Thesis+Based+Research+Assignment

__**//Rationale for Research//**__

I chose to research World War II and its effect on professional because it has been something that has always fascinated me. In addition, to me, it has been viewed as a lost era of the sport due to the war itself overshadowing everything else. My hopes are to educate people about this piece of history lost in time. I will be focusing on how specific teams had to deal with the hardships presented to them while providing background knowledge to how the league was affected as a whole
 * Why did you choose to go down this research path?**

My driving question was…“** How much impact did the United States’ involvement during World War II affect the NFL and what are the ramifications concerning military involvement today?” **
 * What driving question guided your research?**

In order to answer my driving question, I had to find out whether or not professional football really was affected by World War II. Once I found out that it was indeed true, I shifted my focus to how the league was affected as a whole. Narrowing that down even further, I found out how specific teams coped with their individual hardships.
 * What more specific questions had to be answered before finally answering this driving question?**

__//**Research**//__

.**
 * A. "Football and America: World War II." //Pro Football Hall of Fame//. Web. 09 Oct. 2009.

1. "World War II claimed the lives of 21 NFL men – 19 active or former players, an ex-head coach and a team executive" ( FOOTBALL AND AMERICA: World War II) 2. " Several retired players, including three future Hall of Famers, answered their team’s S.O.S." ( FOOTBALL AND AMERICA: World War II) 3. "...the player shortage forced the Cleveland Rams to suspend play for the 1943 season, while the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles agreed to merge" ( FOOTBALL AND AMERICA: World War II) 4. "The next year both Pittsburgh and Chicago operated separately, but the Boston Yanks and the Brooklyn franchise – renamed the Tigers – were forced to merge and played the 1944 season as the “Yanks,” with no city designation " ( FOOTBALL AND AMERICA: World War II)

.**
 * B. Algeo, Matthew. "Did the Steagles Save the NFL?" Interview by Scott Jagow. //Marketplace//. Web. 9 Oct. 2009.

1. "But of course the team had lost so many players — all the teams had lost so many players. The lions share were players who had some sort of physical defect that prevented them from serving in the military" (Algeo). 2. "...the reason they picked the Steelers and the Eagles, quite frankly, is because they were two really bad teams and the other owners didn't mind combing them. And the Eagles and the Steelers also had sort of a common history. They came into the league at the same time. The owners knew each other pretty well. So it made sense to combine the Steelers and the Eagles" (Algeo). 3. "The starting center was deaf in one ear. The starting end was blind in one eye. The starting halfback had bleeding ulcers. The starting quarterback actually had a farm in California, so he had an agricultural exemption to the war. But that gives you an example of the kind of players that were left" (Algeo) 4. "...in 1943, the year of the Steagles, attendance rebounded. In fact it was the best year attendance-wise that the NFL had had to that point. And really what happened was, people were so starved for entertainment at the time" (Algeo). 5. There was a point in the summer of 1943 where the National Football League did consider ceasing operations. And when you look at the period right after the war in professional football history a new league came in...So, by combining the Steelers and the Eagles, the NFL ensured its survival" (Algeo).


 * C. Cartwright, Patrick. "Card-Pitts | Steelers Today - A Pittsburgh Steelers fan blog." //Steelers Today - A Pittsburgh Steelers fan blog.// 22 Jan. 2009. Web. 09 Oct. 2009. .**

1. "In 1944, a new franchise, the Boston Yanks, joined the NFL. Also rejoining the league was the Cleveland Rams, which had suspended operations in 1943 due to lack of players and resources. This left 11 teams in the league, which caused problems in scheduling" (Cartwright). 2. NFL Commissioner Elmer Layden requested that the Steelers and Eagles merge again for another season. However, Art Rooney would only do so if it was agreed that half of the team’s games would be played in Pittsburgh, which was not acceptable to the Philadelphia Ownership. The deal fell through" (Cartwright). 3. "The Steelers toyed with the idea of merging with the Cleveland Rams, Boston Yanks, and Brooklyn Tigers, but none of them panned out for various reasons" (Cartwright). 4. "[Car-Pitt] did not make a single field goal all season, although they only attempted two of them" (Cartwright). 5. "The team threw 8 touchdowns to 41 interceptions in 10 games played" (Cartwright). 6. "The experiment failed, and each team went their separate way. By the start of the next season, the war was all but over, and each city fielded their own independent team" (Cartwright).


 * D. "The Steagles: The lost franchise that saved the NFL - RootZoo Sports Articles." //RootZoo : Sports Talk, Games, Forums, Fantasy News, and more//. Web. 13 Oct. 2009. .**

