1944-45 Gremlins

Today’s service academies may have a football lineage back to the late 19th century, but it was games played during WWII that elevated football to a new level. While games were being played on bases all over the world, there was even a Spaghetti Bowl played by military units in Italy, the Army team was named the Associated Press National Champions in 1944 and 1945. Of course, it did help that young men were leaving traditional college powers for military service.

Tampa International Airport began in 1928 as Drew Field. During World War II, the Army Air Force took over and greatly expanded the now Drew Army Field. After the war, the facility was returned to the local government and renamed Tampa International Airport by 1952.

As part of its over-all physical training program, Drew Field had a football team as early as 1942, They played the likes of the University of Tampa and the Sarasota Davis Island Coast Guard. Late in 1944, it was announced the Third Air Force, and its football team, would relocated from Morris Field in Charlotte, NC, to Drew Field in Tampa.

The Third Air Force Gremlins were a good football team and many of the players had already served tours overseas. The team was coached by Quinn Decker, who was a former University of Tennessee star fullback and head coach at Center College. Decker would later become the head coach at The Citadel for seven seasons.

The most notable player was Charlie Trippi. An All-American quarterback/halfback at Georgia, Trippi was named the Most Valuable Player in the 1943 Rose Bowl, as Georgia capped a perfect season and the 1942 national championship with a 9-0 victory over UCLA. He played twice in the old Chicago All-Star Game, once earning MVP honors. Trippi would play for the Chicago Cardinals from 1947 to 1955 and is the only player in the Pro Football Hall of Fame with 1,000 yards of receiving, 1,000 yards passing, and 1,000 yards rushing.

Other players included All-American fullback Bob Kennedy of Washington State who was the holder of the Pacific coast scoring record and had played in Chicago All-Star game. There was center Cass Muslins, a 1943 All-American with Army, who had a 22-year Air Force career and a stint as the Athletic Director at the University of Pittsburgh (1968-72). Henry “Whitey” Piro (Syracuse) would play for the Philadelphia Eagles and Ted Cook (Alabama) was with Detroit and Green Bay . Others who made an impact included: Frank Granitz (Wisconsin), Frank Grupp (Manhattan College), Bill Hackett (Penn), Huel Hamm (Oklahoma), Lennie Sawicz (Notre Dame), Yabbo Yablonski (Fordham), Earl Brown (Tennessee), Joe Eddins (Auburn), Bob Ivory (Detroit), Price Scott (Texas Tech), John Kelleher (Columbia) and Johnny Karmazin (Wake Forest).

While based at Morris Field, the Third Air Force team was 6-2 before relocating to Tampa. The squad’s first game was a 31-0 victory over the Charleston Coast Guard in Charlotte and they won their first five games. Charlie Trippi was tossing touchdown passes, John Kelleher and Ted Cook were on the receiving end, Frank Granitz was running for scores and the Gremlins were rolling. The first loss was in San Antonio to the Randolph Field Fliers at Alamo Stadium. The last game in Charlotte saw Trippi run 33 yards for a score and throw for two others in a 34-12 victory over Georgia Pre-Flight. A loss at Great Lakes followed.

On November 19, 1944, the Gremlins played their first game in Tampa. 12,000 fans came out to Phillips Field, on the campus of the University of Tampa, to see the game against Maxwell Field. The Montgomery, AL, based Marauders were lead by former SMU and Chicago Cardinals star Johnny Clements. Charlie Trippi had a TD run to go with two scoring passes to Ted Cook. Bob Kennedy had a scoring run, a TD pass and the Gremlins cruised to a 41-7 victory. Two weeks later, before 11,000 shivering Phillips Field fans, the Gremlins lost to Fort Pierce. The Amphibians, on the strength of a 61-yard TD run by Minnesota All-American Bill Daley, won 7-6. The season finale was at Atlanta against former Tulsa All-American Glenn Dobbs and the Second Air Force team. Dobbs tossed a touchdown pass, Charlie Trippi threw for two, and the Gremlins won in a 14-7 upset of the Superbombers.

While the war was winding down, the Third Air Force team would play the entire 1945 season in Tampa. The opener was September 23rd, a 90-degree day with more than 12,000 fans at Phillips Field. Charlie Trippi threw two touchdown passes, and caught another, against the Personnel Distribution Command Comets. Bob Kennedy also lobbed a pair of scoring passes in a 27-9 victory over the Comets. A week later, the Miami Naval Air Training Center was in town. Bob Kennedy threw two TD passes, and had a score himself, as the Gremlins scored in every quarter of a 39-0 rout.

Next was a game at Columbia, SC, against the First Air Force team and former NFL star Bill Paschal. While with the New York Giants in 1943-44, Paschal was the first player to win consecutive rushing titles in the NFL. Charlie Trippi would be the star, with two TD passes and a scoring run, in a 19-0 victory over the Aces. The Gremlins would go to 4-0 with a 20-0 victory over the Marine Corps Air Station’s Flying Leathernecks at Cherry Point, NY.

Charlie Trippi would be discharged and not play for the Third Air Force team for the rest of the season. There was plenty of controversy in the local press that Georgia congressmen had used their influence get him released early to return to the University of Georgia football team. That may have been the case, as Georgia Senator Walter George was quoted as saying, “All the army did was play him in their own football games anyway.”

Over 9,000 came out for the game against the Fort Piece Navy. The Amphibs were lead by former Notre Dame quarterback, and future Heisman Trophy winner (1947), Johnny Lujack. Lujack tossed two TD passes and the Gremlins lost for the first time that season 26-12. The team bounced back with a victories over the Eastern Flying Command in Montgomery, AL and the Second Air Force in Denver. Bob Kennedy hooked up with Ted Cook twice in the 33-0 win over the Superbombers.

The Gremlins scored 21 points in the first quarter and coasted to a 42-0 victory over the Keesler Field Fliers at Phillips Field. Over 10,000 were in attendance when the Air Force Training Command came to town. Bob Kennedy hit Darrell Royal on a TD pass, however, the game with the Skymasters finished in a 7-7 tie. The team then defeated the Air Transport Command 7-6 in Nashville.

The Third Air Force Gremlins could clinch the Army Air Force Conference championship with a win over the Fourth Air Force at the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles. The Tampa team were heavy favorites, but a field goal by Joe Vetrano was the difference in a 10-7 defeat. The Gremlins finished with an 8-2-1 record.

With World War II now over, the Third Air Force would be deactivated and Drew Field returned to local government control. MacDill Field became, and remains to this day, the major air base in the area. Games played by military bases would continue into the 1950s and show up on traditional college schedules.

The world was at war and heroes represented our country with honor. The Great Generation is fading away, as are any memories of a group of Gremlins from Tampa with a far greater mission than excelling on the gridiron.

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