Just sharing a favorite story of a former NFL head coach who was likely too old (and famous) to participate in WWII as a soldier, but insisted on doing just that anyway...
As we remembered our heroes on Memorial Day yesterday, let us not forget the sacrifice of former Chicago Cardinal head coach Jack Chevigny.
Born in northwest Indiana in 1906, Chevigny was a stalwart in the Notre Dame backfield for coach Knute Rockne. In fact, Rockne called him "the best right halfback in Notre Dame history." He then spent three seasons as a coach for the Irish while completing his law degree at Notre Dame. In 1932, Chevigny succeeded the great Ernie Nevers as coach of the Cardinals. While the team finished 7-6-2 overall. the club was just 2-6-2 in the final NFL standings.
Chevigny then spent time as the head coach at both St. Edward's University and the University of Texas before becoming the Deputy Attorney General of Texas in 1937. When WWII erupted, Chevigny entered the service in 1943 and eventually became part of a public relations campaign for the military and also coached the football team at Camp LeJeune. However, Chevigny wanted to contribute more to the war-time cause and managed a transfer to the combat zone in the Pacific. At the age of 38, Chevigny could have easily accepted a lesser role and still contributed mightily to the war effort. Yet, on February 19, 1945, he was among the first wave of US troops that landed on Iwo Jima, and was among the thousands who were killed in action that day...
Perhaps Chevigny's biographer Jeff Walker said it best in his informative book, The Last Chalkline: "Ask a combat veteran to define the word hero, and that veteran will take you to a national cemetery. Ask a person who knew Jack Chevigny to define the word hero, and that person will tell you about Jack. In a time and place fading from our consciousness into the pages of history books, Jack Chevigny crossed that final line that separates the greatest of us from the least of us, the line that only the courageous may cross." That would be Jack Chevigny...
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