Pitt Football Head Coach Leads Machine Guns

Joseph "Joe" Miller Duff Jr. was destined to lead men. Unfortunately, like so many brilliant young men of their time, his life was cut short in the killing fields of the Meusue-Argonne. Duff was an Ivy League graduate, the Head Football Coach for the University of Pittsburgh, an attorney for the Allegheny County Bar in Pittsburgh, and a World War I machine gunner. Joe Duff was an American hero. Despite being rejected by the Army on three different occasions for medical reasons, Duff was determined to serve his country and was eventually able to convince the local draft board to overlook his vision problems.

Coach Joe Duff, "The Owl" 1915

Duff was a 1912 graduate of Princeton University. As a standout player on their varsity football team, he was named a 1911 ‘All-American’ and proclaimed to be one of the ‘greatest guards in football history’ according to a 1913 Pittsburgh Press newspaper article.  After graduation he was asked to stay on at Princeton to serves as an assistant football coach. The following year he received an offer to become head football coach at the University of Pittsburgh. Duff delivered two winning seasons for Pittsburgh in 1913 and 1914. Following the 1914 season, Pitt found an opportunity to hire legendary coach Glenn Scobey "Pop" Warner. Coach Warner helped Pitt win the College Football National Championship in 1915. That same year, Duff obtained his Law Degree from the University of Pittsburgh and went on to work in his brother James Duff's law firm.

At the time of the national draft registration, Duff was already a college graduate. He enlisted in the Military Training Association, and was situated at the Reserve Officers Training Camp at Fort Niagara in June 1917. At the end of his training at Fort Niagara, NY, he was not assigned to a specialized unit as many of the other candidates listed on the roster. His vision problems likely kept the Army from granting him a commission.

June 5, 1917 Draft Registration R.O.T.C. Fort Niagara NY

In December 1917, Duff worked as an attorney for the United States Justice Department and was responsible for prosecuting men who attempted to evade the draft, the so called "slackers" as they were often called in the newspapers of the time. 

Pittsburgh Daily Post, March 5, 1918

However, this role as a government prosecutor did not protect him from being called up under the terms of the Selective Service Draft. When his draft number was called in Carnegie, PA, he took the opportunity to persuade the draft board to waive his medical condition and allow him to be inducted into the Army. He was sent to Camp Lee, Virginia in March 1918 and joined with Company D of the 313th Machine Gun Battalion, 80th Division.

Members of the 313th Machine Gun Battalion at Camp Lee, VA (Fred C. DeVore collection.)

Duff set sail with the Battalion aboard the USS Mercury in May 1918 as a Private. In less than one month he was promoted to Corporal. His prior military training to become an officer at Fort Niagara surely made Duff stand out among the other men. Duff was soon promoted to the rank of Sergeant as part of his machine gun battalion.

His tenure with the 313th Machine Gun Battalion took him into action in part of the Artois Sector of France from July 23 to August 18, 1918, and in the Saint Mihiel Offensive Corps Reserve from September 12 to 16, 1918. During my research for the book "Good War, Great Men." I uncovered letters written by Duff's commanding officer that revealed this officer's fondness for Sergeant Duff.

Commanding Company D was Captain William George Thomas, a 1909 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Thomas was the former captain of their UNC varsity football team and recognized Duff within the ranks of D Company. Thomas wrote letters home recalling that Duff was once hired by UNC to coach their football team (1915 season).

The Pittsburgh Press, November 16, 1915

The officers of the A.E.F. were frequently being asked to provide recommendations for men within their ranks who could be sent to officers training camps in France to lead other men. Captain Thomas recommended Duff for officers training, and on September 30, 1918, Joe Duff accepted his commission as a Second Lieutenant and was assigned to lead a machine gun company in the 32nd Division, 125th Infantry.

32nd Division "Red Arrow" 

After only ten days with his new unit, Duff was killed while fighting at Gesnes-en-Argonne, part of the Meuse-Argonne offensive. His 'Red Arrow Division' engaged German troops east of the Meuse River until the Armistice was signed. The 32nd Division suffered a total of 13,261 casualties, including 2,250 men killed in action during the war, making it third in total number of battle deaths among all U.S. Army Divisions. Duff's body was buried in a temporary gravesite in Dur-sur-Meuse, France.

Reading News-Times, November 26, 1918

Lieutenant Duff's brother, Captain George M. Duff, a Chaplain serving in France with the 305th Infantry, sent a telegram back home to his brother James to notify the family of Joseph’s death. The remains of Lieutenant Duff were returned to the family about three years after his death and a funeral service was held on September 9, 1921 at the First Presbyterian Church in Carnegie, Pennsylvania. Duff’s brother George, then pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Elwood City, presided over the funeral and his remains were interred in the Chartiers Cemetery in Carnegie, Pennsylvania.

Photo from Findagrave.com (courtesy Gordon Hunter)

His brother James H. Duff later become a prominent figure in Pennsylvania politics and served as the 34th Governor of Pennsylvania from 1947-1951 and also a United States Senator from Pennsylvania 1951-1957. Joe Duff was truly an 'All American' in every respect, and it is with great honor that we remember his sacrifice during this Centennial Anniversary.

The book: Good War, Great Men.

I am proud to release my new book that honors the history and service of this World War I Battalion.

Our Nation is in the midst of building a National Memorial in Washington DC to honor more than 4 million American families that sent their sons and daughters to serve in uniform during the Great War. This book follows the story of of the 313th Machine Gun Battalion through many unpublished letters and journals with over 1,000 men listed on the rolls.

Read about Coach Joe Duff, the head football coach from Pitt who was drafted into this battalion and later killed in battle. Captain John Kean, a Harvard graduate who led my grandfather's Company and was wounded during the Battle of the Meuse-Argonne, the deadliest battle in American History with over 26,000 Americans killed. Read about Alex MacWilliam badly gassed in the attack and recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross. Joseph Harold Parsons, a dentist who was killed at the front trying to treat the wounded. His buddies from Erie were in the thick of fighting, and he put himself in harm's way to help his friends.

Amazon Books: Good War, Great Men. 

BACK COVER: This is a compilation of the ranks of a World War I Machine Gun Battalion through first-hand accounts of more than a dozen soldiers who served together during the War. Their stories have been rediscovered by compiling unpublished letters and journals with historical insights to provide a compelling history of the men of the 313th Machine Gun Battalion. A young Private colorfully describes the antics of his fellow draftees from Erie, Pennsylvania while they trained at Camp Lee preparing for war. An idealistic officer provides vivid details of the simple pleasures and the aggravating moments as the battalion travels through the French countryside on their way to the front. The naïve desires of one officer, hoping he can get into a ‘real show’ are later extinguished when the unit takes on multiple casualties from a gas attack. After escaping an incessant shelling, the honest prose of one officer reveals a mistake that was made, that cost the lives of men during a harrowing event in the Battle of the Meuse-Argonne. The miserable days of long marches, muddy trenches and soaking wet uniforms were common. Being able to laugh through the misery, sharing a bottle of French wine, finding a swimming hole for the men, or sleeping in late under the warmth of the sun occasionally made it a good war. This book was released to commemorate the Centennial Anniversary of World War I and to honor the men of the 313th Machine Gun Battalion, 80th Division.