When NU holds its final 2010 preseason practice tomorrow at Ross Field at the Naval Station Great Lakes, it will signify a new era in the relationship between the base and NU football, a relationship that had close ties during the two world wars, but has been dormant since.  It is hoped that the 2010 scrimmage will begin a partnership, and that the servicemen and women stationed at Great Lakes will root for NU, not just as Chicago's team, but as Great Lakes's adopted team as well.

Great Lakes had itself once been a tremendous power in college football.  During the 1918 season, as military recruits poured in from college campuses across the midwest, Great Lakes became the most talented football team in the country.  Among the new players for Great Lakes was Paddy Driscoll, Northwestern's star player on the fantastic 1916 Purple team.  Driscoll played alongside future Chicago Bears founder George Halas, and the pair helped to rip apart the naval base's collegiate competition.  Great Lakes opened the 1918 season by shutting out good Iowa and Illinois teams, before hosting a showdown with Northwestern on October 26.  Driscoll faced many of his former teammates on a muddy field at the base, and the two teams slugged their way to a 0-0 tie.   It was the only time (until 2010) that Northwestern would travel to the base, and it was the highlight of NU's season.

Great Lakes would also tie Notre Dame in 1918 before winning its next three games.  The Great Lakes regular season concluded with a match against Purdue, which Great Lakes hosted at-- of all places-- Northwestern Field in Evanston!  Great Lakes would go on to defeat the Mare Island Marines on January 1 in the Rose Bowl, for perhaps the base's greatest-ever football triumph.

In addition to Driscoll, the 1918 Great Lakes team had another NU connection: its center, Charlie Bachman, would follow up his performance as a player in the Rose Bowl by becoming, in 1919, head coach for Northwestern.

Great Lakes fielded its next major football teams during World War II, and played college schedules during the 1942 through 1945 seasons.  Great Lakes played NU for three of those seasons, from 1942 through '44. 

The Bluejackets caught NU in the midst of a drought of talent in 1942, since most of the Wildcats' players had been siphoned off to other campuses for the war effort.  So it was no surprise when the powerful Great Lakes team swamped NU at Dyche Stadium, 48 to 0.

However, Northwestern became the recipient of several key military transfers before the 1943 season, and the restocked 'Cats also benefited from star Otto Graham, who was in his final year at NU.  Graham and the 'Cats (see photo feature, below) handed Great Lakes one of its two losses that year.  Great Lakes would end the season with a 10-2 record by whipping Notre Dame at Soldier Field (the only loss for the Irish in 1943).

In Great Lakes's final meeting with the Wildcats, on October 7, 1944, Great Lakes waxed the 'Cats 25-0.  Again, the outcome was not too surprising: Great Lakes was en route to a 9-2 record.  Among the 1944 Bluejackets that NU faced was a former Wildcat.  Richard Eggers had recently transferred to Great Lakes for training.  Also on the '44 Great Lakes team was an unheralded back named Ara Parseghian.  Mr. Parseghian, of course, would have further adventures at Dyche Stadium in another decade.


1945 would prove to be the final season that Great Lakes fielded a football team to compete with major college teams.   The Bluejackets ended their major college football history by defeating Notre Dame on December 1.


Below, from the NU Archives, are several photos of Wildcat great Otto Graham, and others, in action versus Great Lakes at Dyche Stadium in 1943.