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The Beautiful Game and the Great War exhibit in the museum rotunda, with hanging banners over a turf pitch

National WWI Museum & Memorial · Kansas City, MO

The Beautiful Game

A partial turf pitch brings visitors into the history of soccer during World War I. A temporary exhibit displayed during the 2026 FIFA World Cup connected soccer fans with the National WWI Museum — a Fan Fest location in Kansas City.

Upland Exhibits worked with National WWI Museum curators to design a temporary exhibit that showcases soccer's impact on morale during the war effort.

A non-linear exhibit with soccer-related artifacts and a series of life-sized mannequins dressed in reproductions of WWI-era kits.

Client
National WWI Museum and Memorial
Scope
Exhibit Design & Fabrication
Two young visitors in red kits view the Football Goes to War panels as a striped-jersey footballer mannequin lunges for the ball
Young visitors take in the "Football Goes to War" section, where a period footballer is frozen mid-stride on the turf pitch.
A soldier-uniform mannequin balances a football in front of an aerial photograph of a POW camp in the Football on the Front Lines section
"Football on the Front Lines" sets a uniformed soldier mid-kick against an aerial photograph of a POW camp with a visible soccer pitch.
A family gathers around an interactive pedestal with red trench-maze trays wired to a buzzer
At an interactive station, visitors play "Trench Football" — a playable reproduction of a game artifact displayed in the exhibit.
Two teenage visitors concentrate on the wired trench-maze game at an interactive pedestal
The steady-hand game draws a crowd; a case behind displays an original wartime kit.
Wide view of the Beautiful Game exhibit in the museum rotunda, with hanging banners over a turf pitch

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