Ⅰ.
I’ve had many people ask me over the years why I, a fat civilian, am so passionate about the collegiate football team at the United States Military Academy.
Well, it’s not complicated. They got me young. Young and naive.
October 7th, 1999.
A family friend had invited my dad and I to go to the Army vs. Louisville game. It was a Thursday night (first time in Academy history), and having never been to a football game beyond a few local high school affairs, 7th grade me was mostly just excited to drink caffeinated beverages and be out super late on a school night. Little could I have known that I’d be treated to guys parachuting into Michie Stadium, Howitzers booming across the Lusk Reservoir, and a 59-52 double overtime thriller resulting in a victory for the Army team.
Who wouldn’t be hooked after that?
Unfortunately for young me, the program had little success in those days, the nadir coming in 2003 with an 0-13 season. Nevertheless, I held out hope that things would get better, and even bought my own season tickets in ’05, ’06, ’07, and ’09 (and added on hockey season tickets from ’08 to ’14, but that’s a whole other topic).
Ⅱ.
It was still a rough time, post-winless season, but not without its bright spots. There were back-to-back wins against Cincinnati and South Florida in ’04, which broke a 19-game losing streak (shout out to Tieler Robinson and Carlton Jones for all the touchdowns). There was a 4-game win streak in ’05 (including a win at Air Force); and an overtime win at Baylor in ’06 (a Big 12 doormat at the time, but a Big 12 program nonetheless), which I believe wasn’t televised at all, but I’ll never forget listening to that one on the radio (as I experienced many games back then, in the days before TV proliferation, let alone streaming content).
There were even times when the Army team would punch up a bit. There was a Friday night home game (again, first time in Academy history) in ’05 where they had a 21-14 4th quarter lead over #22 Iowa State (gave up 14 in the 4th, lost 28-21; definitely not still bitter). There was a “neutral site” game at the Alamodome in ’06 where Army came up two yards short of beating Texas A&M (definitely still not bitter about that one); and they actually went wire-to-wire with them again in College Station in ’08.
Mostly though, there was a lot of losing. I could name a series of low lights, but I’m older now and slightly more forgiving, but nevertheless it did not matter if the games were home or away, or whether the opponent was from a major conference or Division 1-AA. Over the first ten years of my fandom, Army averaged only one win for every five games played.
Ⅲ.
Still, I held out hope that things would get better.
And for a time they did. 2009 saw new coach Rich Ellerson set a new high water mark of five wins in one season, and in 2010 I finally had my taste of a winner, as the Army team finished with a 7-6 record after a victory over SMU in the Armed Forces Bowl (and I finally cut off my long locks that I’d been growing since high school, because Army winning a bowl game was one of two conditions I’d set).
Sadly, the program quickly regressed to the mean, winning only eight games over the next three seasons, and Ellerson was fired as head coach after a blowout loss to end 2013.
Did I still have hope? I suppose I did, but it almost seemed irrelevant, because I knew (and said) that with the hiring of Jeff Monken as head football coach, as well as some other folks who happened to be in power at the time, that if Army football couldn’t become a consistent winner within five years, it would never happen.
Progress was slow, and often maddening, to start.
2014 was technically an improvement, as the team won one more game than they had the previous season, but there was also an immensely frustrating overtime loss at Yale, which signaled that the Army team perhaps wasn’t yet ready for primetime. Still, I have a happy memory from that season of traveling to Yankee Stadium to see a victory over UConn, who were a bad team that year, but a real Baba Yaga for Army from ’03 to ’06, so that was quite gratifying as a long-suffering fan with an equally long memory.
Now, 2015 is when the legacy of the “Cardiac Cadets” began, though not yet in a positive way. Army went 2-10 on the season, with eight games decided by a touchdown or less, including a 37-35 loss at home to Fordham in their opener, but also a 20-14 loss in the rain at Penn State (a game they really should have won if not for losing three of seven fumbles). Will the real Army football team please stand up? (That’s terrible; I apologize).
Ⅳ.
So, after watching this program win less than a quarter of its games over seventeen seasons, why did I decide to spend my Labor Day weekend of 2016 in Philadelphia, to watch a team play in a stadium in which it had never won a game, against another Baba Yaga team that they hadn’t beaten in 10 years?
Well, frankly, I don’t remember. I don’t think I gave Army anything but a puncher’s chance to win, but for some reason I went anyway, and then something amazing happened.
And they didn’t just beat Temple, they ran them into the ground (shout out to Andy Davidson, who’s my favorite college football player of all time, mostly for his performance in that game). Oh, sure, the final score was only 28-13, but those Owls wanted to fly away from the physical pounding they were taking.
And that was the day I knew things were finally different, because from 2007 to 2013, the only win Army had against Temple was because the Owls were so bad they had teammates tackling each other in the open field; but for six straight seasons afterward, Temple (a respectable mid-major for the past ten years, but not a Power Five program) physically dominated the Army team. But now the tables had turned.
