Operation Black September: The 1977 Army Football Team

Operation Black September: The 1977 Army Football Team

By Mike Belter

Published by Mike Belter

Copyright 2018 Mike Belter

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Prologue – Go Army!!! Beat Navy!!!

Go Army!!! Beat Navy!!!

By the time I finished my first two months at West Point, those words echoed around the Cadet Barracks area constantly, as we would double-time into the Cadet Mess Hall past the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy. I looked forward to attending my first Army Football game. It was in September 1973 against the University of Tennessee. The Volunteers were favored by 17 points and ranked #10 in the nation; but the Cadets on the football field put on a display of offensive firepower and never gave up. Our senior quarterback, Kingsley Fink, set an Army record that day for passing yards. I was hooked on Army Football!!!

The 1973 football season for Army was the worst one ever. We had lost nine games in a row; and we faced a Navy team that had won only three games but was favored by two touchdowns. Beat Navy! Go Army! Beat the Middies!! We plebes yelled from morning to night before the game. We went into the bowels of Washington Hall, we put our money down to bet a Cadet bathrobe for a Midshipmen one. We screamed, we yelled, we went hoarse. Army lost in the worst defeat ever to Navy, 0-51.

We got a new head football coach, Homer Smith, a genius who used the wishbone attack at UCLA extremely effectively. We ran the option attack. We yelled and screamed at Michie each Saturday. I traveled to South Bend and Durham to see away games with Notre Dame and Duke. We yelled for the tall plebe quarterback with the rifle arm and his swift receivers to lead passing attacks and touchdowns late in several games. We only won three games in 1974, but things would get better. Slowly, ever so slowly, we would soon find out.

Army scored 98 points in winning the first two games in 1975, but they were the only victories that year, though I got to visit Stanford and the Air Force Academy. 1976 was much better, winning five, with several games that we should have won. We lost to Navy, again, a losing streak for four straight years.

My senior year, the world was a lot better. Our football team won five of six games at home in Michie Stadium; our team lost to the eventual national champion and last year’s national champion, but never gave up; the squad braved the rarified air of Colorado Springs and routed the Air Force; and we all survived the bitter cold by beating the Navy! After losing four bathrobes in four seasons, I bet and won five Midshipmen bathrobes, four given as gifts for Christmas. I still have the remaining one. And the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy was back in the Cadet Mess Hall, just like when I arrived as a New Cadet.

I have continued to follow Army Football and its other sports teams through the years. I attended Army’s first bowl game in 1984; and four others since; missing only two bowl games. I attended my fifth Army bowl game in December 2017, watching the Black Knights win the game on a two-point conversion with 18 seconds left for their tenth victory of the 2017 season.

Four years ago, I spent about 18 months researching and writing a book about Army’s first national championship team. Not the one in 1944, but thirty years before in 1914. I did that for the 83 men who were coaches and players on that team who are no longer with us. The NCAA in its college football record book recognizes Army as the 1914 national champion, but the undefeated, untied 1914 Army Football team is not yet recognized in Michie Stadium beside the 1944, 1945, and 1946 national championship teams. Someday, they will.

So, there I was in 2016, within twenty yards of where Army West Point, on fourth down and goal in overtime, a pitch to the halfback who then crossed the goal line and won the Heart of Dallas Bowl Game. On the drive home from Texas and Oklahoma, I thought about how it made me feel. I woke up on New Year’s Day 2017 with an inspiration to document the best Army Football team of the 1970’s. Do it now rather than leave it for someone in 2077 to write a book when we are long gone. Do it in honor of my classmates on the team and the other men who were coaches, players, and key support staff. My idea was accepted by the two Co-Captains, and thus this book began. I received lots of support from my classmates and everyone I wrote or spoke to.

It is amazing how history tends to repeat itself. In researching the 1914 Army Football team, I found no concise player roster of who was on the team. For that team, I had to use multiple sources to identify the 67 players from that team. Even so, I excluded several individuals who played on what was then called the Cullum Hall football team; what today would be a junior varsity squad, because there was no evidence that they were ever on the varsity team or played during the 1914 season.

I should not have that problem with the 1977 team. For the most part, there was no issue. Almost every roster I found consistently listed about the same fifty individuals. However, I found 35 rosters created from spring practice to the Navy game; plus about two depth charts for each game; plus Army records containing game line-ups of starters and who else played, and a table of how many minutes played for each game during the season. I also found information on who played on the combined junior varsity / plebe squad that year. Plus I looked through the annual Howitzer yearbooks to see what each graduate indicated in their short Cadet biography what they participated in. I ended up with a listing of 166 Cadets involved with Army Football during the 1977 season.

Using the information of who played, I split the 166 Cadets into three listings – those 72 individuals that played in one or more varsity games as the members of the 1977 Army Football team; the 74 individuals who did not play in a varsity game, whom I listed under the junior varsity / plebe squad; and the remaining 20 Cadets who played during spring practice before being cut.

I also surveyed those I placed on the junior varsity / plebe squad if I had their email addresses, and not a one claimed they had played in a varsity game. A few did identify that they had dressed for one or more varsity games, many confirming the game day rosters that I had. There is a chance I might have made an error on an individual or two. These mistakes are mine and unintentional.

