Lou Groza - College Career and Military Service

College Career and Military Service

Groza graduated from high school in 1942 and enrolled on an athletic scholarship at Ohio State University, where he played as a tackle and placekicker on the school's freshman team. Groza played in three games and kicked five field goals, including one from 45 yards (41 m) away. In 1943, he enlisted in the U.S. Army as World War II intensified. He first went for basic training to Abilene, Texas and then to Brooks General Hospital in San Antonio, Texas.

After a stint with the short-lived Army Service Training Program, Groza was sent with the 96th Infantry Division to serve as a surgical technician in Leyte, Okinawa, and other places in the Pacific theater in 1945. The day he landed in the Philippines, Groza saw a soldier shot in the face. He was stationed in a bank of tents about five miles from the front lines and helped doctors tend to the wounded. "I saw a lot of men wounded with severe injuries," he later said. "Loose legs, guts hanging out, stuff like that. It's a tough thing, but you get hardened to it, and you accept it as part of your being there."

While he was in the Army, he received a package from Paul Brown, the Ohio State football coach. It contained footballs and a contract for him to sign to play on a team Brown was coaching in the new All-America Football Conference (AAFC). He signed the contract in May of 1945 and agreed to join the team, called the Cleveland Browns, after the war ended in 1946. Groza got $500 a month until the end of the war and a $7,500 annual salary.