The next week, Army came home and again rather comfortably slayed another stolas, Rice. Excitement for the program was sky-high. Then the next morning came the news that stand-out cornerback Brandon Jackson had been killed in a single car crash. The team rallied for an emotional 66-14 road annihilation of Texas-El Paso, but lost five of their next eight, including a pair of heart-breakers at Buffalo and at Duke, and headed into their final regular season game at 6-5, needing a win to secure bowl eligibility due to two of their victories coming against FCS competition.
Which brings us to the one name I somehow haven’t mentioned yet: Navy.
Ⅴ.
I hate Navy football. Hate.
Let me be clear, it’s a sports hate, so it’s not the same as, say, the way Captain Kirk hates Klingons, but it is a Hatred. Fourteen losses in a row (most of them blowouts) in a rivalry that’s supposed to be evenly matched no matter the teams’ win-loss records (and where the previous record losing streak for both teams was only five) will make anyone bitter. Now, I can’t hold it against Navy that Army football was so down for so long, but there were a few heart-wrenching games in that streak, perhaps none more so than the gut punch of 2012.
To take you back a bit, 2012, as you might expect, was not a good season for the Army team. There was a surprising and exciting home win against Boston College in early October, and about a month later, days after Hurricane Sandy had ravaged the Northeast, there was an even more surprising home win over Air Force (another happy in-person memory for me, but probably even happier for the Corps, who I think received no AMI for a week).
So, despite the fact that they entered the final game of the season at 2-9, Army had a chance to not only end the losing streak against Navy (which would have felt great), but also, after beating Air Force earlier, take home the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy for the first time since 1996 (which would have felt amazing).
4th quarter, down 17-13, only minutes left, Army is driving. They’re driving, they’re driving, they’re going to score, they’re going to score, IT’S GOING TO HAPPEN.
1st and 10 at the Navy 14, 1:04 left. There’s a bad mesh. Ball on the ground. Navy recovers. Game over.
What is hope?
Ⅵ.
Flash forward back to 2016. Do I know if Army’s going to beat Navy? No, but I know that if they do, and I’m not there to see it, I’ll hate myself for it, so I make the trip down to Maryland (even though my only previous Army-Navy experience was also in Baltimore, and let’s just say it was 24-3 Navy at the half).
It’s a bonkers game. Not a lot of scoring, but a whole lot of turnovers; seven combined by the end. Army takes a 14-0 lead into halftime, but do I feel great about it? No. Of course not. To borrow a phrase from Steve Czaban, this is Army’s El Guapo; they’re not dead until they’re dead. Oh, and by the way, it’s cold (shout out to the cadet mom who had some extra HotHands, or I might not be able to type this now).
So, Army’s hanging on and hanging on and manages to take a 14-10 lead into the 4th quarter. That’s when the shoe, no, the big romper stomper boot, drops. Army has a poor punt, Navy takes over near mid-field, and two plays later Zach Abey is running 41 yards into the endzone. 17-14 Navy lead; 12:42 left in the game.
I don’t remember if it was after that touchdown or an earlier Army fumble, but at some point during the game I was beating my cap so hard into my chairback that the guy behind me (who I assume was a young Old Grad) actually tried to calm me down, but I just couldn’t help it.
Fortunately for me though, history was about to change, as the Army offense put together another signature drive. The crazy thing was that it started with a pass; a 29-yard pass to Edgar Allan Poe, Jr. to bring Army to midfield. A half dozen plays later though, the drive almost stalled out. 3rd and 7 at the Navy 24 brought another pass to Joe Walker for 6 yards. 4th and inches. Is Army going for it? Of course! It’s the Cardiac Cadets, baby! My boy Davidson takes it not one, not two, but seven yards to the Navy 11.
They’re going to score, they’re going to score, IT’S GOING TO HAPPEN.
Two plays later, “Bradshaw, BRADSHAW!”
Army takes the 21-17 lead, Navy goes three-and-out, and after fourteen miserable, horrific, sickening losses, Army salts the game away with their sledgehammers, and victory over arch-rival Navy is won.
To be honest, I didn’t have the emotional release I thought I would, I think because I was just so shocked (in a good way) that it had finally happened. It really wasn’t until I went back a few days later and watched the CBS game broadcast that I finally had my moment, but that’s alright; I’ll take it.
Perhaps even sweeter though was right after the game was over, naturally the Navy fans were filing out first, so while I’m still standing at my seat I hear this girl, in the most basic, condescending, Karen-needs-to-talk-to-a-manager voice possible say, “I hope you’re all enjoying this, because it’s never going to happen again!”
I just grinned from ear to ear.
Ⅶ.
But wait, there’s more!
So, after Army beats Navy in ’16, they go to their first bowl game since 2010 to play North Texas, to whom they’d lost at home earlier in the season. I don’t know how the team feels about it, but for me this is where the “Cardiac Cadets” moniker was cemented, and has only been built upon since.
