Glad you were able to go, Ranger. I watched the entire game from my couch. Guess there weren’t any “Opt Outs” for this game. Two teams with participants playing for something other than self aggrandizement. Thrilled Army won but hats off to the Midshipmen.
Dad, brother, and I were in the Army, so fight on you Army mule! And, one of my former doctoral students was a Navy officer, so another year of lording it over her
My Army buddy's son is first in line from North Dakota for entrance in this year's West Point class. Great kid and I'm proud of him.
WOW that’s a kind of stunning turn of events despite going 4-8 a couple years in a row. He had some real success there- many great memories going to Navy games while being stationed at Fort Meade in the Army. The Army Navy game in Philly though in 2018- I will never forget that experience.
That’s awesome you were able to go! I think we talked about it a few years ago. Went in 2018 when I was stationed at Fort Meade- one of the coolest, humbling, most professional events I’ve been to. Hope you had a great time!
I thought Jeff Monkin and Niumatalolo had an unusually long handshake and conversation after the game. Must have been known to Niumatalolo or both.
No, but it was not much better than middle school football in TX. I guess the worst part of the three and out fest is all the tv commercials, I can't stand it. At least OT salvaged the game. My heart does go out for #34 on navy. I would say, both defenses seemed to tackle better than the gators.
I’m truly humbled….. what an experience. I feel like I’ve witnessed one of the true wonders of the sporting world. From watching the Corps of Cadets and Brigade of Midshipmen march in, the exchange of prisoners, the fly over and tailgating with new friends and old buddies. I even got a chance to meet up with a long lost friend. We have known each other since the third grade, and graduated from high school in ‘88. That summer I left for the Army, he attended WP, graduating in ‘92. It had been 34 years since we last saw each other. While I got out in ‘95 to go to UF, he recently retired. I also got the opportunity to meet a few of the Cadets and to catch up with my buddy’s daughter, who is in her Plebe year. I can’t tell you how impressed I am. Every single one of them was smart, well spoken, polite, and humble. Amazing group of people.
I hear ya but it’s much more than a football game . I just look into this game a bit more deeper than just a game . Wonder why the Air Force game with navy or army doesn’t get the attention of the army navy game?
Maybe since the AF has only been around since after WW2 and the AF Academy didn't start til around the end of the Korean war.
Great pictures. A great event. I don't care how these two teams stack up against the CFB top programs...they represent all Americans and deserve to be remembered and considered at least once a year.
Best thing about the game to me is that it falls after all the conference games are done and it stands more or less alone on Saturday. (Save for a few FCS playoff games.
Strictly a personal opinion, and aside from the fairly recent emergence of the Air Force and their academy the rivalry continues and is deeper than college football. Each branch encourages this rivalry as it establishes a certain sense of pride and esprit de corps. A deeper look will reveal that the services often compete for commands, missions, funding and resources. History also reveals deep personal and professional rivalries. For example Admiral Halsey and General MacArthur famously feuded for command of the pacific theatre, as well as the infamous Smith vs. Smith incident, where a marine general relieved an army general of command command of troops during the invasion of Saipan, believing the army was moving too slowly. Delta groans when DevGru shows up in the news and SF thinks SEALS self promote. In the end same team and same goal, but it’s a little like having two good QBs competing for the starting job. They will make each other better and sometimes it’s about who is available.
This is so much more than a football game and these young men are so much more than football players. They are an example for all of us. My favorite part is when the game is over and the winning team stands respectfully while the losing team sings their alma mater. Then they switch for the winning team to sing. I would love it if that became a tradition at all SEC games.
A superb post. The military, in our "progressive" era, is increasingly unique in the absolute value it places upon "winning". It is why the armed forces, at all branches, starting right at the basic training level, have rewarded the winner over the loser in anything. BUT...and it's a big "but"...Balancing "winning at all costs" with "serve the needs of the team" is a very tricky mix. Ranger School is very much a "Go/No Go" school with bright lines of win or lose but then there is the wild card, the "peer review" system where every Ranger Student is anonymously evaluated by his squad-mates to make sure that the "winner" isn't doing it in a self-centered manner, maybe one the instructors with their red pencils, cannot see. It's complicated.
There are many reasons. The Army-Navy Game is 132 years old, it is close to the DC area and gets high-profile visitors from the White House and Congress, and has the most support from media to highlight on its own weekend. The Air Force Academy is barely 68 years old. Even Airmen like me prefer to watch Army-Navy instead of Air Force games versus the other service academies. From a military perspective, the active duty Air Force (and now Space Force) does not compete the same way against Army and Navy for resources. Stereo-typically speaking, a general who is a West Point graduate and former football player and an admiral who is a Navy Academy graduate and former football player are more likely to fight for the same resources in the Pentagon than a counterpart from USAFA. In the Air Force, there are about as many general officers sourced from ROTC as the Academy--especially in terms of former football players.
