Best World War II Military service football team nicknames.

Hello and Happy Memorial Day from the Sickos Committee!

We know during the years of World War II the country had a very quick expansion of its system of military bases. The number of young men skyrocketed through enlistment and conscription due to the need for servicemen in World War II. Many of these men included former collegiate and professional stars of the football gridiron. It is reported that 19 active or former players of the National Football League would ultimately die in the American World War II effort, in addition to an uncounted number of former collegiate athletes.

Beginning in the fall of 1942, the War Department began to promote organized football exhibitions involving select teams from its military bases that played full schedules against the depleted squads of regional universities. Helping to keep college football going throughout the war effort. One football writer sold this to the military explaining that football is a “body-toughener.” They went on to write “Football lights the fighting spark in fighting men. It develops aggressiveness, teamwork, stamina, physical and mental coordination under active stress, and therefore it holds a foremost place in our national wartime training program.” Sounds good enough for me and good enough for the Military.

We figured since it was Memorial Day we would celebrate these teams by remembering. It was tough to find logos or programs for most of these teams, which is understandable as there were bigger priorities. Also, if you look at the AP Polls during 1942 - 1945, you’ll see many of these teams ranked in the AP Top 20. The Randolph Field Ramblers went to the Cotton Bowl in 1943 and finished ranked #3 in 1944. The 1943 Iowa Pre-Flight Seahawks finished ranked #2 with their only loss to National Champion Notre Dame. The 1943 Great Lakes Navy team beat that Notre Dame team and finished #6. There are so many more stories here but we want to do something fun for all of these teams. We want to rank their awesome nicknames.

The names of these teams typically consisted of what base they were located and picking a random or themed nickname. Some of them were standard military nicknames, absolutely wild military themed nicknames or other seemingly out there choices. I wanted to list my favorites of these and attempt to rank them by how much I like these nicknames. Basically, this is just the Commish’s opinion here. I’m sure there won’t be any debate as college football doesn’t ever break into debate over trivial things, especially in the off-season.

I’ll separate them by Military Branch first and then rank the nicknames by vibes only. (Base location in parenthesis.) We made some cool graphics here and also typed them below for some additional notes.

Army

1. Camp Gordon Johnston Helldivers (FL)

2. Fort Riley Centaurs (KS)

3. Camp Swift Dragons (TX)

4. Camp Detrick Army Chemists (MD)

5. Fort Sheridan Miracles (IL)

6. South Camp Hood Doughboys (TX)

7. Fort Benning Third Infantry Cockades (GA) (A Cockade is a rosette or knot of ribbons worn in a hat as a badge of office or party, so they named themselves after ribbons)

8. Camp Cooke Engineers (CA)

9. Fort Bliss Anti-Aircraft Gunners (TX)

10. Beaumont General Hospital Raiders (TX) (it sounds like they are raiding hospitals but alas it was just their location)

Air Force

1. Amarillo Army Air Field Sky Giants (TX)

2. Chatham Field Blockbusters (GA)

3. Great Bend Army Air Field Gee Bees (KS) (a Gee Bee is a type of plane but it’s very funny to me because I read this wrong at first and thought it was the Bee Gees)

4. Third Air Force Gremlins (FL) (Don’t feed them after midnight)

5. Richmond Army Air Base Thunderbyrds (VA)

6. Hondo Army Air Field Comets (TX)

7. Bergstrom Field Troop Carriers (TX)

8. Greensboro Tech-Hawks (NC)

9. South Plains Army Air Field Winged Commandos (TX)

10. Tuskegee Army Air Field Warhawks (AL) (I swear this has nothing to do with my ULM Warhawks getting them ranked here…)

NAVY

1. Georgia Pre-Flight Skycrackers (GA)

2. North Carolina Pre-Flight Cloudbusters (NC)

3. Albany Navy Beach Busters (CA) (updated to California since we had the wrong Albany, sorry for the mistake)

4. Saint Mary's Pre-Flight Air Devils (CA)

5. Fort Pierce Amphibs (FL)

6. Hutchinson Naval Air Station Gobs (KS)

7. Ottumwa Naval Air Station Skyers, also called the "Sea Flyers" (IA)

8. Miami Naval Training Center Navaltars (FL)

9. Norman Naval Air Station Zoomers (OK)

10. Iowa Pre-Flight Seahawks (IA, Going to write or podcast about this team more one day)

Coast Guard and Marines

1. Manhattan Beach Coast Guard Depth Bombers (CA)

2. Alameda Coast Guard Sea Lions (CA)

3. Kinston Marine Hellcats (NC)

4. El Toro Flying Marines (CA)

5. Curtis Bay Coast Guard Cutters (MD)

Feel free to debate me on the nickname rankings in the comments below, if you really have passionate opinions about them. You also can look at the Wikipedia page for List of World War II military service football teams and see if I missed any good ones.

Thank y’all and Happy Memorial Day!