1944 revisited for Prairie Lea football
By Kyle Mooty
LPR Editor
It was so long ago President Franklin D. Roosevelt was winning his unprecedented fourth term in office as U.S. President.
A man named Dwight D Eisenhower was about decade away from holding the same office, but at the time he was busy as Supreme Allied Commander, and as a general leading his troops to storm the beaches of Normandy.
It was 1944, the year of D-Day during World War II. The Battle of the Bulge would happen later that year.
It was also the last time the Prairie Lea Indians made the Texas high school football playoffs.
Not only have the Indians qualified for the playoffs this year, but they can win the district outright with a win at Knippa Friday.
It was also the year that Anne Frank and her family were sent to a concentration camp.
Alaska and Hawaii were still 15 years away from being admitted to U.S. statehood.
Dinah Shore’s “I’ll Walk Alone” was a number one hit.
The top grossing movie from 1944 was “Going My Way.”
Celebrities born that year included Gladys Knight, Danny Trejo, Joe Frazier, Michael Douglas, Danny DeVito, Diana Ross, George Lucas, and Jerry Springer.
Gas was 15 cents a gallon and the average cost of a new home was $3,450.
The kidney dialysis machine was invented, which was phenomenal, but let’s don’t forget the slinky, silly putty, and the fix-all duct tape also came along in 1944.
The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the St. Louis Browns, 4–2, to win the World Series.
The Chicago Bears beat the New York Giants for the NFL championship.
The NBA was still two years from being founded, but the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons won the National Basketball League title, sweeping the Sheboygan Redskins.
Utah won the NCAA basketball championship and Army won the NCAA football title.
Gillette Cavalcade of Sports was the most popular TV show of 1944, featuring Friday night fights from Madison Square Garden. The show was considered so popular that people would travel for miles to watch it on a 17-inch television screen.
Dana X. Bible.’s Texas Longhorns were 5-4., including a 20-0 season-opening victory over the Southwestern (Georgetown, Texas) Pirates.
Homer H. Norton was the head coach at Texas A&M and his Aggies were 7-4, including a 39-0 victory in the season-opener over the Bryan Army Airfield Ducks.
Those are just some of the things that happened the last time Prairie Lea played in a football playoff game.
