BRIAN CURTIS, author of FIELDS OF BATTLE: PEARL HARBOR, THE ROSE BOWL, AND THE BOYS WHO WENT TO WAR, captures the true story of the one-and-only Rose Bowl Game played outside of Pasadena, California. The bombing of Pearl Harbor had ripple effects, including in the world of football. But this story goes beyond football. Curtis follows dozens of the players into more fields of battle. We see the WWII theaters turn young athletes into men as they fight with extraordinary valor. Following the war, they fight to live ordinary lives.
00:15 Honoring Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day in America
00:20 Intro to Brian Curtis, author of Fields of Battle: Pearl Harbor, The Rose Bowl, and the Boys Who Went to War
01:25 Book endorsed by the late Senator John McCain
01:45 Curtis discovers this little-known story through “Did You Know?” fact
02:45 Book begins as Sports Illustrated article; morphs into military war story; becomes a human-interest story
04:00 Curtis’s deep dive on WWII uncovers veterans' struggles in dealing with the harshness of war
06:00 What made these men great?
06:30 Some football players go to basic training within hours after finishing a game
07:30 Ordinary guys from all backgrounds end up in pivotal battles
08:00 Extraordinariness found in how they live ordinary lives after the war
08:30 William Few, President of Duke University, predicts they’ll develop true character in storms
09:15 Winds of WWII blowing before Pearl Harbor is attacked
10:00 America ramping up for what most believed would be eventual involvement in WWII
11:30 Pearl Harbor bombing, just weeks before the 1942 Rose Bowl, creates chaos
12:30 Governor cancels the Rose Bowl game in deference to military authorities
13:30 Transferring Rose Bowl game and Rose Parade is a logistical nightmare
13:45 Should a game be played at all when war is raging that boys will soon enter?
14:20 Wallace Wade, Duke Head Coach, lobbies to move the Rose Bowl game to North Carolina
15:00 Should the Japanese scare them away from traditional game and festivities?
15:20 Similarities to September 11
16:00 Setting a precedent for the American spirit to supersede the threats of war
16:15 Duke Coach Wallace Wade: discipline and excellence paramount
17:45 Shocks the world when he leaves the University of Alabama to go to Duke University
18:45 Wade ends up sacrificing to serve his country
19:05 Oregon State Coach Lon Stinar, a “player’s coach”: laidback style, witty
20:55 Tracks approximately 80 players who participate in 1942 Rose Bowl game
21:25 Curtis asks three key questions to pare down the characters in the book
22:10 Charles Hanes, Jr., a key character, both player and military hero
22:35 Curtis follows the men from football fields to battlefields and to life after the war
24:25 Jack Yoshihara, Japanese American on OSC team who didn’t get to play
24:35 Yoshihara a symbol of racist America (Japanese internment camps)
26:00 Federal agents disallow Yoshihara’s participation with OSC team
27:45 Janet, from South Pasadena, has strong connections to Rose Parade and Rose Bowl
28:25 West Coast team once allowed to choose its opponent
29:45 Selling tickets almost paramount to choosing the competition
30:15 How has the game of football changed since 1942?
32:00 How has the game has remained the same?
33:20 Most players-turned-troops had never seen death
33:45 OSC players have first exposure before being shipped off to battle
35:45 Frank Parker and Charles Hanes are opposites
36:50 Parker and Hanes meet in Italy; discover a mutual connection to 1942 Rose Bowl game
37:35 Parker rescues Charles Hanes but Parker tells no one of his heroics
38:45 Reunite 50 years later in Corvallis, Oregon; Hanes attends to thank Parker
39:30 After the war, Parker and Hanes’ lives take very opposite directions
40:30 War affects people differently
41:15 Jack Yoshihara’s contribution is a life well lived
45:15 Curtis comes to see the football metaphor for war as insulting
47:00 Recommendation: Little Free Library
BUY Fields of Battle: Pearl Harbor, the Rose Bowl, and the Boys Who Went to War
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