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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
Completed
2026
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 can play the "Trench Football" game. It is based on an artifact in the exhibit, in order to make it interactive.
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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