WWII: Did They Still Play Sports?

The declaration of war in 1939 meant both The Football League and the FA Cup were suspended indefinitely. As a result, teams like Wolves, Liverpool, Huddersfield, Leicester and Charlton were left with nearly 350 fewer players between them. This meant that teams were permitted to field guest players to play for their sides in the ten regional “mini-leagues” which were established in 1939. To fill the void left by the FA Cup, a special War Cup was established by the Football League to boost morale and to keep the game going. The Football League returned to somewhat normality in the 1945-46 season, but the wartime league structure continued for one more year. Much like the First World War, two series of ‘Victory internationals’ were played by the national teams of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

Of course everyone, including sporting authorities, attempted to get back to some kind of normality and pick up where they had left off when hostilities began. With the end of the Second World War, the FA Cup was reinstated for 1945-46 season, played on a two–legged basis. In England, with the end of the Second World War in Europe, a small number of first class cricket matches were played for the first time since 1939 but it was not practicable to resume the County Championship or the Minor Counties Championship. However, there was some horse racing as Red Rower triumphed in Cheltenham Gold Cup - his third attempt at the race, rising from third to second, finally first place. Also 1945 horse racing saw English Triple Crown contested. In golf 1945 PGA Championship was the 27th, held July 9–15 at Moraine Country Club in Kettering, Ohio, a suburb south of Dayton.

An essential tool in maintaining fitness and morale was sport. Men could run around and let off steam while training their bodies and resolving inter-unit rivalry in a peaceful manner. Games and sports could travel from one country to another – polo had travelled from India to Britain, cricket in the opposite direction. But some games were only ever loved by one army – the sport of kabaddi never took off outside India.