The Mosquito Bowl: ‘Three hours of pure joy’ amid the horrors of war

A new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Buzz Bissinger brings to light a most unusual football game on the Pacific island of Guadalcanal during the second world war

On the Pacific island of Guadalcanal, two Marine Corps regiments enjoyed a rare respite from second world war in December 1944. On Christmas Eve, the 4th and 29th regiments squared off in a football game nicknamed the Mosquito Bowl. This was no pick-up game. The teams included some of the top college football talent in the US, their rosters featuring All-Americans, captains from big-name schools and future NFL players or draftees. Tragically, of the 65 players in the game, 15 would die the following year, during the war's deadliest battle: Okinawa. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Buzz Bissinger brings this wartime narrative back to public attention through his new book, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II.

I think it was the last time these guys were allowed to be boys, allowed to do something they loved," Bissinger says. For three hours - not that long - they got away from training and combat and what might happen at Okinawa. It was joy, pure joy, then back to training."