In researching records at West Point in June 2017, I found the original play-by-play and a corrected copy for each game during the 1977 season. I used the corrected copy, but sometimes there was an error or two not corrected, like differences between what the play gained and the yards to gain on the next play.

Sometimes there were other errors on the play-by-play. For example, at the start of the second quarter of the Navy game, the play-by-play says that [Greg] King rushed up the middle for six yards. Watching the video tape of the game, one can clearly see #40 [Jim Merriken] rush the ball. So there are likely to be a few other errors in this book, so I will apologize to anyone I have accidently offended.

What you have in your hands or reading from a screen is what I think happened during the 1977 season, and related events before and afterward. I think it tells the story of a really special group of men who came together and achieved a wonderful thing and won a lot of games that other Army teams in other seasons had not accomplished. I am really proud of what they did. You should be too.

Go Army!!! Beat Navy!!!

Mike Belter, December 27, 2017

Chapter 1

Operation Black September – September 3-4, 1977

It was a clear, dark, and moonless Saturday night in the Hudson highlands as most of the 9,000 souls who lived at West Point were about to settle into their beds, after a hot, end-of-summer day, with a high of 91 degrees. For the Corps of Cadets of the United States Military Academy at West Point, it was Labor Day weekend, a three-day break before they would begin classes on Tuesday.

For most of the seniors and probably half of the juniors and a quarter of the sophomores, they had left after the parade on Friday or morning duties on Saturday for New York City, the Jersey shores, friends’ homes, or other parts known and unknown, to get away from the gray landscape that dominates their Cadet life. For the plebes, the Cadet name for freshmen, they had just began their third month of a 47 month grind; but at least they were no longer New Cadets and they hoped that academics would give them relief from the fourth class system.

A group of about a hundred young men had spent their last two or three weeks out at Camp Buckner in preseason football drills. For them, they had spent their day in a final drill, packed their belongings, and convoyed back to West Point to move into their Cadet Barracks’ room and get ready for the new semester.

About two dozen members of the squad, mostly the starters, had been told by one the two Co-Captains to quietly meet on the 50-yard line at Michie Stadium before midnight and to travel there in groups of two or three in order to not attract the attention of anyone. Some of the selected that evening got their room in order, some may have went to the hop (dance) that night, some may have went to Grant or Ike Hall for an evening snack, and at least one of the group took a nap.

So the two dozen players left the barracks or Ike Hall or wherever in twos and threes, some looking like they were going out for a jog around post; others walking up the steep steps to the Cadet Chapel. Not attracting anyone’s attention. We risked our butts to get in there. If we got caught, there’s no telling what they’d have done to us, said one player at the end of the season.

The first men to arrive at the stadium found the stadium gates locked. Others began to arrive, and a small group had gathered, and some were worried about attracting attention should a military police vehicle or a noisy Army Officer were to drive by. Some were thinking about leaving, perhaps their Co-Captains had been merely testing them or joking around.

Mike Castelli, the placekicker, arrived and unlocked the gate, as a kicker, I sometimes wanted to practice kicking through the goal posts at various times outside of scheduled practices. So the equipment manager, Dickie Hall, had given me a key to the stadium. Forty years later, Castelli remarked, If we did not have a way to get in, this whole thing might not happened.

But the Co-Captains were already inside Michie Stadium, and had completed the first step of their plans for this evening on the visiting team’s locker room entry door. Leamon Hall and Chuck D’Amico waited quietly for everyone to gather at the painted Corps of Cadets logo in the center of the field. One of their number had truly fell asleep, and they waited patiently for him to arrive.

***

Flash back to the 1976 Army Football season (5-6). In those six losses, there were times in each game where the Cadets, had they not been intercepted, had they not fumbled the football, had they made that first down, had they stopped and tackled that rusher or receiver the way they had practiced and trained for, had they moved instead of hesitating, or had they done a number of other things, and the outcome could have been an Army victory rather than a defeat.

Well maybe not a win against the eventual national champion Pittsburgh squad. But there were times in the games against Penn State and Boston College. And North Carolina and Navy. And Tulane too. Yes, especially the Tulane game, for at least one player.

During the Tulane game at the Louisiana Superdome, Army busted out in the first quarter to a 10-0 lead and probably should have scored two or three times more in the first half. Players were coming off the field thinking and saying that the Cadets would have an easy time in winning this game. They started to lose focus. Tulane closed the gap to 10-6 at halftime, and went on to beat Army, 23-10, scoring 17 points in the fourth quarter.

The bad taste of this and other games in other seasons got Co-Captain Leamon Hall and others thinking that Army Football players really did not know how to win. The seniors had only tasted victory in ten games over the last three or four seasons. The players had heard this from the officers and other graduates – play respectable and look good, losing to the top football teams. But the Cadets were losing to teams that Army should be competitive with, while also losing to teams that the Cadets should beat handily.

Hall explored his ideas in some academic papers later that year. He talked to his teammates about winning again. He found that several of his classmates were equally frustrated. Several of us in senior positions on the 1976 team felt the same as Leamon and it was a major topic of discussion through and into the off season, said Co-Captain Chuck D’Amico, HOW DO WE TURN THIS AROUND? Mindset, attitude, dedication … all needed an adjustment. So tired of being on the wrong side after the final whistle blew.

