Image and words sourced from the Sydney Morning Herald Archives Instagram account.

The US armed forces hold their traditional Independence Day, Army vs Navy gridiron match at the Sydney Sports Ground, 4 July 1943. The Army won 14 to nil. By an unidentified photographer for The Sun, a co-publication of @sydneymorningherald ID: FXB294083

“America yesterday showed Sydney how to put on a big sport event with drama, mirth and pageantry. It was a riot of colour, colossal banks of people, cheer squads of tonsil tenors, an ornamented Army mule and a brilliantly robed Navy goat.”

“The ceremony, splendour and the throng around the green oval made this Fourth of July forever memorable to those citizens of Sydney who got lucky breaks and managed to squeeze into the enclosure…. Hundreds swarmed up the great latticed floodlight masts. They clustered like flying foxes all over the scoreboard.”