How a Purple Heart and Christmas Truce connect FIFA World Cup and KC’s WWI Museum
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- Howard Mitchell Sloan fought at Belleau Wood and Chateau-Thierry during World War I.
- Sloan received a Purple Heart after two fingers were shot off his left hand.
- Sloan rarely discussed his wartime injuries and hid his damaged hand in photos.
From what he described as “somewhere in France” on March 1, 1918, U.S. Marine Howard Mitchell Sloan wrote home that he was beginning to think of the land “as one big mud hole.”
Having slept on straw for five months, the Illinois native wrote to an uncle, “I will soon be a Rip Van Winkle the second.”
Still, he was looking forward to “better times” in the weeks ahead, anticipating the trees filling in and picturesque hilltop views of red tile roofs in villages.
Instead, the summer was dominated by pivotal-but-gory battles at Belleau Wood and Chateau-Thierry, where Sloan was among more than 10,000 Americans left wounded, missing in action or killed.
Sloan was awarded a Purple Heart after two fingers were shot off his left hand.
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Not that you would know that from the man who went on to become a well-known building contractor and land developer. Like most combat veterans, he seldom spoke of the war. According to family history, he tended to keep that hand out of view in photos.
The fact that he fought in World War I isn’t mentioned until the seventh paragraph of his 1962 obituary in the Colorado Springs Gazette.
But Sloan’s legacy is thriving in an entirely new way today as its being channeled through grandson Bobby Sloan.
It’s not just that the latter cherishes so much of what he knows about the man with whom he shares a middle name — including that family letter and a belief that he was passed down an innate interest in design and architecture that led to a career in sports project management.
It’s that Sloan also happens to be the Populous principal and senior event manager in charge of bringing to life the FIFA Fan Festival on the grounds of the National WW I Museum and Memorial — where Howard Mitchell Sloan is among those honored with a Walk of Honor brick.
“Every time I step into that building, I feel something I can’t explain,” Sloan said, later adding, “It’s powerful.”
Personalizing the war
Personal as that might be to him, it’s also a compelling dynamic in a more sweeping way when it comes to the epicenter of the World Cup experience here in Kansas City — and the only 2026 U.S. Fan Fest being conducted at a national memorial site.
“It’s a remarkable connection for (Sloan),” Matt Naylor, the institution’s president and CEO, said. “It gives, I think, even more meaning to the fact that Fan Fest is on the grounds. And that the World Cup’s roots are (in) World War I.”
Naylor can relate to the significance on many levels, including that his own grandfather, Allen Naylor, fought in the war.
And in knowing that each such individual connection animates the memorial’s purpose and meaning in a way that can get lost amid the momentous testimony to the consequences of decisions and actions.
“It can sometimes feel like it’s a moment in history which is anonymous,” said Naylor, who has a collection of his grandfather’s keepsakes on a desk in his office. “And it’s actually about boys and girls, teenagers, who went off to war, families who were affected, cultures that were transformed.
“But ultimately it’s about individuals, and it’s very important for us to personalize like that.”
With such a poignant sense of responsibility, it might seem a curious juxtaposition for such a celebration to be held on the venerable grounds dedicated 100 years ago in November and recognized since 2004 as the nation’s official World War I museum.
But Sloan and Populous have put this together in what Naylor called “a very dignified and respectful way” that harmoniously integrates the architecture of the memorial into the site’s sight lines and as much as possible accommodates accessibility to the museum.
“If you’re at the south end looking north, you’ve got that beautiful (65-foot) heart in the midst of it, and rising above it is the memorial,” Naylor said. “And that says something also about the people of Kansas City: that for the last 100 years they’ve been stewards of the memory of the nation’s veterans.
“That’s a powerful set of values that are also being incorporated into the optics (and) visuals of this place, which really also differentiates it from other cities that are also hosting Fen Fest.”
Fan Fest also reiterates what the museum is all about, as both the “gathering place of Kansas City” and a solemn memorial, he added.
While there can be what he called a delicate balance to that, Naylor thought about what he called the most stark version of the point: protests on the grounds.
They welcome that, he said, because what is most sacred here is honoring those who fought for the principles of democracy — including the right to assemble and exercise free speech.
“So it’s not a stretch,” he said, “to ensure that we do both of these: preserve the dignity of the memorial, and yet welcome people to celebrate together in community. It’s all consistent with the values and ideals for which this memorial was raised.”
WWI and the World Cup
All the more in this case when you consider the role World War I played in the advent of the World Cup.
When it was launched in 1930, the spirit envisioned by the then- FIFA president — and WWI veteran — Jules Rimet was to help bring nations together to avert future global conflicts.
“Indeed, the World Cup, its origins, are in response to World War I,” Naylor said. “And the horror that it brought, with a desire that we all collectively share for world peace.”
Yes, there has been an occasional opposite impact, such as between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969. But the broader ideal persists.
And it’s understood to be based not merely on that post-war mindset but also on the Christmas Truce of 1914, largely among British and German soldiers.
As detailed in the museum’s current exhibition on The Beautiful Game and described by Naylor, soldiers put arms aside, exchanged gifts, collected their dead, sang Christmas songs together and played soccer with each other.
“The people’s humanity shone through,” he said. “In fact, people’s humanity shone through to the degree that those who participated in the Christmas truce were rotated off the front.
“Because once you see the humanity in the other, it’s very difficult to shoot them.”
Designing an experience
Sloan never met his grandfather, but he started taking after him early when it came to his attraction to building and design.
“Probably the moment I started playing with Legos,” he said, smiling.
Next thing you know, he was on to 3-D puzzles. Before long, he was following the professional path set by a man whose obit described him as having “pioneered many of the ideas found in today’s modern homes such as perimeter heating systems and thermo-pane glass. … He also pioneered the concept of solar ranch homes.”
With his aunt, Ann League, and her family living here, the Colorado native in some ways came to look at Kansas City as a second home. Especially after he stayed with them 20 years ago during a summer internship with Populous, which morphed into work designing and executing projects at numerous Super Bowls, several Olympics and NFL Drafts and each of the NHL Winter Classics.
“We’re not only designing a place but also an experience,” he said, “adding that third and fourth dimension to it.”
But never one with such a personal dimension to it for Sloan, who is embracing the sort of full-circle connection that reverberates with Naylor both personally and as the museum’s steward.
“It doesn’t personalize it to the degree it’s sort of sentimental,” Naylor said. “But it makes it that this is not an abstract period of history. Or abstract idea. It really is connected to family.”