As Co-Captains, Leamon and I took the lead, continued D’Amico, Our Mission was quite simple, keep everyone’s mind and eye on the ball … One Prize. Create, build and grow an off-season comradery that we had not experienced in prior years. We both had different approaches. Mine was to get EVERYONE, as much as possible (which was a lot), into the weight room together … to team up, absorb ethic from one another, push each other, work towards a common mission, understand what made each other tick and to bond.

During the preseason football camp at Buckner, the two Co-Captains would meet in the late evenings on the dock of Lake Popolopen. We discussed the day on each of our respective sides of the ball, said D’Amico, What was good … what was lacking … and most importantly … Why? We both agreed that spirit and effort was there, but the ‘team-man-ship’ wasn’t developing fast enough. We needed an event. Something to carry into the season and last through-out. Some of the things we threw out to each other were pretty funny and we laughed. Ultimately, the concept of ‘Blood Ball’ emerged. Probably Leamon’s idea as he has always been a more ‘out of the box’ thinker than I am. After all … He was a quarterback.

Hall said, after the season was over, that he came up with the idea, I discussed it with Chuck [Blood Ball] and he loved it. The idea behind it was to get something to help unify our team as a person. It was just spontaneous. It was something that would help draw us together as one unit. It would give us a common bond. D’Amico added, That togetherness may have been lacking in recent seasons. It’s tough to come together as a team, especially at the academy. The only time we really get to see each other is at practice.

***

Sometime during the last week of preseason camp, they somehow and for some reason persuaded Lieutenant Colonel (Dr.) Protzman, the team physician, to draw a vial of blood from each of the Co-Captains. At the end of the season when told about all of this, Protzman said I could have gone to jail for what I did if I had known what they were going to use it for. Likewise, the Co-Captains obtained from Dick Hall, the equipment manager, a football with a white panel on the side.

***

Leamon and Chuck spoke to the gathering in hushed tones. They talked about why they were standing in the middle of Michie around midnight. About the goals they each wanted to accomplish during the season as a team and for each other. Others spoke about their frustrations of previous seasons and the need to work together. They spoke of the need for commitment from each player. Team and individual goals were agreed upon and set. Then the Co-Captains carefully explained what they proposed to have each person present do to affirm their commitment to the effort.

D’Amico pulled out the football out of a bag and Hall pulled out a razor blade. Each cut their respective right thumb, spoke from the heart in vows for team and each other, pressed their thumbs together, and then placed their bloody thumbprint on the football’s white panel. One of them held it up and declared it officially as the Blood Ball. The Co-Captains had pledged to their teammates that they would fight to their last breath to win each and every game, to play each play like it was their last one ever.

Two by two, typically an offensive and defensive player; took the razor and sliced their own thumb; each made the vow; and signed the petition with a thumbprint on the Blood Ball. The players together made an oath to give their best throughout the season to win each game and were accountable to their Blood Brother and the team. The players would vow to make the 1977 season a successful season.

The Co-Captains led a discussion of the actions that they would follow during the season. Before each game, each Blood Brother would put a band aid on their right thumb before they ran out onto the field. They would pair up, touching the scars on their thumbs together. I would see a teammate before a game looking for his Blood Brother along the sideline before the start of a game, trying to be discrete, said Hall.

They would induct one or two more players the Friday evening before each game, sometimes more, depending upon what they did in the last game or the week of practice. There were 50 or 60 bloody thumbprints on the Blood Ball at the end of the season.

Forty years later, Hall recalled the Friday night before the game at Boston College, Gene McIntyre had not yet been inducted for some reason. But somehow, he sensed something was amiss. Maybe his roommate or best friend on the team, or someone did something or said something that caught his eye. He came up to me about this, that something was up and he was not part of it, and I felt he might take his concerns to the coaches or someone else. So we decided to induct Gene that evening. It was the right decision based upon how he played from then on.

D’Amico was responsible for securing the Blood Ball throughout the season, normally keeping it in his locker. He would carry it out onto the field each game, wrapped in a black plastic bag, and hand it to Dickie Hall for storage during the game. Dickie knew it was a ball by its shape, but never asked about its significance.

The Co-Captains explained that everyone involved had to maintain a cone of secrecy. The coaches do not know about this, and will not know about it until after the last game of the season. No one except a Blood Brother would have knowledge about this activity until after the season was over, not a coach, a trainer, and any other player, roommate, or Cadet who was not a Blood Brother. Not anyone.

The secrecy continues today. Forty years later, I asked Mike Castelli ‘who was your Blood Brother?’ – He wrote, You better ask D’Amico and Hall if we can talk about this. When Chuck and I approached Mike at a recent Army Football game, Mike still would not tell me.

No one knew but the players, said Homer Smith, who didn’t learn of the pact until the season was over, They’d been tested and whipped a few times in the past, but they vowed they were not going to come apart. It was ingenious of the captains.

Being Cadets and being part of the United States Army, someone asked what their group would call this operation, so as to keep it a secret from others. Yes, the Co-Captains agreed, a code word had to be found, as we should not use the word ‘blood’ as that might give their secret away.

