Talk:1918 League Island Marines football team

Marines vs. Navy Yard
, : you've both worked on this article and 1918 League Island Navy Yard football team. We have some confusion and/or forking. Seems there was a Marine team early the 1918 season which the Spalding Guide says disbanded after beating Penn (on October 26) and then a Navy Yard team was formed. Should we have two articles or one here? Perhaps, the Marine should team be credited with the October 12 game vs. Lehigh and October 26 vs. Penn, plus the October 19 cancellation vs. Villanova? And then the Navy Yard team is credited with the last six games starting with Lehigh on November 2? Both teams seem to have been coached by Byron W. Dickson and many of the players were the same. So maybe just one article? The Lehigh Football Record Book doesn't help much as it misdates their game against Muhlenberg and omits the November 2 game against League Island (Marines/Navy Yard) entirely. Let me know your thoughts on clearing this up. Thanks, Jweiss11 (talk) 02:00, 12 September 2021 (UTC)
 * I haven't looked at this in a while, but in my experience working on wartime service teams, it's not unusual to see inconsistency in how a time is referenced by the media (sometimes by the service unit, sometimes by the base where the unit was based). It seems likely that the Marines were based at the Navy Yard and that we're just seeing inconsistency in how the media referred to the team. This conclusion is supported by (i) same coach, (ii) same players, and (iii) lack of overlap where there are two games on the same day. Is there a source that actually seems to confirm that there were two different teams? Cbl62 (talk) 03:58, 12 September 2021 (UTC)
 * The source that suggests two separate teams is the Spalding Guide: https://archive.org/details/officialfootball19181nati/page/n507/mode/2up?view=theater. There would be no overlap in dates is it says the Marine team was disbanded after the October 26 win over Penn and then the Navy Yard team was started. Jweiss11 (talk) 07:22, 12 September 2021 (UTC)
 * I see what you mean. It is a strange circumstance that one team disbanded midway through the season and a new team was then reformed with the same coach and many of the same players. It would be good to see some deeper research.  For now, I'd suggest adding a clarifying note to the article based on the statements in the Spalding Guide. Cbl62 (talk) 17:53, 12 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Okay, I've added some explanation to the lead. I also redirected 1918 League Island Navy Yard football team to this article. Jweiss11 (talk) 20:12, 12 September 2021 (UTC)
 * That looks good. Thanks for raising the issue. Cbl62 (talk) 20:34, 12 September 2021 (UTC)