30 Great American Athletes Who Joined the Military

Before he entered the NFL, Alejandro Villanueva was an Army Ranger, serving in the 10-Mountain Division for five years. Deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan, three times, Villanueva was awarded the Bronze Star for braving enemy fire to rescue wounded soldiers.

Shaken by the death of his college roommate, golf legend Arnold Palmer joined the military, signing up with the Coast Guard. After basic training, he worked as a lifeguard and taught physical education to recruits. Later stationed at the 9th Coast Guard District Auxiliary in Cleveland, Ohio, he photographed the military ID cards.

After graduating from UCLA, Arthur Ashe served in the Army, eventually rising to the rank of first lieutenant. While stationed at West Point in New York, Ashe continued to play tennis, competing in the Davis Cup as an amateur.

Bill Bradley is known today for his service in the Congress as a senator from New Jersey as well as his standout years on the basketball court. But after playing professional hoops for a year in Milan while simultaneously commuting back and forth to the University of Oxford in England, he dropped out of college in 1967 (he took special exams to graduate the following year) and joined the Air Force Reserve. Commissioned as a second lieutenant, he was stationed at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. Since the base was close to New York City, Bradley was able to play with the New York Knicks while serving. His active duty lasted six months, after which he served four years in the Reserve, on active duty two weeks a year.

Immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, hard-throwing pitcher Bob Feller enlisted in the Navy, despite having a family-related draft exemption. During his Naval career, Feller achieved the rank of chief petty officer and saw action in some of the most famous sea battles of World War II. After the war, Feller went back to the pitcher’s mound and was eventually voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Considered the most successful amateur golfer of all time, Bobby Jones volunteered to join the Army at age 40. He rose to the rank of major and was deployed to the 84th Fighter Wing of the 9th Air Force in England. The day after D-Day, Jones went ashore at Normandy, where he interrogated German prisoners. Discharged in 1944, Jones left as a lieutenant colonel.

At age 38, Hall of Fame pitcher Christy Mathewson was too old for the draft. Nevertheless, he resigned as manager of the Cincinnati Reds in 1918 to join the Army. He entered the Army’s new Gas & Flame Division, a unit developed specifically to combat the enemy’s chemical warfare efforts. The division had a number of professional athletes as members, including Detroit Tigers center fielder Ty Cobb, and was commanded by St. Louis Cardinals manager Branch Rickey.

At age 18, Chuck Bednarik enlisted in the Army Air Forces (predecessor of the Air Force), training as an aerial gunner. Deployed to England, Bednarik flew 30 combat missions over Germany, operating a .50 caliber machine gun in the plane’s rear.

After graduating from the Naval Academy in Annapolis (where he was considered the best basketball player in the school’s history) in 1987, David Robinson was commissioned in the Naval Reserve and served two years on active duty at the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia. After active duty, he served six more years in the Reserve while playing for the San Antonio Spurs. Due to his Navy experience, Robinson was given the nickname “The Admiral.”

Future Brooklyn (and L.A.) Dodger Duke Snider joined the Navy in 1944 at the age of 18. Serving as a fireman third class, he was stationed at Guam, where he was assigned to the submarine tender USS Sperry. During his service time on the island, Snider honed his baseball skills by playing with the 2nd Marine Division team.

Elgin Baylor played pro basketball from 1958 to 1971, but from 1961 to 1962, he did double duty: He served on active duty at the Army base in Fort Lewis, Washington, while playing with Los Angeles Lakers on the weekends. Though he played only 48 games, he scored more than 1,800 points.

Baseball star Hank Greenberg served two stints in the military. In May 1941, Greenberg was drafted into the Army. Soon after, Congress passed a law preventing men over age 28 from being drafted and Greenberg was discharged. After Pearl Harbor, however, Greenberg re-enlisted, this time with the Army Air Forces. He was stationed throughout the U.S. and around the world, including in the China-Burma-India theater, and served a total of 47 months – the longest tour of duty of any major league player.

The world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926, Jack Dempsey joined the New York State Guard at the start of World War II. He resigned that position and enlisted in the Coast Guard Reserve. Assigned to the Coast Guard Training Station in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Dempsey taught physical education. Promoted to commander in 1944, Dempsey was on the attack transport – the USS Arthur Middleton – during the Okinawa invasion.

Baseball Hall of Famer and Civil Rights icon Jackie Robinson was drafted into the Army in 1942. Because the Army was segregated at the time, Robinson was assigned to a Black cavalry unit at Fort Riley in Kansas. Rising to second lieutenant in 1943, he joined the 761st “Black Panthers” tank battalion in Fort Hood, Texas. In 1944, Robinson was told to move to the back of an Army bus. He refused and was court-martialed. Robinson was acquitted and later honorably discharged.