A number of names were proposed, some getting some laughs. Someone pointed out how dark it was tonight, and proposed Black September. A few other names were discussed, but Black September appeared to be a perfect code word for the operation. Anyone overhearing it would not be able to conclude anything about its meaning.

***

SIDENOTE: The Cadets present in September 1977 at Michie Stadium did not know the significance of the name ‘Black September’ on the world stage. Leamon Hall told me that someone told him about that connection about three or six months after the season was over. Remember, the Cadets present were in junior or senior high school when the Black September terrorist group attacked, kidnapped, and killed the eleven Israeli athletes and officials and the West German policeman at the 1972 Olympic Games. They did not connect that act of terrorism with the name of the terrorist organization. In fact, the terrorist group itself stole it from the name used to refer to a 1970 conflict in Jordan.

***

The Co-Captains then explained that they had sketched the ARMY A on the visiting team’s locker room entry door prior to their teammates’ arrival tonight. They led the group over to the entrance of the locker room, and took out the two vials of blood and emptied the contents into a plastic bag. One by one, each Blood Brother dipped their finger into the blood-filled bag and painted a portion of the Army A on the Blood Door.

When asked what Black September meant to them, forty years later, here are a few responses from players on the 1977 team:

Eternal brotherhood, by Bill Duelge.

Teammates for life, by Chuck Schott.

Black September was about commitment and accountability, that’s how we should live our life! by Phil Macklin.

Commitment!!! Especially to your word, by Mike Castelli.

It meant that there was no giving less than maximum effort. It didn’t matter if you were actually on the field or not. You had to support as hard as you could, by Gene McIntyre.

There is no list of who the Blood Brothers were or who was paired with who. Perhaps I could contact Abby on NCIS or one of her peers to run the fingerprints on the Blood Ball through the system. I won’t. The players know.

A Blood Ball and a Blood Door led to Blood Brothers, and they became Blood Loyal, and they beat Navy and Air Force and five other opponents during the 1977 season, achieving a Blood Victory in each game. The players did the Corps, USMA, the Army, the fans, and each other proud in fighting to the end in the other four games and in all 44 quarters of the season. Operation Black September was a success.

Chapter 2

Beat Navy – The 1890-1972 Army Football Seasons

It’s all about Beating the Navy

Beat Navy!!! Walk around the West Point grounds any weekend with Cadets present, and you will hear this phrase repeated over and over again. It is proudly displayed on the roof of Cullum Hall, on the scoreboard of Michie Stadium, and on the front porches of many grand quarters on post. There is a Beat Navy pedestrian tunnel under Washington Road between the Cadet Barracks and Eisenhower Hall. Every New Cadet each summer in Beast Barracks learns to shout this seriously and with vigor.

The history of Army Football, as well as every Army varsity sport and many other competitive endeavors (such as Rhode Scholarships, fund raising, and even the annual Army-Navy blood drive), revolves around one core objective and driver of every Army team and individual effort, is to Beat Navy!!!

Understanding this helps explain why a head coach who has his second straight winning season is let go after with one year on his contract, because his Army Football team had lost three straight times to Navy. It also explains why many a grad would tolerate losing every game in a season except the last one. It helps to understand that the feeling is mutual and opposite on the Navy side, and that for most of the rivalry, even teams with no wins play their hearts out to beat the other academy. So with a focus on Beat Navy, let us quickly review the long and winding road of Army Football history.

The Early Games

The United States Military Academy (USMA) was late among most Eastern colleges and universities in forming a football team and competing with other institutions. Some Cadets attempted to organize football teams during the late 1880s, but there was so little time available between classes, drills, parades, and studying, and ultimately no interest by the Academic Board on the need for organized athletics. Nevertheless, the Classes of 1891 and 1892 organized two teams that competed against each other on Thanksgiving Day 1889 and battled to a scoreless tie.

Several Cadets realized that there was only one college that would cause the authorities to allow intercollegiate play, the United States Naval Academy. Navy had played football with other schools since 1879. Several Cadets claimed that they wrote friends at Annapolis to encourage them, according to Alexander Weyand in the Assembly alumni magazine in October 1955, including Palmer Pierce ’91, Henry Whitney ’92, and a young junior named Dennis Michie ’92 with connections. Michie realized that there was an unspoken rivalry with the Naval Academy in each’s ability to develop officers for the Army and Navy to serve the nation.

The Cadet Manager of the Navy football team, Midshipman William McGrann, obtained permission to send a challenge to West Point. Many of his friends thought it was rather clever of him to propose a scheme that would allow him and several Midshipmen to get away from Annapolis for a few days. But the authorities arranged for the team to arrive at West Point on the day of the game, though they did allow them to stay for the Saturday hops before catching an overnight train back to Maryland.

Michie was born at West Point and spent his childhood there, as his classmate John Palmer described in the Assembly in January 1943, and knew all the professors and their families. Upon receipt of the challenge from Annapolis, Michie began to lobby his father, Lieutenant Peter Michie, Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy, and the senior member of the Academic Board (there was no Dean at the time), to persuade the Academic Board and the USMA Superintendent, Colonel John Wilson, to accept the challenge. Old Pete was finally persuaded by his son, and then was able to win a majority of the Board and Wilson’s and Commandant Hamilton Hawkins’ approvals to play the game.

