Camp Lewis was established in 1917 by citizens of Pierce County, Washington who purchased land and donated it to the military to build a base to train soldiers for World War I.  Camp Lewis held a 12-team league season playing six games on each Wednesday and Sunday with the 91st Division being tops due to the coaching of Captain Trevanion "Van" Cook.  Cook had been the former head man of the Spokane Athletic Club before enlisting.  Players would be selected and cycled in and out as call ups began coming in to head to France.  Members of the 362nd Officers team, 316th Sanitary Train, and Medical Corps would fill roster spots.  Sam Cook, Sanitary Trains star would be plucked to play when Everett May dislocated his knee in the first game.  Ralph "Speck" Hurlburt and Capt. Elijah "Lige" Worsham would be the among the first Camp Lewis soldiers killed in World War I.

The Soldiers won five games, tied Washington State before losing to the Mare Island Marines out of California.  With colleges emptied due to war mobilization, bowl games lacked teams, and a rematch of Camp Lewis versus Mare Island was proposed and On January 1, 1918, The Rose Bowl game was held in Pasadena, California with military teams rather than collegiate competition.  The Marines again took the game from the Soldiers in what many writers claimed "saved the Rose Bowl" from nearly being scrapped due to the war and financial losses organizers had taken in the prior years.  25,000 fans came out to see the Marines and Army battle it out for bragging rights and thus saved the bowl game later dubbed "the Grandaddy of them all".  Dick Romney scored the only touchdown for the soldiers in the Rose Bowl match up and McKay kicked the conversion through, both men being the top scorers for the 1917 Soldiers.  Capping his season with the Rose Bowl touchdown, Romney would earn Regional Player of the Year honors, while guards Bill Snyder and Bill Holden would earn third-team Walter Camp All-Service team honors for their play in 1917.  Dick Romney was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame following a successful coaching career and stadium built on the campus of Utah State University in 1968 was named after him, before being changed to a corporate sponsor in 2015.

The team returned in 1918 and was again one of the top teams in the Northwest.  Playing as the 13th Division, the Soldiers rolled to a 4-0 start before a disastrous November nearly derailed the season.  Playing back-to-back games on November 16 and 17th down in Portland, Oregon, a hard fought loss to the Multnomah Athletic Club scrubbed away the earlier victory earned over the MAAC on October 26th.  The next day, battered and bruised, the Sprucers from Vancouver Barracks stole away a 7-6 victory with the Mare Island Marines once again on the horizon.  The Marines defeated Army again 16-0 to complete a 2-3 November run.  December 7th would be a rematch with the Sprucers, now deemed the top service team in the Portland-Vancouver area and this time it would be for the fictional Northwest Service Championship.  Camp Lewis won the game 19-14 and claimed the best service team in the Northwest which immediately opened the floodgates of challenges in December.  First the Bremerton Marines called and lost, then the Soldiers headed south for a California series and first stop was Mare Island.  But instead of handing the Marines a loss, it was the Navy Sailors team that showed up to the field, so Camp Lewis had to be content with a 7-6 victory over the Sailors.  The legendary Olympic Club was next and Camp Lewis dominated 27-0.  Upon return from California, the newly confident 13th Division stayed together to try and get a game with the Great Lakes Navy team out of Michigan.  The service league national champions declined the trip and on January 4th 1919, Intra-Division Camp Lewis champion First-Infantry would be the opponent for the season finale.  Fog was so thick, following the only touchdown of the game, the goal posts were shrouded from sight as Camp Lewis won 6-0.  Raymond Selph, the top center in the region was awarded a spot on the Walter Camp All-Service Second Team published in Collier's Weekly (Jan. 1919) as well as being named to the San Francisco Examiner All-Coast Honorable Mention squad.  Mates Eddie Kienholz, Tillman Gerlough and Elmer Leader were also named by Walter Camp as honorable mentions.

Following the war, Camp Lewis remained active with a base-league and taking the best of those players out to take on collegiate and military competition.  Lt. Col. William H. Jordan returned to Portland in 1921 to face his former team, the Multnomah Athletic Club Winged M's where he starred before joining the military.  He would later take command of the 59th Infantry post in Vancouver, Washington across the river from Portland. 

Former quarterback Frank Skadan (1918) graduated from Washington State College in 1922 and took over as football coach for Olympia High School.  He would later move to California where from 1925 to 1960 Skadan was athletic director, baseball coach and football coach, the Lindsay High School football field in Hanford, California bearing his name.  Skadan appears in the Washington State Cougars 2008 record book for Long Rush at #33 with a 70-yard run.  Skadan passed away in 1972 at the age of 76 just one of many stories of teenagers who went to war and returned to have incredible lives and careers in sports.

DO YOU HAVE INFORMATION TO CONTRIBUTE?  CONTACT US! (email)