Vinny
11-10-2011, 08:31 AM
What an incredible story.
Jack Lummus found glory on the gridiron and death on the battlefield. He's one of two NFL players to win the Congressional Medal of Honor and the only one to win it posthumously.*
The circumstances of his death, the brazen heroism, described below, will make you shudder.
Andrew Jackson Lummus Jr. was a native of Ennis, Texas and a baseball and football star at Baylor University. He signed with the N.Y. Football Giants in 1941.
His rookie campaign was one of great promise. Lummus was a two-way end as the Giants won the Eastern Division title before losing to Chicago, 37-9, in the NFL championship game, just two weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor. A month later, in January 1942, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps.
He would never return to pro football....
...The circumstances of Lummus's death are described graphically in the 1965 book "Iwo Jima" by Richard F. Newcomb.
After twice being knocked over by grenade blasts, the second of which resulted in shoulder wounds, Lummus continued to attack entrenched positions when "suddenly he was at the center of a powerful explosion, obscured by flying rock and dirt. As it cleared, his men saw him rising as if in a hole. A land mine had blown off both his legs that had carried him to football honors at Baylor.
"They watched in horror as he stood on the bloody stumps, calling them on. Several men, crying now, ran to him and, for a moment, talked of shooting him to stop the agony.
"But he was still shouting for them to move out, move out, and the platoon scrambled forward. Their tears turned to rage, they swept an incredible 300 yards over the impossible ground and at nightfall were on the ridge, overlooking the sea.
"There was no question that the dirty, tired men, cursing and crying and fighting, had done it for Jack Lummus." http://www.coldhardfootballfacts.com/Articles/11_825_Jack_Lummus:_the_NFL's_hero_of_Iwo_Jima.htm l
Jack Lummus found glory on the gridiron and death on the battlefield. He's one of two NFL players to win the Congressional Medal of Honor and the only one to win it posthumously.*
The circumstances of his death, the brazen heroism, described below, will make you shudder.
Andrew Jackson Lummus Jr. was a native of Ennis, Texas and a baseball and football star at Baylor University. He signed with the N.Y. Football Giants in 1941.
His rookie campaign was one of great promise. Lummus was a two-way end as the Giants won the Eastern Division title before losing to Chicago, 37-9, in the NFL championship game, just two weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor. A month later, in January 1942, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps.
He would never return to pro football....
...The circumstances of Lummus's death are described graphically in the 1965 book "Iwo Jima" by Richard F. Newcomb.
After twice being knocked over by grenade blasts, the second of which resulted in shoulder wounds, Lummus continued to attack entrenched positions when "suddenly he was at the center of a powerful explosion, obscured by flying rock and dirt. As it cleared, his men saw him rising as if in a hole. A land mine had blown off both his legs that had carried him to football honors at Baylor.
"They watched in horror as he stood on the bloody stumps, calling them on. Several men, crying now, ran to him and, for a moment, talked of shooting him to stop the agony.
"But he was still shouting for them to move out, move out, and the platoon scrambled forward. Their tears turned to rage, they swept an incredible 300 yards over the impossible ground and at nightfall were on the ridge, overlooking the sea.
"There was no question that the dirty, tired men, cursing and crying and fighting, had done it for Jack Lummus." http://www.coldhardfootballfacts.com/Articles/11_825_Jack_Lummus:_the_NFL's_hero_of_Iwo_Jima.htm l