Michie had only about six weeks to prepare for a game, and received little institutional support. Only two others (Leonard Prince ‘92 and Butler Ames ‘94) had ever played organized football, but almost two dozen Cadets (out of about 271 in the Corps at the time) were able to practice on Saturday only if rain cancelled drills. Michie also had them wake up thirty minutes before reveille for a jog around The Plain. The Corps each contributed 52 cents out of their meager pay to offset half the travel costs of the Naval Cadets. Navy had a veteran team and came to West Point with an 8-2-2 winning record over the 1889-1890 seasons.

The game on November 29, 1890 found the Cadets with only the raw talent of individual strength and prowess, and the experienced Midshipmen dominated play from the beginning. Still, Navy could only generate five touchdowns and two conversions, scoring 12 points in each half, and winning 24-0 with a crowd of about one thousand as witnesses. Major newspapers in New York City relayed the results throughout the nation and this ignited much excitement among the American public.

Reaction was quick and swift among West Point graduates, demanding that the Military Academy play a rematch next year. Army Officers, subjected to unmerciful kidding by Naval Officers in New York City after the Cadet loss, quickly organized their own football team to play the Naval Officers, a game that Army won 4-0 on December 6th. A rubber game was played on December 20th, with Army winning 12-0. Infuriated by this turn of events, the Naval Officers suggested staging an indoor game at Madison Square Garden, but the Army Officers declined. Seven West Pointers played on this team, and six eventually became General Officers.

The graduates organized what would become the Army Athletic Association (AAA) in early 1891, and dues came from the regiments throughout the Army. A recent Yale graduate and football star, Harry L. Williams, who was teaching at a school in Newburgh, was contracted to come to West Point twice a week to provide coaching. Five games were scheduled at West Point to provide preparation work prior to game against Navy. The Cadets on the 1891 team gained experience and won three, tied the Princeton Reserves, and lost only to Rutgers. It was reported that some of the biggest cheerleaders during these games were the Professors from the Academic Board.

Seventeen Cadets was authorized to travel to Annapolis, accompanied by Dr. Williams who was able to come after the Cadet Manager, William Anderson, gave up his train ticket and stayed at West Point. The Army Football team upset the favored Navy team (5-1-0) by a score of 32-16 before about three thousand fans, satisfying the burning desire for revenge.

There was no radio to provide a play by play to the members of the Corps of Cadets in 1891, who could not attend the game at Annapolis. A substitute, Johnnie Woodward, was assigned to send a telegram after each score. Army scored its first touchdown (Elmer Clark ’93) and Woodward sent the 6-0 score by telegram. Navy tied it, and another telegram showed the 6-6 score. Michie then kicked a field goal, and Johnnie sent the 10-6 halftime score to West Point.

But then no telegrams were further received, as Johnnie became so excited, he forgot to send any more reports until after supper. The Corps marched to the Mess Hall for supper, clueless of what the result of the game was, and someone found a late afternoon New York newspaper reporting that Navy had won the game. As the Corps marched back to barracks, disappointed, and stood for the Saturday night inspection, the Cadet Quartermaster, Jim Jervey ’92, ran up to First Captain Charles Summerall with a telegram, who calmly announced final score, Army 32, Navy 16, dismiss your companies. As you can imagine, not every Cadet was that excited by Army Football, even this future Army Chief of Staff.

The Army Football team returned to West Point on Sunday afternoon, with the Corps greeting the team at the rail station and escorting them up the hill to Old Pete’s quarters for a brief celebration. After supper, the Corps followed the USMA Band north of the barracks and were authorized to light a bonfire and dance around it. Prior to Tattoo, a Cadet took command of the band and marched the band and Corps to the Supe’s house and then along Professor’s row, stopping at each for speeches and songs. Some were vacant, no doubt the resident Army Officer celebrating the Army victory at the Club. The Cadets returned to barracks just before Taps, most going to bed, some hiding lights to study for Monday classes, and others still celebrating late into that night.

Perhaps the members of the USMA Academic Board felt that this grand experiment on football was over. Certainly USMA leadership would have a love and hate relationship and varying levels of support to Army Football through its history. But with overwhelming support from USMA graduates and Cadets, the now graduated Second Lieutenant Dennis Michie coached the 1892 team to a 3-0-1 record and held Navy scoreless in the first half on The Plain at West Point before 5,000 fans. Navy recovered in the second half and its two stars scored touchdowns, leading to a 12-4 win.

The AAA recognized the need for good coaching and hired another Yale football man, Laurie Bliss, as coach; plus scheduled eight games at West Point for the 1893 season to prepare for Navy. The Cadets went 4-4-0, including losses to Yale and Princeton. The game at Annapolis with 8,000 present was again scoreless in the first half. It was decided by a missed conversion after touchdown, and Navy won 6-4.

The Cadets and Midshipmen left the field after shaking hands and started conversations with their new friends, but fights and shouting in the stands and in the coming days occurred between fans of each team. It was reported that a retired Admiral and retired General had such a heated argument at New York City’s Army-Navy Club that each proposed a duel to resolve their differences.

This prompted the Secretary of War to bring to President Cleveland’s Cabinet Meeting the issue of whether or not the Army-Navy game would continue. Yes, the nation’s business would come to a standstill to address an issue at a service academy. It took two meetings of the Cabinet to decide that each service secretary would issue directives that each team could not travel from its grounds, thus preventing the continuance of the rivalry.

