world war i

Quick Event Note: Ace will be hosting a Twitch livestream of that insane Oklahoma State game tonight at 7

Seth and Dr. Sap return for a second season of The Teams, brought to you by…

The Sponsor: Odds are you're going to be spending a lot of time at home in your underwear—what if you could be paying less for that home? Use this time there to refinance: talk to Matt Demorest at HomeSure Lending now and see if you can't lock in a low rate while it lasts. In addition to being more ethical, knowledgeable, hands-on, intelligent, and fun to work with, Matt also never royally screwed over John Beilein in a failed bid to upset Michigan's basketball program.

Previously: 1879, 1901, 1925, 1932, 1947, 1950, 1964, 1976, 1980, 1988, 1999

Special Guest this Week: John U. Bacon, author of OVERTIME, ENDZONE, THREE & OUT, BO'S LASTING LESSONS, and other books, like that WWI one about the greatest disaster you've never heard of. He also teaches a class at Michigan on the history of sports and culture.

1. WAR AND DISEASE: THE WORLD IN 1918

(starts at 0:50)

Germans start using U-Boats. Russia drops out, U.S. enters the war in April 1917. But the U.S. takes a year to get there. "Spanish” Flu: Killed 50 to 100 million globally. U.S. loses 110,000 in the war, 40% of whom die of the flu, and most of these before they even went abroad. Especially hit children (today they think people who’d gotten other flus had some immunity built up). Most who died did so from pneumonia. Spread from Camp Devens near Boston. U.S. didn’t want to incite panic so they kept it out of headlines and purposefully didn’t respond quickly.

Epidemic hit peak fear on October 11 and ⅔ games were called off. Athletic:

By the start of November, just 87 college games had been played nationwide. In 1916 and 1917, those figures had been 291 games and 253 games, respectively. The following season, 287 games would be played across the country before November.

[Hit THE JUMP for the player and rest of the writeup]