Most NFL careers end with a contract dispute or a busted knee. Maurice "Footsie" Britt's ended with a German bullet, 32 grenades, and a Medal of Honor pinned to his chest on a college football field.
The Association of the United States Army just dropped the 29th issue in its ongoing graphic novel series, and this one tells the story of the only man in American history to earn every top Army combat decoration for valor in a single war. The book hits as part of AUSA's 2026 lineup of four planned releases, with WWI flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker queued up for July.
One Pass. One Touchdown. One War.
Before he ever wore a helmet for the 3rd Infantry Division, Britt wore one for the Detroit Lions. His 1941 season was a footnote, nine games, one catch, a 45-yard touchdown, and then Pearl Harbor rewrote everyone's plans. He swapped the pads for fatigues and shipped out to North Africa in November 1942 at 23 years old.
The Arkansas alum was 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds. The Army would soon find a much harder use for that frame than blocking defensive ends.
November 10, 1943: The Day He Threw Rocks at Germans
Near Mount Rotondo, in Italy's Mignano Gap, Britt's company was burned down to the bone. Then roughly 100 German soldiers came over the top in a counterattack. What happened next reads less like a battle report and more like something a screenwriter would have rejected for being unrealistic.
- Britt took a bullet to the side
- Shrapnel tore into his chest, face, and hands
- His field glasses were shot apart
- His canteen was punctured
- He kept fighting
By the time the dust settled, Britt had thrown 32 grenades, wiped out a machine-gun crew, killed five enemy soldiers, wounded more, and helped capture four prisoners. His commanding officer, Lt. Col. Lionel McGarr, called him a "one-man army" and noted that by the end Britt was literally chucking rocks at the Germans because he had run out of everything else.
He refused medical treatment until Mount Rotondo was American territory.
Anzio Took the Arm, Not the Man
Three months later at Anzio, a tank shell punched into Britt's command post. Sixteen men were inside. Five died. Britt walked away missing his right arm and with his feet badly mangled. Five blood transfusions and a long ride home later, his combat war was over.
On June 7, 1944, he stood on the University of Arkansas football field, the same grass he had played on as a kid, and received the Medal of Honor.
The Quote That Says Everything
For all the action-movie statistics, Britt himself wasn't romantic about any of it. His own words land harder than any commendation:
"War is not as heroic as we sometimes try to make it. It's mostly filth and sorrow and grime and all the bad things and very little of the good things."
That line is why his story belongs in a graphic novel, and why this kind of project matters. Britt went on to become Arkansas's lieutenant governor, took a swing at the governor's mansion in 1986, and died in 1995 at 76. But it's the 23-year-old throwing rocks at a numerically superior enemy who keeps showing up in history books.
Where to Find the Book
The Britt edition of AUSA's Medal of Honor graphic novel series is available online now. If you grew up on comics and ended up curious about real American heroes, this is the easiest doorway into one of the wildest service records the Army has ever recorded.
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