During the 1894-1898 football seasons, efforts were made each season to repeal the travel ban by many, but each Superintendent and service secretary stood fast. Army played other teams, including Brown in 1894 and Harvard in 1895 (both losses). But no Navy game at the end of the season happened, to the disappointment of graduates and Cadets.

The Rivalry Resumes in Philadelphia

The new McKinley administration took office in March 1899, and a commission was formed to address the Army-Navy issue. An agreement was made with all parties to resume the game, and the University of Pennsylvania offered to host it at Franklin Field. The Corps of Cadets was allowed to travel by train to Philadelphia for the game, and marched on the field before 27,000 fans. Navy was heavily favored, but coaching from former coaches Harry Williams and Harmon Graves installed new plays before the game. Army handily won 17-5. And so the decade of the 1890s ended with Navy ahead three wins to two losses.

After an 11-7 loss on the final play in 1900 to Navy, a three-time All-American and captain of Harvard’s 1900 football team received a Congressional nomination to West Point, and that allowed Charlie Daly to extend his football playing career. Daly, a plebe, scored all the points in leading the Cadets to an 11-5 victory in 1901 in front of President Teddy Roosevelt in attendance. Daly quarterbacked Army again to another 22-8 victory in 1902, scoring a touchdown and field goal. Afterwards, Navy protested Daly’s eligibility, so Cadet Daly became an assistant Cadet Coach instead, and Army beat Navy 40-5 and 11-0 in 1903 and 1904.

The service academies decided to change the venue in 1905 after playing six straight years in Philadelphia. The Brigade of Midshipmen arrived at Princeton just in time for the delayed kickoff, the President’s train arrived a bit later, and the two teams settled for the first tie, 6-6, called because of darkness.

The games returned to Philadelphia. Navy then kept the Cadets scoreless in two straight victories, before Army’s 6-4 upset in 1908. Due to Cadet Eugene Byrne’s dying from injuries suffered in the 1909 Harvard game, West Point cancelled the remaining four games, include the one with Navy in Philadelphia. In the 1900s decade, Army won five games to Navy’s three, plus the one tie, and the series record had Army slightly ahead, 7-6-1.

Navy won the next three games, all by field goals with Army being held scoreless. In response to these losses to Navy, Charlie Daly was offered the head football job with President Wilson approving his re-commissioning during his first days in office in March 1913. Daly returned for his second of three tours at West Point. Daly was a strict planner and mapped out each season on how to use every game to prepare his players for beating Navy.

While the 1913 season is most remembered for the first meeting with Notre Dame (a 13-35 loss), Daly’s focus was always on beating Navy. And the future Hall of Fame coach did it four straight years (1913-1916), handily beating the Midshipmen each game before crowds of over 40,000 in three Polo Ground matches. Both the 1914 and 1916 Army Football teams were the first undefeated and untied seasons, and are recognized as national champions by the NCAA. No games were played with Navy during World War I, though a former Daly player, Hugh Mitchell, was head coach of the 1918 team that beat its lone opponent.

Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur became the USMA Superintendent in 1919, and Charlie Daly returned for his final tour with Army Football to a West Point with no upperclassmen and a lack of football talent due to the accelerated class graduations during the war. Navy won 6-0 in 1919, ending this decade with a 4-4-0 record with Army still leading the series 11-10-1.

The Roaring Twenties

During his tour as Superintendent, MacArthur proposed a 50,000 seat stadium along the Hudson River, believed to be near Target Hill Field. A more modest stadium with 16,000 permanent seats was built on a patch of meadow land adjacent to Lusk Reservoir in the shadow of historic Fort Putnam, just in time for the 1924 season. The previous 34 seasons had been played on The Plain, supplemented with temporary stands beginning in the early 1900s, and called Cullum Field from about 1909 onward. Several facelifts and additions increased the seating capacity to 41,684 in 1969. The average attendance reached a peak during the 1972 season – 41,123 fans a game.

It took three more seasons and two more Navy losses before Charlie Daly was able to recover from the war, beating the Midshipmen, 17-14, in a 1922 thriller in front of 55,000 at Franklin Field. The next three head football coaches, all of whom were former players and then assistant coaches under Daly, never lost another game to Navy.

First John McEwan, started with a 0-0 tie in 1923 against a 5-1-3 Navy team; that also tied Washington 14-14 in the Rose Bowl. McEwan led Army in 12-0 and 10-3 poundings of the Midshipmen in 1924 and 1925. Then Biff Jones took over in 1926 and played the national champion Midshipmen to a 21-21 tie at Soldier Field in Chicago in front of 110,000, the most to ever see an Army-Navy game. Jones would lead Army to a 14-9 win in 1927. Eligibility differences prevented the teams playing in 1928 and 1929. The 1920s decade ended with Army having a 4-2-2 record and leading the series 15-12-3.

More Winning Seasons in the Thirties

The final Daly assistant, Ralph Sasse, took over in 1930 and led Army to three straight victories over Navy. McEwan, Jones, and Sasse served as Army head football coaches as part of their military assignments to West Point. After their tours at West Point, they were head coaches at Oregon, Holy Cross, Louisiana State, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Mississippi State. Other Daly assistants and players were head coaches at Hawaii, Florida, and Tennessee, including Hall of Famer Robert Neyland, who won four national championships for the Volunteers.

