# The Mosquito Bowl
**The Mosquito Bowl** was a football game played on [Christmas Eve](https://www.edgepedia.org/christmas-eve) 1944 on [Guadalcanal](https://www.edgepedia.org/guadalcanal) between two regiments of the [United States Marine Corps](https://www.edgepedia.org/united-states-marine-corps), the 4th and the 29th, during training for the invasion of Okinawa in the Second World War. The rosters were filled with former college football players, including All-Americans, captains from big-name schools, and future or draftee professional players, and 15 of the 65 men who played died at Okinawa the following year.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/dec/20/mosquito-bowl-football-game-buzz-bissinger-book) The game was brought to wide public attention by Buzz Bissinger's 2022 nonfiction book *The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II* and by a 2026 film adaptation directed by Peter Berg.[2](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/buzz-bissinger/the-mosquito-bowl/) • [3](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/the-mosquito-bowl)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Date and place | Christmas Eve, 24 December 1944, on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands[1](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/dec/20/mosquito-bowl-football-game-buzz-bissinger-book) |
| Teams | The 4th and 29th Marine Regiments of the 6th Marine Division[1](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/dec/20/mosquito-bowl-football-game-buzz-bissinger-book) |
| Players | 65 Marines with college football pedigrees, including All-Americans and future or draftee NFL players[1](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/dec/20/mosquito-bowl-football-game-buzz-bissinger-book) • [2](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/buzz-bissinger/the-mosquito-bowl/) |
| Result | A scoreless tie; what began as two-hand touch became a rough "semi-tackle" game on a field dotted with shards of coral[4](https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/what-im-reading-the-mosquito-bowl-buzz-bissinger/) |
| Aftermath | 15 of the 65 players died at Okinawa in 1945, in the war's deadliest battle[1](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/dec/20/mosquito-bowl-football-game-buzz-bissinger-book) |
| Book | *The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II* by Buzz Bissinger, Harper, 480 pages, published 13 September 2022[2](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/buzz-bissinger/the-mosquito-bowl/) |
| Film | Peter Berg's adaptation, in select US theaters 30 October 2026 and on Netflix 25 November 2026[3](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/the-mosquito-bowl) |
## The game
By December 1944 the [6th Marine Division](https://www.edgepedia.org/6th-marine-division-united-states) was stationed on Guadalcanal, which American forces had captured from the Japanese two years earlier and which now served as a training and staging base before the invasion of Okinawa.[2](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/buzz-bissinger/the-mosquito-bowl/) • [5](https://www.15minutes.ai/book-summary/The-Mosquito-Bowl-5018) Morale was low as the men considered where the war would take them in the coming year and whether they would survive it. To lift spirits, the command approved a football game between the 4th and 29th regiments, which had long debated which unit would prevail if they ever met on the field.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/dec/20/mosquito-bowl-football-game-buzz-bissinger-book)
The event was more organized than a pickup game. There were goalposts, a regulation-size field, game programs, marching bands, more than a thousand spectators, and a radio broadcast on the Marine Corps network.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/dec/20/mosquito-bowl-football-game-buzz-bissinger-book) • [6](https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/09/24/exclusive-buzz-bissingers-new-book-the-mosquito-bowl-tells-an-untold-story-from-the-greatest-generation/amp/) Many of the watching Marines had placed bets on the outcome.[7](https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Review-A-war-story-Mosquito-Bowl-defines-17451626.php) The field itself was scattered with coral and gravel, and shards of coral tore pants and skin.[8](https://sixthmarinedivision.com/Newsletters/2022summer.pdf) • [4](https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/what-im-reading-the-mosquito-bowl-buzz-bissinger/)
