 In 1942, Ohio State lost 22 veteran players to military service as the United States joined World War II, and with a team of mostly sophomores went on to lose only once in winning its first national championship.Brown accepted a commission in the United States Navy in 1944 and directed his assistant Carroll Widdoes to head the team in his absence.The 1944 team fielded 31 freshmen but went undefeated and untied, including a victory over Paul Brown's Great Lakes Navy team.