The game goes to overtime. Army gets the ball first and has 4th-and-goal from the 3 yard line. Are they going to try a field goal? Heck no! Sweep pitch to the right, Jordan Asberry takes it in for the touchdown. Up 38-31, the defense forces a four-and-out. Boom. Army wins the Heart of Dallas Bowl to finish 8-5 on the season (which somehow looks so much better than 7-6; like more than it should, but hey).
Fast forward a year. Army’s playing a supremely talented San Diego State team in the Armed Forces Bowl. With eighteen seconds left in the game, they score a touchdown, extra point still pending, to make the score 34-35. Do they just kick the PAT and try for overtime? Heck no! Sweep pitch to the right, Kell Walker takes it in for the two-point conversion. SDSU tries to run a Music City Miracle to win, Elijah Riley takes it away for another touchdown. Army wins 42-35 to go 10-3 on the season.
And believe me, these aren’t the only examples. There was the comeback against Buffalo where a fake punt sealed it, the Eastern Michigan game where they stopped a two-point play to win, the Temple game where they went 79 yards in 1:30 to send it to OT and win, the Hawaii game where they stopped them with a minute to go to cement it, and the Miami (OH) game where they stopped another two-point play to win in double overtime.
Ⅷ
But, hey, these guys can dish out their share of curb stompings as well. I don’t know if you saw last year’s Armed Forces Bowl against Houston, which Army won 70-14 to finish with an Academy record 11 wins on the season, but I was there and it was glorious. And that brings me to the next bit of unfinished business.
After ending the streak against Navy in 2016, the 2017 Army team faced the challenge of topping that achievement, namely sweeping Air Force and Navy to finally bring the Commander-in-Chief’s trophy back to West Point after nearly two decades.
History was not on their side. Not only had Army only won the trophy outright six times in the forty-five years of the competition, only once before, in 1977, had they done it while defeating Air Force on the road. Nevertheless, much like the Navy game the previous season, I knew I had to be there, and so made the trip to Colorado.
I was expecting a nail-biting affair from tape to tape, but what we all got was a thoroughly dominating Army performance, in just about every way but the scoreboard, but man did it warm my heart to see so many Air Force fans leaving early.
21-0 final score. Army never even attempted a pass.
And to cap it off, I also attended both Army-Air Force hockey games that weekend, and the Army team swept those, too!
Man, that was a great couple of days.
Ⅸ.
Here’s where we come full circle.
Since I’d never seen the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy with my own eyes before, I knew I’d have to attend my second Army-Navy game in a row (though my first in Philly), no matter what the weather.
Turns out, it was the coldest I’ve ever been in my life, because somehow it managed to be below freezing out while simultaneously pouring wet snow. Army scoring on an early Darnell Woolfolk touchdown helped a little, but Navy taking a 10-7 lead into halftime thanks to a 68-yard Malcolm Perry scamper was less than ideal.
Still, I gladly headed back to the concourse to get out of the snow (though that was easier said than done with the way the wind was blowing), and unsuccessfully tried to warm myself with some Crabfries. After that I just tried to find a pillar to stand next to to be out of the way and, again, out of the snow.
All of a sudden, I see a face I know.
It’s the same family friend who invited me to my first Army game back in 1999 (and others since). Not only that, but he’s got a vacancy in his seats for the second half, and would I like to join he and his family to watch the rest of the game. Naturally, I accept.
Army’s now down 13-7 in the third quarter, and they go on a drive that eats up a lot of clock. They get as far as the Navy 9-yard line, but the drive stalls out, and the first play of the fourth quarter is a 35-yard field goal attempt.
Miss.
Oh, no. All that work. No points.
Navy offense takes over. False start. Three-and-out. Army ball again.
Another long drive. 2nd and goal from the 9-yard line.
Triple option, first pitch all game! It’s North Jersey’s own John Trainor going in for the touch! Nope, out inside the one (I still know in my heart he crossed the plane).
Next play, Bradshaw, QB sneak, Touchdown. Army takes a 14-13 lead.
But there’s a lot of time left.
Navy’s driving. Just under two minutes to go, 4th and 3 at the Army 37, Perry recovers a bad snap and takes it 12 yards.
Curses.
2nd and 8 at the 23, false start. 3rd and 11 at the 26, false start. 3rd and 16 at the Army 31, Perry centers the ball for his kicker; Navy takes their final timeout with three seconds left.
During the commercial break, the stadium crew plays “Tsunami” over the PA system, and I tell you, when I looked over and saw the Corps bouncing up and down, that was the moment I knew Army was walking out of there with the CIC in hand.
Bennett Moehring lines up for a 48-yard field goal attempt. Play clock’s ticking down. Army’s got one timeout left. Do they try to ice him? No. Kick’s away, it’s up.
NO GOOD! WIDE LEFT! ARMY WINS!
Bedlam.
I pray to God I never forget the sight of the flight of that ball as it trailed off, but more importantly, in that moment, it was all worth it. All the seasons of anguish, the frustration, all the standing in the rain, all of the crushing halftime deficits. It all melted away into pure joy.
Many people ask me why I’m an Army football fan.
How could I not be?