FOOTBALL FOCUS
K
eele football coach and honorary graduate Dr Keith L Harrison,
a veteran of the British Army and RAF, had the initial idea:
“When I joined the Keele project to commemorate the
centenary of the Great War, I thought immediately of the impromptu
Christmas truce and the match that took place between the two
armies in 1914. I named the project Operation Friendship”. The aim
was to remember and show respect for the front line soldiers and
sportsmen who played football and exchanged gifts and mementos
during that famous encounter in No Man’s Land on Christmas Eve 1914.
The Keele team met student footballers from the prestigious RWTH
Aachen University, ranked among the best in Germany and one of
the top 150 of world universities (QS World University Rankings
2013). The match was played on a wintry evening in heavy rain just
a week before Christmas. The contest was competitive and close;
the score was 1-1 at half-time and just a few minutes before full-time
the Germans scored to achieve an appropriate result, a 2-2 draw.
Both teams were proud to take part in this act of remembrance in
the knowledge that the young men on both sides, unlike so many
of their predecessors, came home.
48 | Keele University