KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The National WWI Museum and Memorial be in the center of the NFL Draft in Kansas City, and they hope to tell their story to some of the tens of thousands of fans who will be surrounding them this week.
On the north lawn, crowds will be watching the draft, seeing picks made from largest stage ever built for the NFL Draft in front of Union Station.
And on the south side of the lawn, you’ll find the NFL Draft Experience full of food and activities for fans.
The museum will be open for NFL Draft fans during the draft beginning Thursday at noon. While the NFL Draft Experience is free to registered draft attendees, you can buy a $20 ticket to the museum in person. Children five and under will get into the museum free.
And in case you’re wondering, football does play a part in the story of WWI.
“Football was a couple of decades old by the time the war started,” said President & CEO of the National WWI Museum and Memorial Matthew Naylor, who added that football played a part in the war in two ways.
“In the training camps, football would be played as a fitness pursuit and then during the war itself, a great way to interrupt boredom, build friendships, camaraderie, so football was then played by American troops during the war itself.”
Fans will be able see some of that on display in an exhibit called ‘Entertaining The Troops’ at the museum.
“It’s said that WWI was months of boredom interrupted by moments of sheer terror so what did the troops do during those times?" Naylor said, "And so in this really wonderful exhibition, we tell the story of how the troops were entertained during WWI.”
You’ll also find a selfie station in the museum and items like a WWI era football in the giftshop alongside a book, ‘War Football: World War I and the Birth of the NFL” written by author Chris Serb.
Serb spoke about the book last month at the museum. He believes that while pro football already existed and the creation of the organized pro football we know today was inevitable, it was the way football was played during the war was what helped launch the sport years earlier.
“The war and these networks of military teams that competed against each other and the top colleges during the war really gave a jumpstart to this idea among the troops who were football-playing soldiers and sailors saying ‘wait a second, maybe we can keep playing football after college’,” Serb said.
This won’t be the first time we’ve seen celebratory crowds on the grounds of the National WWI Museum and Memorial like Kansas City’s World Series and Super Bowl Parades and celebrations.
KSHB 41 asked Naylor how the museum balance being a place of celebration and a memorial.
“The NFL have been really respectful of the memorial and we've worked with them to ensure that we have appropriately defined what can and can't happen here,” Naylor said. “Secondly, we think that the values for which people fought, liberty, democracy, freedom, patriotism, that means also celebration and so it's not in conflict, so long as we're respectful, and here on the grounds, what better place to gather and celebrate those things than here at the National WWI Museum and Memorial.”