A Silence in the Stands - Dec. 7, 1941

The Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor.

Americans were in a panic.

Except in Washington's Griffith Stadium, where the Redskins were playing the Eagles in a meaningless end-of-the-season game. Team owner George Marshall forbid the public address announcer from telling the crowd about the attack.

Kingsport's D.A. Henderson, Jr. was in the stands watching two fellow Kingsporters on the field, the Redskins' Ed Cifers and the Eagles' Sam Bartholomew. He would later tell his children it was eerie how general after general, admiral after admiral, corps commander after corps commander, would be called to report to their stations. But no one knew why.

They wouldn't find out till the game was over and they exited to an army of newsboys hawking Extras: U.S. At War!





Here is the box score for that game.




Here is the story when Sam Bartholomew left his Eastman job earlier that year to play for the Eagles.