College Footballers Called to War

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Episode #695 of Hometown Heroes, airing August 21-23, 2021, prepares for the launch of the 2021 college football season with the memories of three men whose college football careers were interrupted by military service in World War II.

“Turk” Eliades went from the University of Nevada backfield to the cockpit of a P-51.

First you’ll hear the experiences of Jordan “Turk” Eliades, a native of McGill, NV who played in the offensive and defensive backfields for the University of Nevada Wolfpack with Hall of Famer Marion Motley. Eliades would go on the fly P-51 Mustangs in Europe, and spend more than five months as a prisoner of war, eventually liberated from Stalag Luft I in Barth, Germany. Click here to access the complete original interview with Turk Eliades on episode #435 of Hometown Heroes from 2016.

Seth Irving in pads for the Yellowjackets of Black Hills State in 1941.

Seth Irving competed in college football’s fourth most played rivalry, the Black Hills Brawl, which pits the Hardrockers of South Dakota School of Mines & Technology against the Yellowjackets of Black Hills State University. Irving, who grew up on the Oglala Lakota Reservation in Pine Ridge, SD, left college to join the Navy after finishing the 1941 season with the Yellowjackets. He served aboard the destroyer USS Newcomb (DD-586), and survived a devastating kamikaze attack off of Okinawa on April 6, 1945. Irving was blown into the water, severely burned, and later learned he was the only member of his 10-man gun crew to survive the attack. Click here to access the complete original interview with Seth Irving from episode #363 of Hometown Heroes in 2015.

Dartmouth tailback Francis O’Brien carrying the ball with a left hand reduced to four fingers by an injury suffered while serving in the 4th Marine Division.

In the case of Francis O’Brien, his college football exploits with the Big Green of Dartmouth came after he was wounded while serving in the Pacific with the 4th Marine Division. A native of Philadelphia, PA, O’Brien was on a swimming scholarship to St. Joseph’s College when Imperial Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. He enlisted in the Marine Corps soon after. Wounded on the island of Namur, and again after returning to combat on Saipan, O’Brien lost the pinky finger on his left hand as a result of his battle injuries. The gridiron memories you’ll hear him share involve a memorable collision with Hall of Famer Chuck Bednarik, himself a World War II veteran who had survived 30 missions as a B-24 waist gunner over Europe. Click here to access the complete original interview with Francis O’Brien on episode #371 from 2015.