AFRS Sportsreel

Troopers stationed overseas had an important mission but they also wound up with a lot of time on their hands. Although there were endless routine items to be taken care of, reports to file, equipment to be cleaned and repaired, and slop in the mess-tent to complain about, one universal time passer was the "Bull Session". Although the stories shared during the Bull Session often stretched believability, no matter where you were you could expect to hear opinions of a few universal topics. These included plans for when the troops got home, the pretty girls they expected to meet, and sports.

Sports stories shared in the Bull Session included tales of the speaker's own prowess as well as prospects for their favorite teams. If sports talks during Bull Sessions were hard to believe, at least the stories heard from sources like AFRS Sportsreel could be depended on to be believable, right?

Well, not always. AFRS Sportsreel took advantage of the talents of sportscasters Bill Brandt, Bob Kelley, Bill Stewart, and the king of sportscasters Bill Stern. Stern began doing football play-by-play commentary as early as 1925, In 1937, he was hired by NBC for a Friday night boxing show and to host The Colgate Sports Newsreel. The style Stern developed for Newsreel was said to become an influence for Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story, but unlike Harvey, Stern was more concerned with telling a compelling story than ensuring it had any basis in fact.

Just like a barracks Bull Session, on Sportsreel the truth was never allowed to get in the way of a good story, and the stories shared on the program were always well told and entertaining, if not always believable.