“Winter Sport Fans” (December 14, 1941)
by William “Bill” Crawford (1913-1982)
18 x 22 in., ink and crayon on Glarco Illustration Board
Coppola Collection

This is one of my favorites.

A frequent contributor to the sport’s page, Crawford’s editorial cartoons often mixed the effect of WWII on professional sports issues.

“General Winter” was a substantial contributing factor in the military failures of both Napoleon’s and Hitler’s invasions of Russia (mid 1941). Hitler’s Wehrmacht had already suffered nearly 750K casualties and was running low on supplies by November 1941, even before the arrival of winter proper. Temperatures hit -40 in December-January, and the Germans were unprepared for this even as they advanced on Moscow.