Like many sports stars of the era, Joe DiMaggio traded athletics for military service, but he was never far from the baseball diamond. Stationed at California’s Santa Ana Air Base, he played for the military team there against sem-pro teams, local college teams, and Pacific Coast teams. Later, he along with other major leaguers were transferred to Hawaii, where they continued to play. He is said to have requested combat duty, but was turned down.

Between 1937 and 1949, Joe Louis reigned as the heavyweight champion of the world, winning that title by beating Germany’s Max Schmeling. When World War II broke out, Louis enlisted in the Army, serving in the same segregated unit as Jackie Robinson, and fought Germans on the battlefield. During the war, Louis also fought 96 exhibition matches and donated more than $100,000 to Army and Navy relief efforts.

Like Arnold Palmer, golfing great Lee Trevino spent time in the military, enlisting in the Marine Corps at the age of 17 and serving as machine gunner for four years. Promoted to lance corporal, he participated in a number of armed forces golf events in Asia during his service.

Boxer Leon Spinks credited the Marines’ sports program for his success in the ring. After dropping out of high school, he joined the Marine Corps and won the Amateur Athletic Union’s amateur light heavyweight boxing championship for three consecutive years, from 1974 to 1976. In his professional career, he was the heavyweight boxing champion and Olympic gold medalist

Hard-throwing Nolan Ryan missed the 1967 baseball season with the New York Mets to serve in the Army Reserve. His seven no-hitters still stands as the MLB record.

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Arizona Cardinal player Pat Tillman signed up for the Army. On April 22, 2004, while serving in Afghanistan, Tillman was killed. Initial reports said he was killed by enemy fire, but it was later discovered that he’d been accidentally shot by his fellow Army Rangers.

Upon first entering the Navy in 1943, New York Yankee shortstop Phil Rizzuto played baseball at the Norfolk Naval Training Station. He then went on to serve on a ship in the Pacific, where he was in charge of a 20mm gun crew. While in New Guinea, he contracted malaria and was sent to Australia to recover. During his stint in Australia, Rizzuto coached the Navy baseball team there.

In 1958, Puerto Rican-born Roberto Clemente enlisted in the Marine Corps, serving six years as a reservist infantryman. In 2003, the MLB Hall of Famer was inducted into the Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame.

In 1969, a year after being drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers, Rocky Bleier was drafted into the Army. Wounded in Vietnam, he received the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. He returned to football after a long rehabilitation, ending his career with 3,855 yards rushing.

Rocky Marciano discovered his talent for boxing in the Army. Drafted in 1943, Marciano was assigned to the 150th Combat Engineers, which at that time was stationed in Wales. While serving, Marciano boxed in unofficial bouts, working his way up to junior amateur status by the time he was discharged in 1946. He ended his professional career with 49 wins and no losses.

While a midshipman at the United States Naval Academy, Roger Staubach earned the Heisman Trophy as the top college player. After graduating in 1965, he served four years on active duty, including one year in Vietnam. Once his Navy days were over, he played 11 seasons in the NFL for the Dallas Cowboys.

Considered one of the greatest hitters in MLB history, Ted Williams served during two wars. In 1942, he left the playing field to become a Navy aviator. While serving in the Reserve Aviation Unit, he instructed other pilots. During the Korean War, he flew with the Third Marine Air Wing, 223rd Squadron. During one flight, he was hit by North Korean fire and crash-landed, but was unhurt. A bout with pneumonia that damaged his inner ear prompted him to leave the Marines in 1953.

Seventeen-year-old Tom Seaver enlisted in the Marines out of Fresno, California. For eight years, he served as a basic supply man, receiving an honorable discharge as a private first class in 1970. In later interviews, Seaver credited the discipline he learned in the military for making his athletic career a success.

Whitey Ford served during the Korean War. After enlisting, he was stationed at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, where he completed his basic training. During his stint, he played 20 games with the New York Yankees while also playing with the Signal Corps’ baseball team

Willie Mays spent most of the 1952 baseball season and all of the 1953 season in the Army – and it might have cost him a shot at Babe Ruth’s home run title. An ESPN article notes Mays ended his career with 660 homers: If he hadn’t missed those 270 games, he might have hit 716 homers, two more than Ruth.

After signing with the New York Yankees in 1943, Yogi Berra detoured from baseball to join the Navy. A gunner’s mate on the attack transport USS Bayfield, Berra manned a landing craft support vessel during the D-Day invasion in France. Wounded in the hand, Berra was awarded the Purple Heart.