The game ended in a scoreless tie. Few details survived; the contest occupies barely a chapter of Bissinger's 480-page book, and one reviewer noted that the game itself takes up less than a page.[4](https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/what-im-reading-the-mosquito-bowl-buzz-bissinger/) • [7](https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Review-A-war-story-Mosquito-Bowl-defines-17451626.php) Bissinger described the afternoon as the last time the men were allowed to be boys: "For three hours – not that long – they got away from training and combat and what might happen at Okinawa. It was joy, pure joy, then back to training."[1](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/dec/20/mosquito-bowl-football-game-buzz-bissinger-book)
## The players
The concentration of football talent in the division was no accident. The Marines were part of the Navy, which saw football as good preparation for combat: discipline, playing through pain, getting used to violence, and teamwork.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/dec/20/mosquito-bowl-football-game-buzz-bissinger-book) The players came from schools including Purdue, Illinois, Wisconsin, Fordham, Brown, and Notre Dame, and some were [All-America](https://www.edgepedia.org/all-america) selections.[4](https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/what-im-reading-the-mosquito-bowl-buzz-bissinger/) The resulting game featured three All-Americans and seven former college captains.[9](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/the-mosquito-bowl-movie-true-story?inapp=true)
Bissinger's book centers on four men, who are also the leads in the film:[9](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/the-mosquito-bowl-movie-true-story?inapp=true)
- **John McLaughry**, a blocking back at [Brown University](https://www.edgepedia.org/brown-university) under his father and coach DeOrmond "Tuss" McLaughry, the team's heavyweight boxing champion, who had played professionally for the [New York Giants](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-york-giants) before enlisting.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/dec/20/mosquito-bowl-football-game-buzz-bissinger-book) • [7](https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Review-A-war-story-Mosquito-Bowl-defines-17451626.php)
- **Dave Schreiner**, a two-time All-American end at Wisconsin from a small farm town, whom Bissinger described as humble, self-critical, and deeply connected to his family; his surviving letters, including correspondence from his fiancée Odette Hendrickson, were an important source for the book.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/dec/20/mosquito-bowl-football-game-buzz-bissinger-book) • [9](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/the-mosquito-bowl-movie-true-story?inapp=true)
- **Tony Butkovich**, an All-American at Purdue who played three seasons at Illinois, one of seven children of a Croatian immigrant coal miner in central Illinois; three of the seven siblings went to major universities.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/dec/20/mosquito-bowl-football-game-buzz-bissinger-book) • [7](https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Review-A-war-story-Mosquito-Bowl-defines-17451626.php)
- **Bob Bauman**, a tackle and punter at Wisconsin who had gone to work in onion fields near his hometown south of Chicago after his father died.[7](https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Review-A-war-story-Mosquito-Bowl-defines-17451626.php)
Another player, [George Murphy](https://www.edgepedia.org/george-murphy), captain of the 1942 Notre Dame team, enlisted after graduating early and played in the game; he was fatally wounded on 15 May 1945 in the battle for Sugar Loaf Hill on Okinawa, the fourth Mosquito Bowl player to die there.[4](https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/what-im-reading-the-mosquito-bowl-buzz-bissinger/)
## Okinawa
Soon after the game the Marines shipped out for Okinawa, the 82-day battle in spring and summer 1945 that cost the Marine Corps, the Army, and the Navy nearly 13,000 dead and three times as many wounded.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/dec/20/mosquito-bowl-football-game-buzz-bissinger-book) • [7](https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Review-A-war-story-Mosquito-Bowl-defines-17451626.php) Of the 65 men who played in the Mosquito Bowl, 15 died there.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/dec/20/mosquito-bowl-football-game-buzz-bissinger-book) Bissinger records the exact burial location of each fallen Marine; George Murphy was first buried in the 6th Marine Division Cemetery and later reinterred at Riverview Cemetery in [South Bend, Indiana](https://www.edgepedia.org/south-bend-indiana).[4](https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/what-im-reading-the-mosquito-bowl-buzz-bissinger/)