1. " The military draft caused 600 of the current NFL players to be drafted to the military in some capacity" (RootZoo) 2. " President Franklin D. Roosevelt realized the importance of keeping American’s spirits up while the war was going on overseas. He implored professional sports leagues to continue their operations and the NFL took desperate measures to continue playing games in 1943" (Rootzoo). 3. "The players who played on the Steagles were all men who were deferred from the draft for various reasons such as old age, family members, and health conditions or otherwise physically unfit for war" (Rootzoo) 4. "Many of the players kept full-time jobs and looked at this team as an extra-curricular activity and the fact that they were barred from the playoffs offered little motivation for the players " (Rootzoo). 5. " In 1944, the Army did not need to draft any more young men to serve, so the NFL had enough players to field 11 teams. However, they wanted the Steagles to exist again so that there could be an even ten teams. Rooney was unhappy though, and choose to band with the Chicago Cardinals, effectively ending the one year reign of the Steagles" (Rootzoo). 6. "[The Steagles] helped keep the NFL relevant in times of war and lifted the spirits of many Americans. Would the NFL have been able to exist in 1944 if not for the Steagles? If it had to fold, would it have ever come back strong? Luckily, this scenario did not happen and the NFL is alive and well today, partly due to the existence of the Steagles" (Rootzoo). 7. "As for the state of football in PA, this merger may have allowed both teams to continue to exist. If one of the teams had not been able to play that season, many of the assets of the team would likely have been sold (such as the uniform, stadium, etc) and football may not exist in one of those cities" (Rootzoo). 8. "The merger of the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers in 1944 was not exactly a major success on the field, but it helped save the state of football in both the state of PA and America as a whole. Without this merger happening, the NFL may not be the same league as we know it today" (Rootzoo).

.**
 * E. "Golden Moments in Sports History: The Steagles." //Golden Moments in Sports History//. Web. 13 Oct. 2009.

1. "The league had limped through the 1942 season with about 1/3 of its players in the service. Attendance had plummeted 20%. " 2. "The Cleveland Rams received permission to drop out of the league for the 1943 season. The good news from this move was that the Rams' 14 players could be [dispersed] among the nine remaining clubs. The bad news was that an odd number of teams created a scheduling problem." 3. "The 1943 draft was mostly a waste of time as almost all the college draftees were already military draftees. Some players were coaxed out of retirement, led by the legendary Bronko Nagurski, who joined to the Bears at age 35 after 5 idle years. " 4. "15 of the 24 players on the team had been rejected by the military because of physical problems ranging from flat feet to ulcers. Tony Bova was blind in one eye; Ray Graves (later coach of Florida) was deaf in one ear. The remaining players received deferments because of family obligations." 5. "The Steagles were the only pro sports team to require its players to work in defense-related industries. Almost all lived in Philadelphia, where they worked regular jobs during the day and practiced at night. "

.**
 * F. "History: 1942: NFL’s war relief games and war bond efforts." //Pro Football Hall of Fame//. Web. 13 Oct. 2009.

1. "One such endeavor was the selling of War Bonds, an activity that generated $4,000,000 worth of sales for the effort in 1942 alone." 2. "Treasury citations were given to three Green Bay Packers, future Hall of Fame coach Curly Lambeau, quarterback Cecil Isbell and future Hall of Fame end Don Hutson, who were credited with selling $2,100,000 worth in a single night during a rally held in Milwaukee." 3. "The NFL also donated the revenues from 15 exhibition games to service charities. The games produced a total purse of $680,384.07. It was reported to be the largest amount raised by a single athletic organization." 4. "Included in the exhibition games were the Army Emergency Reli ef Series games between NFL teams and military all-star aggregations."

__//**Thesis**//__

My initial thesis essentially stated that the NFL had been affected by World War II in more ways than one. While conducting my research, however, I found it extremely difficult to find any information whatsoever regarding said thesis. Upon approval from Mr. Martin, I decided to go in a different direction and approach this as a case study, with the bulk of it focusing on the Philadelphia Eagles - Pittsburgh Steelers merger in 1943.

__//**Findings**//__

Support: F1, F2, F3
 * Finding #1: The NFL was able to raise money during World War II**

Support: A2, B3, D3, E3, E4
 * Finding #2: Most players were draft rejects and those who had been coaxed out of retirement**

Support: B4, B5, D6, D7, D8, E1
 * Finding #3: The merger of the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers saved the game of professional football from folding altogether**

Support: D4, E5
 * Finding #4: Players had to have a full-time job**

__//**Process Reflection**//__

From what I have found so far, I feel as though I have a better understanding of my topic, but I still feel as though there is more out there that needs to be found to get my project over the hump. Because the NFL during World War II has often been referred to as the "Lost Era" of football, it wasn't quite documented as in-depth as I thought it might be. That being said, finding a variety of sources with different information from one another has been quite complicated.

As I mentioned before, finding the information necessary to prove my thesis was no easy task. I often found myself coming upon sources that were either opinionated or simply a paragraph stating a vague concept. To get past this, I had to carefully read through each source to determine whether or not the information provided was opinionated or factual and whether or not it was going to help me in the long run.

I feel as though I am missing something in the research process. It might not be a terrible idea to speak with Dr. Valenza, being the research guru herself. While researching, I sometimes kept stumbling upon the same information over and over again. Perhaps this is due in part to the vagueness of the search I was conducting. In addition, I will definitely need to start consulting more print sources. I wouldn't be surprised to find that there is more information available there than what I have found online so far.

Having a pretty decent general knowledge of my topic, there wasn't too much that was shocking to me. However, I did find out that professional football players were also drafted for the Korean War and Vietnam War. The one thing that really popped out at me that I had absolutely no prior knowledge of was the fact that the NFL raised money for war bonds. As a matter of fact, the source stated that it was the most money a single athletic organization had ever raised.

__//**Connections to the Overall Project**//__

From what I have found, I feel as though I have a better understanding of my topic, but I still feel as though there is more out there that needs to be found to get my project over the hump. Being that this is a case study, I know that there is still much more information that needs to be found in order to prove my point. For the most part, the information that I have found so far provides the groundwork, but there are certain analytical pieces that I'd like to find in order to give my project that "X-Factor," that something or some things that really make my project stand out.