Before the Cincinnati Bengals vs. Atlanta Falcons game at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid, Spain, on Sunday, NFL Network aired an ESPN-produced feature about the history of American football abroad. That piece featured Trinity University’s David Lesch, Ph.D., Ewing Halsell Distinguished Professor of History. Lesch provided context for the story that centered around the Madrid Knights, a youth American football team formed in the late 1960s on an American military installation in Madrid.
The team was composed of children of American military service members stationed at Torrejon Air Base. Lesch said the purpose of that base, and others like it in western Europe, was to provide protection from possible Russian military threats during the Cold War. By the early 1990s, the U.S. drew down its presence in Spain, fully closing the base in 1992. Now known as the Royal Oaks Knights, the football program moved off base in 2014 to nearby Alcobendas, Madrid, so local young athletes can continue to play American football. View the entire ESPN feature here.