Future USMA Superintendent Gar Davidson took over the head coaching reigns in 1933, and won three out of the next five Navy games. William Wood became head coach in 1938, beating Navy 14-7 that year. That was when Army finally agreed to follow NCAA eligibility rules, not playing plebes (freshmen) and limiting players to three seasons. Before that, USMA’s position was simple, if the Academic Board said a Cadet could play football, he could, even if he had played three years and graduated from another institution.

During the next two seasons, the Army Football team won only four games, and failed to score in two Midshipmen victories. Army won the decade of the 1930s with a 7-3-0 record and a series lead of 22-15-3, but was down and out compared to Navy prior to World War II.

The Golden Decade

Two losing seasons and two losses to Navy in 1939 and 1940 created the need for change. Earl Red Blaik was brought in personally by new USMA Superintendent Robert Eichelberger to return Army Football to its winning ways, both against other teams and towards beating Navy.

Blaik, a former Daly player and assistant coach under Jones, Sasse, and Davidson before becoming Dartmouth head football coach for seven years, was a detailed planner with emphasis on preparing his players to peak for the Navy game. He also utilized the USMA admission process to thoroughly recruit athletics across the nation.

It took three losses to Navy before Blaik achieved victory over the Midshipmen. In 1941, Army led 6-0 at halftime, but the Midshipmen scored two touchdowns in the third quarter. The Mids pounded the Army teams in 1942 and 1943, held at Annapolis and West Point before about 15,000 fans each due to wartime restrictions. Army did finish the 1943 with a #11 national ranking.

In front of 70,000 fans in Baltimore in 1944, after raising almost $60 million in War Bonds, Army nipped Navy’s comeback by scoring two touchdowns in the fourth quarter for a 23-7 victory and a national championship. Felix Doc Blanchard won the Heisman Trophy.

Number one-ranked Army roared out to a 20-0 lead over number two-ranked Navy in 1945 for another national championship. The Rose Bowl committee lobbied heavily for Army in both seasons to play its Pacific champion, but Blaik viewed bowl games negatively and the USMA leadership did not want the Cadets to lose class time.

Army survived a much closer game in 1946, with the Middies (1-8-0) on the three-yard line when time ran out for a 21-18 win, leading to another national championship. Glenn Davis won the Heisman Trophy and Red Blaik won Coach of the Year.

National sports writers expected Army’s football fortunes to decline after World War II. Blaik’s 1947 team went 5-2-2 with a season ending #11 national ranking, with losses to Columbia (20-21) and #1 Notre Dame, ties against #6 Illinois and #3 Penn, and a 21-0 victory over the Middies. Joe Steffy won the Outland Trophy, awarded to college football’s most outstanding lineman.

Blaik’s next three teams went 8-0-1, 9-0-0, and 8-1-0, with only Navy causing the blemishes.

In 1948, Army handily beat #12 Cornell 27-6 at Ithaca and edged #17 Penn 26-20 at Franklin Field. The #3 Army team entered Philadelphia’s Municipal Stadium favored by three touchdowns against winless Navy, but a massive dose of food poisoning ripped through the Cadets starting on Thursday before the game. The Mids scored a touchdown in the first quarter. The Cadets recovered with two scores in the second. Navy tied it, 14-14, in the third period, but Army regained the lead on the first play of the fourth. A 50-yard drive ended in a Midshipmen score and the game-ending tie, 21-21. Army was ranked #6 in the final poll.

The 1949 team won all nine games, upset #1 Michigan at Ann Arbor, and pounded Navy 38-0 in the 50th battle of the series, and finished the season ranked #4. It remains the last Army Football team to go undefeated and untied.

The 1950 Army team started the season ranked #2, and spent five weeks ranked #1 during the season before finishing second. Meanwhile, the frustration at Annapolis of not having beaten Army since 1943, led the USNA administration to appoint Eddie Erdelatz as head football coach, the first non-Naval Academy graduate to guide the Mids. Navy entered the game having won only two games and was a 21 point underdog, but scored two touchdowns in the second quarter. The Middie defense stopped Army inside the 20-yard line seven times in the second half for a 2-14 upset over the Cadets.

The 1951 Honor Scandal resulted in ninety Cadets being dismissed, including three All-Americans and 34 other football players. Blaik considered resigning because he felt the system was in error in losing so many fine men, but Douglas MacArthur counselled him to stay. The 1951 team finished the season with a 2-7 record and a 7-42 pounding by Navy. Army improved to 4-4-1 in 1952, upsetting Penn 14-13 before losing to Navy 7-0.

The 1953 team upset #7 Duke 14-13 at the Polo Grounds and #17 Penn 21-14, and then #18 Army ended its three game losing streak by beating the Midshipmen 20-7. Army was ranked #14 and #16 in the season ending polls. Red Blaik was named Coach of the Year.

After being upset by South Carolina, 20-34, in its opening game in 1954, Army then won seven straight games to a #5 national ranking and the nation’s top offensive team. Navy entered the game with a #6 ranking and the top defensive team. The lead changed hands several times, until a Navy touchdown pass in the third quarter led to the final score of 20-27 for an Army defeat. Navy then beat Mississippi in the Sugar Bowl and a #5 ranking, compared to Army ranked #7.

