50 Fun Facts About Army-Navy Game

Which city, a neutral site between the two academies, has hosted the Army-Navy Game most often?

Philadelphia, about halfway between West Point and Annapolis, first staged the game in 1899, when a local surgeon talked both academies into reviving their suspended series.

Which animal became Navy's mascot after one named El Cid appeared at the 1893 Army-Navy Game?

A goat named El Cid, a gift from the officers of USS New York, watched Navy win that day. The mascot was later named Bill, after a commandant's pet.

Which animal became Army's mascot in 1899 because it had hauled the service's gear for generations?

A mule was the idea of a supply officer who wanted an answer to Navy's mascot. The first official one, a retired Army pack animal named Mr. Jackson, arrived in 1936.

Which television innovation, now standard in sports, made its US debut at the 1963 Army-Navy Game?

Instant replay was so new that when an Army touchdown was rerun at full speed, the announcer told viewers that Army had not scored again.

Which Navy quarterback beat Army in 1962 and 1963, won the Heisman and later led the Dallas Cowboys?

Roger Staubach did not reach the NFL until 1969, as a 27-year-old rookie: he first served out his Navy commitment, volunteering for a year in Vietnam.

Which president was the first to attend an Army-Navy Game while in office, at the 1901 meeting?

Theodore Roosevelt came back for the 1905 game, the same year he summoned coaches to the White House to make an increasingly brutal sport safer.

Which service academy, founded in 1954, plays Army and Navy each year in a three-way series?

Air Force has met both rivals every season since 1972, when a trophy was first put up for the three-way series, and it has carried that prize home most often.

Which California stadium hosted the 1983 Army-Navy Game, the only one west of the Mississippi?

The Rose Bowl got the game after organizers in Pasadena promised to transport, house and feed more than 9,000 students and support staff from both academies. Nearly 4,000 local families put them up.

Who urged that the 1963 Army-Navy Game go ahead after the president's assassination put it in doubt?

Jackie Kennedy got her wish a week late, on December 7, and the stadium that staged the game was renamed for her husband the following year.

Which piece of gear is Navy's Joseph Reeves credited with wearing first, at the 1893 Army-Navy Game?

A helmet was the price of playing: warned by a Navy doctor that one more kick to the head could kill him, Reeves had an Annapolis shoemaker make one out of leather.

Which network has been the exclusive television home of the Army-Navy Game every year since 1996?

CBS holds the rights through 2038 and has kept the game on free broadcast television, where it has been shown nationally every year since 1945.

Which prize, first given in 1972, goes to football's best among the three major service academies?

The Commander-in-Chief's Trophy is named for the president, who has often handed it over in person. The prize stands two and a half feet tall and weighs 170 pounds.

Which nickname, coined by 1940s newspapers for Army's football team, became official in 1999?

Black Knights is short for the Black Knights of the Hudson, a nod to the team's dark uniforms. Until 1999 Army's teams were just as often called the Cadets.

Which Navy fight song, written by the academy's bandmaster, debuted at the 1906 Army-Navy Game?

Anchors Aweigh was written by bandmaster Charles Zimmermann and a midshipman as a football march for the class of 1907, and Navy won 10-0 on the day it was first heard.

Which president ordered Army cadets to return Navy's kidnapped mascot days before an Army-Navy Game?

Dwight Eisenhower, himself a West Point graduate, backed the 1953 order to send the animal home, and the cadets who had smuggled it out in a convertible staged a mass protest.

The 2022 Army-Navy Game, a 20-17 Army win, was the first in the rivalry's history to feature what?

Overtime ran to two extra periods before Army's Quinn Maretzki settled it with a 39-yard field goal. Seven earlier meetings had simply ended as ties.

Which TV comedy has an episode titled The Army-Navy Game, in which an unexploded shell hits camp?

M*A*S*H aired the episode in 1973, with a story by McLean Stevenson, the actor who played the camp's commanding officer, Henry Blake.

Which general wired Army's 1944 team that he had stopped the war to celebrate its win over Navy?

Douglas MacArthur called them the greatest of all Army teams, and a trophy bearing his name now goes each year to college football's national champion.

Which future NFL coaching legend was an Army assistant under Red Blaik for five seasons from 1949?

Vince Lombardi's first Army team beat Navy 38-0, and Blaik's stress on execution became a trademark of the sides he later coached to five NFL titles in Green Bay.

Which Chicago stadium was dedicated at the 1926 Army-Navy Game, which ended in a 21-21 tie?

Soldier Field was dedicated that day as a monument to Americans who fought in World War I, and the tie was enough to earn unbeaten Navy a share of the national title.

Which Notre Dame coach skipped his own team's game in 1926 to watch Army play Navy in Chicago?

Knute Rockne went to write newspaper articles and pick an All-America team. Without him, Notre Dame lost 19-0 to Carnegie Tech, an upset that likely cost it a national title.

Which Army fullback, nicknamed Mr. Inside, became the first junior to win the Heisman Trophy?

Doc Blanchard ran through the line while teammate Glenn Davis, his Outside counterpart, ran around it. In their three seasons together Army beat Navy every year and went 27-0-1.

Which Navy halfback scored three touchdowns against Army in 1959 and won the 1960 Heisman Trophy?

Joe Bellino was the first Navy player to score three times in the rivalry, yet with years of military service owed he lasted until the 17th round of the NFL draft.

Which Army halfback won the 1958 Heisman Trophy, then became a Rhodes Scholar and a general?

Pete Dawkins and Army finished 8-0-1 in 1958 after beating Navy 22-6. At Oxford he then won three Blues in rugby.

Which phrase for winning the Army-Navy Game comes from the order of the postgame alma maters?

