This military training camp team almost won a national championship

World War II spared no one and nothing — even American football .

In 1943, the AP Top 20 college football rankings were littered with the usual names — Notre Dame, Michigan, Texas. Yet hovering at the No. 2 spot is a team long-forgotten, even by most football fanatics: the U.S. Navy’s Iowa Pre-Flight team.

During WWII, military training camps fielded their own teams, writes The New York Times . The war had shuttered many university programs as service-aged men swelled the ranks of the military.

As service academies like West Point and Annapolis benefited from the influx of talent, so, too, did the training camp teams.

Older players, some of them former professionals from the likes of the Chicago Bears and New York Giants, suited up for teams like Great Lakes Navy, Del Monte P