The Army Football team went 6-3 in 1955 before facing the Midshipmen, led by All-American end Don Holleder moving to quarterback. Navy was 6-1-1, ranked #10, and favored by a touchdown entering Municipal Stadium; and a victory would put the Middies into the Cotton Bowl. Army dominated with 283 yards rushing, four forced fumbles, and stopped Navy three times in Cadet territory, winning, 14-6. Army was ranked #20 and #15 in the national polls at the end of the season.

Army was ranked in the lower half of the Top Twenty rankings during five weeks of the 1956 season, with its only losses to #10 Michigan, #13 Syracuse, and #16 Pitt, for a 5-3-0 record before Navy. Navy was ranked #13 and 6-1-1 record, including a 33-7 blow-out of Notre Dame, the Midshipmen’s first defeat of the Fighting Irish since 1944. This led to a scoreless first half in Philadelphia and an eventual 7-7 tie due to five lost fumbles by the Cadets.

The 1957 team was ranked in the Top Ten almost every week, beating #20 Penn State, losing 21-23 to #11 Notre Dame, and a pounding of #13 Pitt, 29-13; and entered the game at Municipal Stadium with a #9 ranking. Navy was ranked #7, with a 7-1-1 record, a 20-6 victory over Notre Dame, and favored by six points. The Mids jitterbug defense stopped Army’s powerful offense, leading to a 14-0 victory and an eventual Cotton Bowl win. Army was ranked #18 and #13 in the season ending national polls.

In 1958, Blaik installed the lonely end formation, with Bill Carpenter never returning to the huddle. The Cadets beat #18 South Carolina, #3 Notre Dame, and #13 Rice; and tied #18 Pitt, and came into the Philadelphia game with a 7-0-1 record and ranked second in the nation. Navy was 6-2-0 and unranked, but introduced a double-wing-T offense that produced an opening touchdown run by Joe Bellino, the Mids only score of the game. Anderson scored a touchdown in the second quarter to put the Cadets ahead, 7-6. Two fourth quarter scores led to the 22-6 victory. The Cadets ended the season ranked #3 in the two national polls. Pete Dawkins won the Heisman Trophy.

Red Blaik decided to retire in January 1959, and recommended that Army hire Dale Hall, one of his assistant coaches and a former player during the national championship seasons. Blaik served longer as head coach and won more games than any other Army head football coach. During his 18 seasons (121-33-10), he was 8-8-2 against Navy.

Three Coaches

Hall inherited several of the star players from the 1958 team, but following a legend would prove to be nearly impossible. Army went 4-3-1, with close losses to ranked Illinois, Penn State, and Oklahoma and a 13-13 to #15 Air Force. The Midshipmen opened with three touchdowns. Army closed to 12-21 at the half, but then Navy scored three more touchdowns. Navy won, 43-12, ending the season with a record of 4-4-1. Army still led the series 30-25-5.

Army was 6-2-1 during the 1960 season, including beating #9 Syracuse and a tie to #10 Pitt, before facing #7 Navy (8-1). Navy built a lead before the Cadets rallied with two scores, 12-17. Army recovered a fumble on Navy’s 17-yard line with five minutes to go, but a bungled pitchout on the six probably cost the Cadets the winning touchdown. Navy lost by a touchdown to Missouri in the Orange Bowl and finished with a #4 ranking.

In 1961, Army went 6-3 before meeting the Middies (6-3). The Cadets were leading, 7-3, late in the third quarter, when Navy moved 51 yards on two plays to score a touchdown and then a field goal in the final period, winning 13-7.

Dale Hall would lose to Navy all three of his seasons. With one year left on his contract, USMA Superintendent William Westmoreland fired Hall and hired Paul Dietzel, who had led LSU to the 1958 national championship. He became the first non-graduate head football coach at West Point since Joseph Beacham led the 1911 team.

Dietzel told the administration and the press he expected to need a couple seasons to recruit players for his team, but he was an innovator and emphasized defense. He organized his team into three separate teams to keep his players fresh, which proved effective in achieving a 6-3-0 record, including a 9-6 win at #3 Penn State. But the 1962 team could do little against the Roger Staubach-led Midshipmen, losing 34-14.

The 1963 team had a 7-2 record, with a 10-7 win over #8 Penn State and a 14-10 victory over Air Force at Soldier Field in Chicago. Meanwhile, Navy was having a great year with eight wins, only one loss, and a #2 ranking. This was the game initially cancelled due to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, but the family asked both teams to play one week later.

Newspaper articles reported that Navy, with a victory over the Cadets, would go to the Cotton Bowl, with Pitt being chosen if Army won. A few weeks later, Paul Dietzel told fellow coaches that had Army beat Navy, the Department of the Army had already approved the Cadets going to the Cotton Bowl, provided that the players voted to go.

The Mids were 18 point favorites, led by Heisman Trophy winner Roger Staubach. After a 7-7 halftime lead, Navy went ahead 21-7 early in the fourth quarter. Rollie Stichweh quickly led the Cadets to a touchdown and two point conversion to close