Some of San Jose State’s players were deputized by the Honolulu police department and told to patrol the streets as marshal law was declared. One of them...wound up helping deliver a baby late on the night of Dec. 7 during the blackout.
Seven other Spartans...decided to enlist.
...
The other players waited for passage back to the Bay Area. They ended up with a ride in steerage on an overloaded civilian ship that also carried badly wounded soldiers and many military families.
“To get aboard, to get passage, we had to sign a paper saying we’d help the wives and children”