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247 Article on Mississippi State’s (A&M) Season During the Spanish Flu
Posted on 7/19/20 at 6:40 pm
Posted on 7/19/20 at 6:40 pm
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quote:
The Spanish Flu hit the South hard. Several wings of Old Main dormitory were reconfigured as hospital wards, according to the Mississippi State Football Vault history book. Patients arrived at the campus in train-car loads. Even as some of the school’s first women graduates were receiving diplomas, many of those offered their services as nurses at the makeshift facility.
quote:
The college season historically began the first weekend in October and this new influenza delayed kickoff to early November. The late start limited the school’s football-altered schedule to just five games, all played within the state of Mississippi, with three of those against service teams. The 1918 team accomplished something no Aggie team had done before or since – it beat Ole Miss twice in the same season.
quote:
Nonetheless, governmental restrictions, travel issues, and curtailed activities ravaged the landscape. Tennessee, Alabama and LSU cancelled their entire football schedules that season, as did 15 other schools across the country. While many folks felt college football should completely shut down because of the pandemic, President Woodrow Wilson believed football added to the country’s morale. In part because of the pandemic and the war, military posts established football teams. Three such teams – Payne Field, Camp Shelby, and Tennessee’s Park Field helped comprise A&M’s schedule in 1918.
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Posted on 7/19/20 at 6:43 pm to DingLeeBerry
quote:
President Woodrow Wilson believed football added to the country’s morale.
Posted on 7/19/20 at 6:51 pm to DingLeeBerry
Interesting. Thanks for posting
Posted on 7/19/20 at 10:45 pm to DingLeeBerry
Great-grandpa survived the war, but not the flu.
Posted on 7/19/20 at 11:29 pm to Mithridates6
Entire families died in Mississippi. My great grandfather died at a young age after digging Graves.
Posted on 7/20/20 at 5:06 am to DingLeeBerry
The Spanish Flu hit everywhere hard, millions died world wide.
I know one LSU player from the 1908 team died in Oregon, he was a Major in the US Army at the time and a Doctor helping with the outbreak.
Between 500,000 to 850,000 died in the US alone, that would be close to 1.5m to 2.4m today if it hit.
I know one LSU player from the 1908 team died in Oregon, he was a Major in the US Army at the time and a Doctor helping with the outbreak.
Between 500,000 to 850,000 died in the US alone, that would be close to 1.5m to 2.4m today if it hit.
Posted on 7/20/20 at 9:50 am to DingLeeBerry
The Spanish Flu was almost the opposite of covid-19, in that it hit young adults harder than any other segment of the population.
Posted on 7/20/20 at 9:57 am to tigger1
quote:
The Spanish Flu hit everywhere hard, millions died world wide.
Yep. The final death toll will never be known with any certainty but historians estimate that roughly 500 million people were infected by the Spanish Flu and, of that number, between 50-100 million people succumbed to the disease. That's a case fatality rate of between 10-20%.
Covid-19 isn't even near the level of the Spanish Flu yet we are treating it as if it's the end of the world.
Posted on 7/20/20 at 10:10 am to RollTide1987
My great granny said, when the doctor told a person they had the flu the family contacted the undertaker.
Posted on 7/20/20 at 10:15 am to Mithridates6
quote:
Great-grandpa survived the war, but not the flu.
Sorry to hear but I'm sure he doesn't worry about it anymore. God bless
Posted on 7/20/20 at 3:12 pm to DingLeeBerry
Shut out Mississippi twice, in the same year.
One of the scores was 65-00, when a TD only counted 5 points (6 with PaT).
One of the scores was 65-00, when a TD only counted 5 points (6 with PaT).
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