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The game has been played through conflicts in the past and has served as inspiration.
©Washington Post
December 1, 2001
In six months, U.S. Naval Academy football player Jeff Gaddy likely will be fighting a war against terrorism. But for now, the senior wide receiver is focused on today's Army game in Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium.
"While the game's going on, they're your enemy, pretty much; you've got your game face on, you know what you're there to do," said Gaddy, who plans to fly F/A-18D jet fighters for the Marine Corps after graduation in May.
This is Army-Navy in wartime: a rivalry so intense and so celebrated that Gen. Douglas MacArthur once hailed an Army win while his troops were engaged in fierce fighting in the Philippines. "We have stopped the war to celebrate your magnificent success," he whooped in a 1944 radiogram.
Steeped in history and tradition, today's game will reflect everything the contest has been since the annual rumble began in 1890: an unforgettable spectacle for the hundreds of cadets and midshipmen playing and cheering; for the 67,000 fans, alumni, military brass and politicians in the stands; and for the millions of Americans watching on television.
But with troops in Afghanistan and a nation still shaken by the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, the game already has greater significance.
"I don't know how the game could be more important to us," Navy's interim coach, Rick Lantz, said at a media luncheon in Philadelphia last week. "But it is more important to (the public). People look a little differently now at the military, police and firefighters. I think there will be great pride in the stands."
Army and Navy haven't always played in wartime. The game was not held during the Spanish-American War or during World War I. The teams might not be meeting Saturday if it weren't for the precedent set by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II.
Roosevelt considered canceling the 1942 Army-Navy matchup. (The game in 1941 was played only a week before the attack on Pearl Harbor.) Some of his advisers argued the Army-Navy game was a frivolous distraction. But Roosevelt, a former secretary of the Navy, decided the game could take place as long as it abided by wartime restrictions.
So, as the Germans were being surrounded by the Red Army in the battered streets of Stalingrad, and the U.S. Navy and Marines were gaining the upper hand against the Japanese in the Solomon Islands, the Army-Navy game was held at Thompson Stadium in Annapolis.
West Point's cadets could not come to Annapolis because of restrictions on train travel. This resulted in an order to third- and fourth-class midshipmen to do the unthinkable: cheer for Army. The newspapers of the time say they sang the Army fight songs lustily enough, but their spirit was not enough to inspire the lonely Army team, which lost 14-0.
Two years later, with France liberated and with Army and Navy fielding two of the top teams in the nation, the question wasn't whether to hold the game, but how. The issue was debated in Congress, where House Minority Leader Joseph William Martin suggested the purchase of tickets be tied to the sale of war bonds. Roosevelt approved, and the game was set for Dec. 2, 1944, at Baltimore's Municipal Stadium. The game raised an astounding $58-million for the war effort.
This time, the cadets were able to travel to Baltimore by steamer. They were escorted by five Navy destroyers to protect them from German U-boats prowling the Atlantic seaboard.
Their worst foe turned out to be the sea itself. "I think 90 percent of the cadet corps got sick," said Bob Woods, an Army wingback who graduated in 1945. But Army recovered in time to beat Navy 23-7 and finished ranked No. 1 with a national championship.
MacArthur, a West Point graduate, was electrified by the victory, sending his celebratory radiogram to what he called "the greatest of all Army teams."
Today's game will be colored by the war and the first attack on U.S. soil since Pearl Harbor. There's no national championship on the line. Navy (0-9) has had a dismal season. Army (2-8) hasn't performed much better.
None of that will matter.
"They're gonna fight like hell, they're gonna beat each other up, then at the end of the game, they're gonna put their arms around each other and cry," said retired Adm. Ronald Marryott, superintendent of the Naval Academy from 1986-88. "When the two teams sing their alma maters at the end of the game, there won't be a dry eye in the house."