army navy game

Army Navy Game.

It doesn't matter if you are conservative or liberal, Democrat or Republican, male or female. Everyone I know believes in supporting and praising our brave troops. One can disagree with war policy but still appreciate the sacrifices our soldiers and their families make for our country.
My father is an ex-Marine who served in Iwo Jima during World War II. I feel we Americans can never repay him and his generation of war heroes for what they have done, not just for this nation, but the world.

Having seen war first-hand, my dad is also a pacifist. But that doesn't mean he can't accept the thankfulness of a new generation of Americans. He sports his Iwo Jima Marine cap with pride. Whenever he wears it in public, people come up to him to show their appreciation, at times even offering to buy his dinner.


This mutual admiration for our Armed Forces is one of the reasons that the Army-Navy game, which will be played Saturday (2:30 p.m.) at Lincoln Financial Field -- home of the Philadelphia Eagles -- is an event that transcends politics and sports. As a sporting event, it has lost some of its athletic significance through its 110 years. There was a time (in 1926, 1944, 1945, and 1963) when the game actually had national championship implications. However, since then -- as top level college football has developed into a training ground for the NFL -- military commitment, high academic entrance requirements, and height and weight limits have reduced the overall competitiveness of both academies.
So sports-wise, it's not the Super Bowl or NCAA championship or even the level of some of the college bowls. But as a tradition and century-old rivalry, no event can match it. Navy leads the series 54-49-7. One of the great appeals of the game may be that few, if any, of the participants will ever play in the NFL (Roger Staubach, Phil McConkey, and Napoleon McCallum being notable exceptions), hence they are playing solely for the love of the game (and the rivalry and the Thompson Cup, named after its donor, Robert M. Thompson).

There is also the pomp and circumstance. Journalist Joseph P. Owens of the ExpressTimes wrote of the 2009 Army-Navy contest at Lincoln Financial Field: "The game was entertaining, but the memories are made in all the pageantry and festivities before the game." Last year's event featured the Navy Leap Frogs parachuting into the stadium. Navy won, 17-3.
Usually, high ranking officers such as the Secretary of Defense (Robert Gates in 2009) and even the Commander in Chief attend. In fact, the contest has been nicknamed the "President's Game." The tradition of presidents attending began in 1901 with Theodore Roosevelt. Former Presidents Calvin Coolidge, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush all have presided over the event. Ironically, Dwight G. Eisenhower, the only U.S. president to play in the game (Eisenhower played for the Army Cadets in a 6-0 loss in 1912), and Jimmy Carter, the only other U.S. President to go to one of the academies (USNA), never attended the competition as president.
Regarding Presidential visits, the most emotional games played may have been in 1963 and 2001. President John F. Kennedy was a Navy hero in WWII and he attended in 1961 and 1962, initiating the practice of having the Commander in Chief do the pre-game coin toss. He was assassinated on November 22, 1963, eight days before he was supposed to attend the Army-Navy event.