The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II

Written by Buzz Bissinger

Narrated by George Newbern

“Buzz Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights is an American classic. With The Mosquito Bowl, he is back with a true story even more colorful and profound. This book too is destined to become a classic. I devoured it.” — John Grisham

An extraordinary, untold story of the Second World War in the vein of Unbroken and The Boys in the Boat, from the author of Friday Night Lights and Three Nights in August.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, college football was at the height of its popularity.  As the nation geared up for total war, one branch of the service dominated the aspirations of college football stars: the United States Marine Corps. Which is why, on Christmas Eve of 1944, when the 4th and 29th Marine regiments found themselves in the middle of the Pacific Ocean training for what would be the bloodiest battle of the war – the invasion of Okinawa—their ranks included one of the greatest pools of football talent ever assembled: Former All Americans, captains from Wisconsin and Brown and Notre Dame, and nearly twenty men who were either drafted or would ultimately play in the NFL.   

When the trash-talking between the 4th and 29th over who had the better football team reached a fever pitch, it was decided: The two regiments would play each other in a football game as close to the real thing as you could get in the dirt and coral of Guadalcanal.  The bruising and bloody game that followed became known as “The Mosquito Bowl.” 

Within a matter of months, 15 of the 65 players in “The Mosquito Bowl” would be killed at Okinawa, by far the largest number of American athletes ever to die in a single battle. The Mosquito Bowl is the story of these brave and beautiful young men, those who survived and those who did not.  It is the story of the families and the landscape that shaped them. It is a story of a far more innocent time in both college athletics and the life of the country, and of the loss of that innocence.  

Writing with the style and rigor that won him a Pulitzer Prize and have made several of his books modern classics, Buzz Bissinger takes us from the playing fields of America’s campuses where boys played at being Marines, to the final time they were allowed to still be boys on that field of dirt and coral, to the darkest and deadliest days that followed at Okinawa. 

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Sep 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9780062879950

Buzz Bissinger

Buzz Bissinger was born in 1954. He is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, whose books include the New York Times bestsellers 3 Nights in August and Friday Night Lights. He has served as a contributing editor for Vanity Fair and as a sports columnist for the Daily Beast, and has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Republic, Time, and many other publications. He lives in both Southwestern Washington State and Philadelphia. He is married to Lisa Smith and has three children.

Reviews for The Mosquito Bowl

[Criss Roberts · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I’m no sports fan but This isn’t a book about sports. It’s about things so much bigger, sacrifices so much grander that it makes one wonder why we glorify the things we do

[msf59 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fairly interesting nonfiction story about a little-known story set in the Pacific during WWII. Decently written but contains very little about the game itself. Lots of filler.

[smashbasile · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I didn't really understand why this book is titled "The Mosquito Bowl". While I found the information and stories of the soldiers featured, I would have liked to at least read more about the game itself. That being said, I did learn a few things I hadn't realized before today.

[jamespurcell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The story follows members of the US Marine 6th division as they train and engage in a football game between two regiments of that division. The division next invades Okinawa and loses 15 of the 65 participants of that game during the ferocious fighting to capture that island. The author vividly portrays their deaths during the very difficult fighting, on land and at sea where kamikazes cause many navy casualties, required to capture that island from the Japanese

[muddyboy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The thread that holds this book together is an arranged football game between all star college football players who are drafted into the military to serve on the Pacific front. The story of the game is secondary taking only a chapter to describe. The central focal point are the biographies of the players before and after the game itself. The book is a wonderful testament to the courage and sacrifice of the players and their families due to World War 2.