Research Catalog

Title

The mosquito bowl : a game of life and death in World War II / Buzz Bissinger.

Author

Bissinger, Buzz, 1954-

Publication

• New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishing, [2022]
• ©2022

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xv, 461 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map; 24 cm

Summary

"When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, college football was at the height of its popularity. As the nation geared up for total war, one branch of the service dominated the aspirations of college football stars: the United States Marine Corps. Which is why, on Christmas Eve of 1944, when the 4th and 29th Marine regiments found themselves in the middle of the Pacific Ocean training for what would be the bloodiest battle of the war--the invasion of Okinawa--their ranks included one of the greatest pools of football talent ever assembled: Former All Americans, captains from Wisconsin and Brown and Notre Dame, and nearly twenty men who were either drafted or would ultimately play in the NFL. When the trash-talking between the 4th and 29th over who had the better football team reached a fever pitch, it was decided: The two regiments would play each other in a football game as close to the real thing as you could get in the dirt and coral of Guadalcanal. The bruising and bloody game that followed became known as "The Mosquito Bowl." Within a matter of months, 15 of the 65 players in "The Mosquito Bowl" would be killed at Okinawa, by far the largest number of American athletes ever to die in a single battle. The Mosquito Bowl is the story of these brave and beautiful young men, those who survived and those who did not. It is the story of the families and the landscape that shaped them. It is a story of a far more innocent time in both college athletics and the life of the country, and of the loss of that innocence. Writing with the style and rigor that won him a Pulitzer Prize and have made several of his books modern classics, Buzz Bissinger takes us from the playing fields of America's campuses where boys played at being Marines, to the final time they were allowed to still be boys on that field of dirt and coral, to the darkest and deadliest days that followed at Okinawa --

Subject

• United States. Marine Corps > Biography
• United States. Marine Corps
• 1944
• World War, 1939-1945 > Campaigns > Solomon Islands > Guadalcanal
• World War, 1939-1945 > Campaigns > Japan > Okinawa Island
• Football > United States > History
• Football players > United States > Biography
• Football
• Football players
• Military campaigns
• Japan > Okinawa Island
• Solomon Islands > Guadalcanal
• United States

Genre/Form

• Biographies.
• History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 417-455).

Contents

Prologue -- McLaughry -- Everybody's watching -- Schreiner -- Butkovich -- Land of the free -- The army way -- The letter -- Murphy -- Odette -- Football is war -- Separate and unequal -- Remember the McKean -- Sunday sheet -- Bauman -- Forget me not -- Committed to the deep -- The patrol -- Pen pal -- Not a damn thing -- Temptation -- Millimeter -- March of the crabs -- The Mosquito Bowl -- Bound for hell -- Buckner -- April fool -- Abandon ship -- The tortoise -- The little girl -- Return to sender -- A thousand ants -- At all costs -- Crazy for revenge -- Carry on -- Last stand -- Regret to inform -- Why? -- Three stars -- Counting the days -- Cessation of hostilities -- Silence -- Epilogue.

Call Number

JFE 22-4578

ISBN

• 9780062879929
• 0062879928

OCLC

1267753036

Author

Bissinger, Buzz, 1954- author.

Title

The mosquito bowl : a game of life and death in World War II / Buzz Bissinger.

Publisher

New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishing, [2022]

Copyright Date

©2022

Edition

First edition.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 417-455).

Chronological Term

1944

Research Call Number

JFE 22-4578