This NFL Player Lost Both Legs at Iwo Jima – and Rallied His Platoon to Keep Fighting
Jack Lummus' heroism dwarfed anything he did for the Giants in his short time with the franchise, but they never forgot his sacrifice.
By
Stephen Ruiz
Jack Lummus, who was mortally wounded at Iwo Jima on March 8, 1945, is 1 of 2 NFL players to be awarded the Medal of Honor. (Wikimedia Commons)
Jack Lummus' professional football career ended the moment a landmine blew off both of his legs at Iwo Jima.
Lummus, a Marine Corps first lieutenant who died on March 8, 1945, at the age of 29 years old, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor -- one of only two recipients of the United States' highest military honor ever to play in the NFL. Maurice Britt, an Army captain, spent one season with the Detroit Lions.
"Jack suffered very little, because he didn't live long," Lummus' commanding officer wrote to his grieving mother. "I saw Jack soon after he was hit. With calmness, serenity and complacency, Jack said, 'The New York Giants lost a good man.' We all lost a good man."
Jack Lummus, shown in 1939 while playing football at Baylor, just completed his rookie NFL season with the New York Giants when he joined the Marine Corps Reserve during World War II.
Hailing from the small town of Ennis, Texas (a half-hour southeast of Dallas), Andrew Jackson Lummus Jr. joined the Army Air Corps in May 1941 but washed out of flight school after the wing of his plane struck a fence while taxiing. That temporary setback propelled Lummus to try out for the Giants, and the former Baylor University standout made the cut.
https://www.military.com/history/nfl-player-lost-both-legs-iwo-jima-and-rallied-his-platoon-keep-fighting.html
