January 31, 1945: Al Blozis Is Killed In Action

January 31, 1945: Al Blozis is killed while fighting with the U.S. Army. He had just turned 26. He was 1 of 14 NFL players to die while serving in World War II.

Albert Charles Blozis was born on January 5, 1919 in Garfield, Bergen County, New Jersey. He was an NCAA Champion in the shot put at Georgetown University. But it would be as a two-way tackle in football that he would become a professional player. The New York Giants chose him in the 5th round of the 1942 NFL Draft, and he played in all 11 games with them in 1942, and in all 10 games in 1943.

He was 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds, making him too big for most roles in the Army. But by late 1943, the Army was desperate for more men, and so his attempts to enlist finally succeeded. The Army was especially impressed with the former shot-putter's ability to throw a grenade 95 yards, almost the length of a football field. In the 1944 season, he played 3 games on furlough, including the NFL Championship Game, which the Giants lost to the Green Bay Packers on December 17, 1944.

Within days, he was sent overseas with the 28th Infantry Division. On January 31, 1945, his platoon was scouting enemy lines in the Vosges Mountains, near the border with Nazi Germany. Two men failed to return from a patrol, and 2nd Lieutenant Albert C. Blozis went in search of them -- alone. He never returned, either. He was listed as missing in action, until his body was found in April. The men he was searching for were never found.

The Giants retired his Number 32. He and end Jack Lummus, who was killed on Iwo Jima a few days later, were honored with plaques on the wall of the clubhouse at the Polo Grounds. Those plaques were lost after the baseball Giants left the stadium following the 1957 season, but both Blozis and Lummus were inducted into the Giants' Ring of Honor when MetLifeStadium opened in 2010.

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January 31, 1945 was a Wednesday. This was also the day that Private Eddie Slovik was executed for desertion. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And no games were scheduled in the NHL. So there were no scores on this historic day.