Here is a trivia question that should stump your friends: A football player named Dick Todd once made an AP All-America team the year AFTER winning an NFL title. How was such a thing possible?

The answer is that in 1943, Todd played for a service team — a quirk of wartime football that led some NFL players back to college football. Sort of.

During World War II, military posts in the U.S. fielded football teams of their own. These weren't college teams in any traditional sense, but they were part of the college game. In addition to facing each other, they took on college programs and were included in AP team rankings.

The AP, at least in 1943 and 1944, also named a service All-America team in addition to its more traditional one for college players that began in 1925.

That's how Todd, w

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