Sing second works because both teams stand together for the loser's alma mater first, facing its students, and only then turn to the winner's side.

Which Army-Navy pregame ritual returns students spending a semester at the rival academy?

The prisoner exchange is only a brief reprieve: the exchange students watch the game with their own classmates, then go back to finish the semester at the rival academy.

Which venue hosted the 2020 Army-Navy Game, the first played on either academy's campus since 1943?

Michie Stadium, Army's home field, stepped in when pandemic crowd limits ruled out the planned host city, and Army marked the day with its first shutout of Navy since 1969.

Which president saw seven Army-Navy Games while in office, skipping one only for a vacation?

Harry Truman skipped 1951 only because he was on vacation. His first visit as president, in 1945, was to a matchup billed in advance as the game of the century.

What are first-year students, the lowest class, called at both West Point and the Naval Academy?

Plebes probably take their name from the plebeians, the common people of ancient Rome. At West Point they must memorize facts about the rivalry with Navy during basic training.

Which New York ballpark, home of baseball's Giants, hosted nine Army-Navy Games from 1913 to 1927?

The Polo Grounds staged its first one in 1913, with President Woodrow Wilson and his cabinet in the stands, and no venue outside the usual host city has held more.

Which New York venue hosted the 1930 Army-Navy Game, which ended a two-year break over eligibility?

Yankee Stadium welcomed the rivals back after two seasons apart and hosted them again in 1931, with Army winning both times. The series has not missed a year since.

The 2023 Army-Navy Game was the first ever played in which part of the country?

New England got its first Army-Navy Game in the 124th meeting of the series, at Gillette Stadium, and Army won it 17-11 with a goal-line stand in the closing moments.

Which wartime cause did the 1944 Army-Navy Game in Baltimore support, raising some $58.6 million?

A war bond drive brought more than 70,000 fans to the stadium that day. Army's cadets came down from New York by steamer, with Navy warships guarding them against submarines.

Which patriotic brand name do West Point and Annapolis use to promote their annual football meeting?

America's Game is the academies' label for a rivalry that sitting presidents have often attended and that has been carried on national radio every year since 1930.

What is West Point's student body called, the counterpart of Navy's Brigade of Midshipmen?

The Corps of Cadets is, despite its name, organized as a brigade of four regiments, and one regiment marches onto the field in formation before every Army home game.

Which future Hollywood star played Navy center Truck Cross in the 1937 film Navy Blue and Gold?

James Stewart's character reaches the stadium just in time to help beat Army. The real Navy team was less lucky, losing the 1937 game soon after filming wrapped.

Which Navy quarterback went 4-0 as a starter against Army and finished with 88 career touchdowns?

Keenan Reynolds capped the sweep with two rushing touchdowns and a scoring pass in 2015, which gave Navy its 14th straight win over Army.

Which Army head coach ended Navy's 14-game winning streak in the rivalry with a 21-17 win in 2016?

Jeff Monken knew the streak from the inside: he had been a Navy assistant coach from 2002 to 2007, the years of its first six wins.

Why did Army and Navy skip their 1909 meeting, the only break in the series between 1899 and 1917?

A player's death halted the series for a year: Army's Eugene Byrne died during the 1909 season, and the rivals did not meet again until 1910, when Navy won 3-0.

What struck unbeaten Army less than 48 hours before its 21-21 tie with winless Navy in 1948?

Food poisoning tore through the cadets two days before kickoff, and a Navy team that had not won all season twice came from behind to draw level.

Why was the 1905 Army-Navy Game at Princeton halted with four minutes left, ending in a 6-6 tie?

Darkness beat the clock because a monstrous traffic jam had made both teams late for kickoff. The result was the first tie in the rivalry's history.

Charles Daly scored all of Army's points against Navy in 1901 after starring for which university?

Harvard had already made Daly a renowned quarterback. For Army that day he ran a kickoff back for a touchdown and kicked a field goal, and he later came back as its head coach.

Which Navy kicker won the 1934 Army game 3-0 and later earned four Navy Crosses in submarines?

Slade Cutter's field goal in a rainstorm gave Navy its first win over Army since 1921. In World War II he ranked among the top American skippers for Japanese ships sunk.

At the 2004 Army-Navy Game, President George W. Bush tossed a coin sent from which Iraqi city?

Fallujah supplied the coin and Navy supplied the rout, a 42-13 win in the 105th meeting. It was Bush's first visit to the game since 2001.

Which Navy quarterback ran for 304 yards and two touchdowns in the 2019 win over Army?

Malcolm Perry set Navy's single-season rushing record in the same game and became the leading career rusher in the history of the rivalry.

At which venue did a collapsing railing injure Army cadets during the 1998 Army-Navy Game?

Veterans Stadium hosted the rivalry 17 times between 1980 and 2001, and the accident added to the calls for the aging venue to be replaced.

Which Navy head coach, the program's all-time leader in wins, did not lose to Army until 2016?

Ken Niumatalolo's tenure ended with the rivalry too: Navy announced that he would not be kept on the day after its 2022 loss to Army.

Which stadium hosted the 1899 game that revived the Army-Navy series after a five-year gap?

Franklin Field was only four years old at the time. It went on to stage the rivalry 18 times through 1935 and is still in use for college football.

Which John Feinstein book calls Army against Navy college football's purest rivalry in its subtitle?

A Civil War promises a year inside the rivalry, following both teams through a single season. Feinstein had made his name with a similar inside account of Indiana basketball.

Which future NFL head coach grew up in Annapolis, where his father Steve spent over 30 years on Navy's staff?

Bill Belichick is said to have learned to break down game film as a boy by watching his father, Navy's longtime scout, and the rest of the staff at work.