Kelly: War snuffed out football star Nile Kinnick’s light too early (destined to be president of US)

[Omaha Steve]

The NE two time State Champion Omaha North (class A 13-14) played their home games in Kinnick Stadium. I don't think I've missed a home game in years.


http://www.omaha.com/news/metro/kelly-war-snuffed-out-football-star-nile-kinnick-s-light/article_c18a2a5c-dd79-5a0e-a57a-3e09ed251b93.html



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

University of Iowa star halfback Nile Kinnick practices in Iowa City in this Nov. 2, 1939, photo.

POSTED: SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2014 1:00 AM
By Michael Kelly / World-Herald

Seventy-five years ago today, Nile Kinnick accepted the 1939 Heisman Trophy in New York with an eloquent speech that ended with a powerful, hopeful line amid the winds of war.

“I thank God,” the 21-year-old football star said, “that I was warring on the gridirons of the Midwest, and not on the battlefields of Europe.”

That oft-quoted statement, which received an ovation at the Downtown Athletic Club, remains poignant because Kinnick — some of whose Nebraska and Iowa contemporaries thought was destined to be president of the United States — would become one of more than 400,000 Americans to die while serving in World War II.

Omaha philanthropist Dick Holland, who was three years younger than Kinnick, saw him practicing his punting one summer day at Elmwood Park.

FULL story at link.

[indie9197]

1. War is horrible

I drive by a veterans cemetery just north of Santa Fe quite often. I think of the loss and heartbreak.