The Coach Who Vanished: A Bizarre Christmas Football Mystery from 1917

Before the era of 12-team playoffs and million-dollar bowl games, the 1917 football season was pure chaos, defined by World War I restrictions and a lack of organized post-season play. Amidst this turmoil, an impromptu Christmas Day tiebreaker game was scheduled in San Diego, pitting the Utah Artillerymen (Camp Kearney) against the Balboa Park team. But the biggest drama wasn't on the field; it was off it, where the Utah squad's coach vanished just two days before kickoff. This is the astonishing, forgotten story of Coach Richard F. King, a true football history rogue whose disappearance forced a team to play its biggest game coachless.

The story from our guest Timothy Brown's archives in a post he put out titled: The 1917 Postseason and the AWOL Football Coach.

The Chaotic Post-Season of 1917

In the early days of football, postseason games were rare, and World War I further complicated travel and scheduling. The prestigious Rose Bowl, for instance, had only just returned in 1916. Sensing an opportunity for local excitement, San Diego decided to host its own holiday spectacle in Balboa Park.

The contest materialized after a December 9th match between the local Balboa Park team and the championship winners of Camp Kearney—a field artillery unit largely composed of men from the Utah National Guard—ended in a tie. A Christmas Day rematch was quickly arranged, but the military team's leader, Coach Richard F. King, was quickly becoming the center of attention for all the wrong reasons.

The Disappearing Coach and the Web of Lies

Coach King, who had served along the Mexican border in 1916 and was coaching the artillery unit’s football team, was a man shrouded in a spectacular fog of deceit. He routinely told elaborate lies, claiming he attended prestigious institutions like West Point and Lehigh and was even the brother of famous Princeton All-American, Phil King. More troubling than his tall tales was his habit of borrowing significant sums of money from fellow officers without repaying his debts.

As the Christmas Day game approached, King’s superior officer finally confronted him about his conduct and finances. Rather than facing the music, Richard F. King simply disappeared. He went officially AWOL from the Army just 48 hours before his team's crucial post-season game, leaving the Utah Artillerymen scrambling and coachless for their biggest match of the season.

The Rogue’s Continuing Saga

King’s bizarre story didn't end there. He was reportedly spotted partying in Los Angeles before beginning a cross-country odyssey, mailing letters from El Paso and Chicago that falsely claimed he was already serving in France. A world without national IDs or digital records allowed him to thrive.

In Chicago, King re-enlisted under a completely different name, successfully deploying to France where he was eventually spotted by a man who had previously served under him in California. Arrested and shipped back to the U.S., King promptly escaped custody. Undeterred, he reenlisted a third time under a new alias. His final capture occurred in Hawaii after he accrued too many debts while scheduled to sail to Siberia after the war.

Despite the coach's ongoing personal chaos, the Utah Artillerymen were forced to play the Christmas Day tiebreaker. Without their leader, they ultimately fell to the Balboa Park squad with a final score of 24–13, suffering a defeat made even sadder by their coach’s spectacular abandonment. King and his wife disappeared shortly thereafter, never to be heard from again.

Conclusion

The story of the Utah Artillerymen and their disappearing coach on December 25, 1917, highlights the wild, unregulated nature of early football history. It’s a remarkable pre-Super Bowl tale that proves the drama surrounding the gridiron—from recruiting scandals to financial fraud—is hardly new. While the Chicago Bears and Bronko Nagurski were still years away from defining the professional game, this single, strange Christmas match in San Diego remains a compelling anecdote about the characters and chaos that built American football.

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