First in War, Third in the AAFC: The Story of Pro Football's Yankees and Dodgers - Bleacher Report
World War II ended, and American soldiers came marching home ready for some football. Returning soldiers and the fans who never left for war suddenly faced a dizzying array of pro football choices, including a jumble of teams vying for the right to call themselves the Yankees and Dodgers. This is the story of how a 20-year-old B-17 co-pilot with a knack for narrow escapes, some military-base football superstars, a legendary baseball executive, one of the Navy's leading medical experts, several blustery businessmen and an adviser to... This is the story of the Yankees and Dodgers of the All-America Football Conference, two teams that helped win a war but lost the peace. It's also the story of how returning World War II heroes reshaped professional football in their own image—and how the NFL stopped thinking of itself as baseball's baby brother and learned to stand on its own. On June 4, 1944 , two days before D-Day, several of the most powerful men in America met to coordinate an attack. They would later be called "the millionaires' coffee klatch" or just "men of millionaire incomes. Not all members of the klatch were men: Eleanor Gehrig, widow of Lou Gehrig, was also at that first meeting. Source: bleacherreport.com
