Today's Tidbit... Guantanamo's 1915 Fleet Championship
Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose.
Regular readers know I periodically write about football played by military teams. I especially like stories of games played by shipboard teams since they could play games whenever they were in port, and they did so regardless of the month of the year. Games among the battleship crews were notable since they had more sailors and Marines than many colleges had students.
Earlier stories covered a game played in France when the Great White Fleet toured the world in 1909 and games played at London's Ice Palace in 1910. So, when I came across the RPPC below, I figured there was a fair chance that it showed the crowd at the fleet championship football game between the U.S.S. Louisiana and the U.S.S. Arkansas at Guantanamo, Cuba, in March 1915.
At the time, both battleships and other naval vessels were in the Caribbean for exercises to show the flag in response to unrest in Mexico and to prepare for any eventuality resulting from the war in Europe.
When I received the RPPC and started digging into the game’s story, I quickly learned that the U.S.S. Connecticut, a navy football power that played at the Ice Palace, had returned to New York to repair a broken shaft, so their team was unavailable for whatever football tournament was being played in Cuba.
Unfortunately, the more I looked, the less I found. I could find no mention of a football tournament championship game being played at Guantanamo. Instead, I came across the website cubanbeisbol.com, which displayed another RPPC from the same event, clearly showing the battleship teams had played baseball that day.
Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose. Although I had purchased an interesting image, it did not show a football game, so it will soon be for sale on eBay.
Football Archaeology is reader-supported. Click here to buy one of my books or otherwise support the site.