Choo Choo Justice: World War II Navy Phenom, Part I

*Note: This is the first of a three-part series.

Tar Heel Illustrated introduces our guest columnist, Wilbur D. Jones, Jr., for his series on the World War II playing days of Carolina football immortal Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice, which begins today.

A Wilmington, N. C., native and resident, Jones is military historian and the nationally known award-winning author of 18 books, including seven on WWII. He has written or contributed to hundreds of pieces for the Wilmington StarNews and other periodicals, and leads the 12-year project seeking national designation of Wilmington as the first “American WWII Heritage City.”

He is a former assistant and advance representative to President Gerald Ford, a retired Navy Captain, and served the Department of Defense for 41 years.

He graduated from Carolina in 1955. His newest book, The Day I Lost President Ford: Memoir of a Born-and-Bred Carolina Tar Heel, will be published this summer and contains remembrances playing UNC varsity lacrosse and soccer and as Monogram Club president.

This Justice series is based on his book, “Football! Navy! War!”: How Military ‘Lend-Lease’ Players Saved the College Game and Helped Win World War II (Foreword by ESPN’s Beano Cook). See www.wilburjones.com.

Also, I’m proud to say he’s my father. - Andrew Jones

Surprised and pleased on short notice, in 2003, I suddenly became immersed in reliving the history of World War II college and military football from my Wilmington childhood growing up during the war. When Charlie Justice died on October 17 in Cherryville at age 79, my regional newspaper, the Wilmington StarNews, bestowed upon me the professional privilege of writing his obituary.

The Justice name doesn’t need an introduction here. I’d wager THI readers know of his legendary Chapel Hill career. Recently, publisher Andrew Jones launched a series on Carolina’s finest football teams, and lo and behold, it was loaded with Justice era 1946-49 squads. Shazaam. Of course. Working the obituary, I reversed gears into the war years. What primed this young man as the foundation of our Tar Heels’ football apex? Right out of high school, literally he had a monumental running start.

His service in uniform was playing Navy football, never deploying or seeing combat. All football and was he spectacular. Sensational wartime seasons, drawing lightning-like, high-octane media attention to this phenomenal diminutive halfback battling amongst college All-Americas and National Football League professional giants. Yes, really.

And he quickly picked up the nickname “Choo Choo.”

Who would argue against Justice as the greatest football player ever produced in the State of North Carolina? Number 22. And man-oh-man, how he created our Tar Heels football legacy 70 years ago may forever prove unmatchable.

Return to the obituary. Justice opened the road to football immortality as a superstar in the early 1940s at Lee H. Edwards High School in Asheville, NC, and achieved folk-hero enshrinement in four glorious Carolina seasons, three in the service, and four with the Washington Redskins. Thirteen years.

BTW, our Hall of Fame basketball coach, Roy Williams, is a graduate of Asheville’s T. C. Roberson High. (Must be the supercharged mountain air.)

Justice’s death evoked a deluge of memories of his college honors: All-America selection twice, 1948 and 49, and Heisman Trophy runner-up, also twice, same years. As a kid I listened to game broadcasts and idolized him and the Heels. Chapel Hill was seemingly a thousand miles away and radio was the medium of choice. He graduated in 1950. I entered Carolina in 1951 and never saw him play. But I tell you, we kids ran in his shoes.

His UNC record notwithstanding, by 2003 I wondered how many Carolina fans remembered his long-overshadowed and exceptionally productive wartime service.

For the mostly football obituary, fortunately his cooperative widow Sarah granted me two illustrative interviews. Also, three of his teammates, Bob Cox, Robert Koontz, and lineman Joe Augustine (who still lives in Wilmington), added their memories. The name Bainbridge kept popping up. You mean Bainbridge, Maryland, the old naval base? That’s right. He played there. Must be much more.

This ignited the search. It started coming back. Sure, if it’s WWII, I had to know. Senses told me it was something larger than just Justice, foreseeing what would become the untold story of the “Golden Age of Football.”

No secret, though, the man turned thousands of heads, especially the print media, as a teenage running back on their highly rated 1943-44 teams. I fell in love with the Commodores, and ranked them the war’s top military squad, with Justice its face.

Why was the story untold of wartime college and military football, the Hall of Fame college and professional players and coaches, the entertainment and morale-boosting they generated on the home front, the war bond games, and how they helped win the war? Charlie Justice ignited my opportunity.

Okay, let’s move on. Besides his 17-0-0 two-season Bainbridge record, my objective here rather than just football-speak is marveling at the man as a player and teammate, and how the media and observers described him. Almost overnight, he became the loveable football icon.

Let’s focus on his accolades, descriptions, and impact, created by genuine hype and sportswriters’ colorful hyperbole using lexicon long since rendered industry passe. The result: his evolution as a man.

The media, consisting primarily of the Associated Press, football magazines, and military and commercial daily newspapers, relished this inspirational success story, necessarily inflating to attract readers. What was football’s purpose? To divert the nation from war’s sacrifices and to harden men for combat. Both involved Justice.

Frankly, we have a high-profile, take-‘em-by-storm young amateur athlete, and its devoted, fawning media. Ballyhoo? Sure, but not by WWII ethos. “There was a war on.... We Can Do It!”

Seeking to educate and tease your memory, we’ll enliven this series with some Justice wartime football and Carolina trivia questions. Answers down the road. Here goes:

- How did he get the nickname?

- Did he also play defense, punt, kick extra points?

- Was he considered “second-string”?

- What were his fewest yards rushing in a game?

- Who was the iconic future Pro Hall of Fame back playing for Camp Lejeune against whom Justice had a classic one-on-one matchup?

- What about his first game at Kenan Stadium vs the Navy’s North Carolina Pre-Flight squad?

- What was his connection to America’s famous burlesque queen?

- How did he relate to Army’s All-America Glenn Davis in 1944?

- Did he wear jersey number “22" during his war years?

- Was he headed for the Naval Academy?

...and...

- Was Carolina the only college to offer a scholarship when the Navy discharged him?

- What dreaded rival almost got him?

- How did he enroll at Carolina (this may blind-side readers)

- What popular song was written about him?

- What famous Tar Heel actor recorded a silly ditty about the sport, and its name?

- How did the Post Office deliver his mail?

Stand by to test your Choo-Choo Justice reverse Jeopardy.