Great Lakes Naval, Northwestern, and the 1919 Transfer Port(al)

Before the NCAA's power grew in the 1950s, conferences rules governed player eligibility, including whether transfers and first-year students could participate in varsity athletics their first year on campus. To discourage the "proselytizing" or recruiting of transfers and freshmen, the Big Ten in 1895 became the first conference to require athletes to be on campus for six months to be eligible for varsity competition. Later, the rule changed to require one year of residence. However, as occurred in 2020-2021 due to COVID-19, some conferences and schools altered their rules during and after WWI to allow freshmen to play and to provide returning vets greater flexibility.

In 1919, colleges nationwide encouraged their student-veterans to return to school and sought others to enroll for the first time. Schools looking to enhance their athletic teams were particularly interested in servicemen involved in athletics. No military base had more athletes than the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, the largest training facility of the war.

In August, Great Lakes had 500+ sailors try out for the football team before whittling the group down to a sixty-man varsity roster split into varsity and reserve teams. Of those, fourteen saw action in the NFL post-war, five coached in the NFL, and three are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Another player, Charlie Bachman, entered the College Football Hall of Fame as a player and coach and is the primary reason for writing this story. Bachman, a heady lineman, enjoyed an All-America career at Notre Dame, overlapping Rockne's time as a player and assistant coach. He also competed in track and field, throwing and jumping for the Irish.