Bissinger's research also touched his own family: his father, Harry G. Bissinger, who died in 2001 and never spoke of his service, had been a Marine in the 4th Regiment on Guadalcanal at the time of the game and later on Okinawa, and might have been among the spectators.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/dec/20/mosquito-bowl-football-game-buzz-bissinger-book)
## The book and the film
Bissinger, a [Pulitzer Prize](https://www.edgepedia.org/pulitzer-prize)-winning journalist best known for *Friday Night Lights*, spent five years researching and writing the book, published by Harper on 13 September 2022.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/dec/20/mosquito-bowl-football-game-buzz-bissinger-book) • [2](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/buzz-bissinger/the-mosquito-bowl/) He has said the book is not a football book but about the influence of football in the military, and Kirkus named it one of its Best Books of 2022.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/dec/20/mosquito-bowl-football-game-buzz-bissinger-book) • [2](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/buzz-bissinger/the-mosquito-bowl/)
[Peter Berg](https://www.edgepedia.org/peter-berg), who directed the 2004 film adaptation of *Friday Night Lights*, adapted the book for Netflix, co-writing the screenplay with Mark L. Smith. [Nicholas Galitzine](https://www.edgepedia.org/nicholas-galitzine) plays McLaughry, Bill Skarsgård plays Bauman, Ray Nicholson plays Butkovich, and Tom Francis plays Schreiner; Berg also appears as General Simon Buckner. The film was produced by Berg's Film 44 with Brian Grazer for Imagine Entertainment, filmed in [Queensland](https://www.edgepedia.org/queensland) and northern New South Wales, Australia, and opens in select US theaters on 30 October 2026 before streaming on Netflix on 25 November 2026.[3](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/the-mosquito-bowl) • [10](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/ray-nicholson-and-tom-francis-join-lead-cast-in-peter-bergs-the-mosquito) Berg has emphasized that the film is a war movie that happens to have football players in it, not a football movie.[3](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/the-mosquito-bowl)
## References
1. [The Mosquito Bowl: 'Three hours of pure joy' amid the horrors of war, The Guardian (20 December 2022)](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/dec/20/mosquito-bowl-football-game-buzz-bissinger-book)
2. [The Mosquito Bowl, Kirkus Reviews (review posted 16 June 2022)](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/buzz-bissinger/the-mosquito-bowl/)
3. ['The Mosquito Bowl' from Peter Berg Teaser Trailer and First Look, Netflix Tudum (9 September 2026)](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/the-mosquito-bowl)
4. [What I'm Reading: The Mosquito Bowl, Buzz Bissinger, Notre Dame Magazine](https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/what-im-reading-the-mosquito-bowl-buzz-bissinger/)
5. [The Mosquito Bowl Book Summary, 15minutes.ai](https://www.15minutes.ai/book-summary/The-Mosquito-Bowl-5018)
6. [Bissinger's New Book 'The Mosquito Bowl' Tells an Untold Story from WWII, Breitbart News (25 September 2022)](https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/09/24/exclusive-buzz-bissingers-new-book-the-mosquito-bowl-tells-an-untold-story-from-the-greatest-generation/amp/)
7. [Review: A war story, 'Mosquito Bowl' defines courage, duty, Associated Press via SFGATE (19 September 2022)](https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Review-A-war-story-Mosquito-Bowl-defines-17451626.php)
8. [Sixth Marine Division Newsletter, Vol. 47 No. 2, Summer 2022](https://sixthmarinedivision.com/Newsletters/2022summer.pdf)
9. [The Mosquito Bowl Movie True Story: What Happened to the Real Marines Behind the Netflix Film?, Netflix Tudum (12 October 2026)](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/the-mosquito-bowl-movie-true-story?inapp=true)
10. [Ray Nicholson and Tom Francis Join Lead Cast in Peter Berg's 'The Mosquito Bowl', About Netflix (22 April 2025)](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/ray-nicholson-and-tom-francis-join-lead-cast-in-peter-bergs-the-mosquito)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media › Films based on radio, television, and other media sources*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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