consensus first-team All-American for Dartmouth in 1940 and 1941, lost his right arm in a plane crash. He went on to study law and become a respected judge in Florida. Eventual Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas Maurice Britt was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor after suffering numerous wounds, including one causing his right arm to be amputated. In an intense fire fight during WWII, Britt personally killed five and wounded an unknown number of Germans, wiped out one enemy machine gun crew, fired five clips of carbine and an undetermined amount of M1 rifle ammunition plus threw 32 fragmentation grenades.

Fallen heroes also emerged post-WWII. Don Holleder, who averaged 9.3 ppg as a junior and 6.8 ppg as a senior for Army in the mid-1950s, was a major during the Vietnam War in October, 1967, when he was killed by a sniper's bullet in an ambush 40 miles from Saigon as he hurled himself into enemy fire attempting to rescue wounded comrades. Three months earlier, Don Steinbrunner, who averaged 3.9 ppg for Washington State in 1951-52 before playing with the NFL's Cleveland Browns, was an Air Force navigator shot down and killed over Vietnam.

Proud Americans honor and remember after they went from the playing field to battlefield! For instance, former Dayton standout Bucky Buckhorn had older brothers killed in WWII and the Korean War. That's why right-thinking Americans are disgusted when a Demonrat-controlled Senate several years ago had time for signing a letter encouraging the NFL to have the Washington Redskins change their "bigoted" nickname but wasn't "big" enough or sufficiently honorable to prevent stalling of a three-page veterans health bill. Perpetually-perplexing petty political parasites, transitioning from Tear Down This Wall to Tear Down This Stall, may forget their "sacred obligation" similar to previous POTUS' lame emphasis on climate change rather than military salutes at a Coast Guard ceremony. However, the remainder of us will be "Rolling Thunder" and not forget genuine heroes while tolerating kneeling knuckleheads/social scholars in the NFL, petty politicians (#SickWillie, #ShrillaryRotten, Schmucky Schumer, Speaker #NannyPathetic, #ShiftySackofSchiff, fake squaw Liz-lies-a-lotta War(whoop)ren, #AlBore, #DuhBlasio, Governor Half-Whitmer, avowed Odd Squad socialist Sandy "AOC" Eeyore, Know-Nothing "Biggest Loser" Urkel Nadler, et al), lame-stream #MessMedia misfits such as textbook "Meathead" Rob Reiner and humiliated heavyset Hollyweird heavyweight Harvey Swinestein plus putrid press like "hacked" Joy-less Reid and Behar more invested in denying #TheDonald any success than inching closer to world peace. If haggard Michael Moore is going to put his fine body on the line and God is on side of know-nothing nags #MadMaxine and wacky "Get Out of My Butt" Whoopi, then this view is we'd be in deep spit if not for supreme sacrifices made by authentic heroes honored during Memorial Day celebration. In the meantime, Plagiarist Biledumb's "not very good people" will have to decide whether to be castigated by self-righteous leftists for intentionally killing people by failing to don a mask and practice "socialism" distancing or be labeled a racist for not supporting walking-in-close-quarters protesters, donning a BLM T-shirt and defunding law enforcement.