From the mid-1880s through the end of the 1950s, college football was the autumn spectator sport. Pro football was the sport’s stepchild until the 1960s, when televised pro football surpassed the college game’s popularity. Teams such as Harvard, Yale, Notre Dame, and Pennsylvania were followed nationally.
No college football rivalry during that early period caught the national imagination quite like the one between two service academies: the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, and the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. The Army–Navy game was so popular that neither of the school’s stadiums could accommodate everyone who wanted to attend. It was usually held at a neutral site with a massive stadium. Often, this was Philadelphia, halfway between the two schools.
“Battles at Annapolis: Two Remarkable Football Games in the Army–Navy Rivalry” captures that rivalry. Author David Gendell highlights two of the three Army–Navy games played at the U.S. Naval Academy: the 1893 game and the 1942 game. Gendell, an Annapolis native, wanted a book focused on his hometown.
A Padded Helmet
The 1893 game was foundational in several ways. Senior officers of both military branches feared that football would distract students from the purpose of the service academies. The students were there to produce future officers, not sportsfield gladiators. The game was violent, far more so than the modern game. Players wore no protective equipment. Plays such as the flying wedge, in which linemen linked arms, were legal and deadly.Gendell shows how this game affected both the future of college football and the Army–Navy series. It was the first football game in which a player wore protective equipment. A Navy player who had suffered a head injury had a padded leather helmet made so that he could play.
The game helped foster the 1894 reforms to football, which made the game safer. It also led both services to conclude that football helped build officers. One player on the 1893 team, Worth Bagley, became a war hero during the 1898 Spanish-American War.
The 1942 game took place in the modern football era. A player from that year’s teams would recognize the game played today. A player from the 1893 team would have had to relearn the game to play in 1942. By then, college football was, along with professional baseball, the premier spectator sport in the United States.
The Army and Navy games contributed to college football’s prestige. The rivalry captivated the nation, as did rivalries with other college football powerhouses, such as Notre Dame, Harvard, and Yale.
‘The Big 1’
For both academies, the game with the other team was “the big one.” It attracted massive crowds, requiring it to be played in a city with an oversized stadium with excellent railroad access. Special trains were required. The 1941 game, played eight days before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, drew 98,000 spectators at Annapolis.The United States was on the defensive throughout 1942. The game was almost canceled. Gendell shows why the game took place and the restrictions under which it was played. President Franklin Roosevelt felt that canceling it would hurt morale. To minimize fuel and rubber consumption, the game was held at Annapolis for the first time in 49 years. Only those living within 10 miles of Annapolis were permitted to buy tickets.
The Army Academy was permitted to bring only those on the football team and three cheerleaders from West Point. No other cadets could come. In the spirit of shared comradeship, the Navy team found a mule to serve as the Army mascot on the Army sidelines. The Naval Academy detailed half the midshipmen attending to root for the Army team. It was a show of solidarity forged by the knowledge that those on both teams and in both schools would soon be at war, fighting side by side. That knowledge transcended winning a game. Indeed, several players on both teams went on to notable wartime careers. Most notable was Robin Olds, who became an Army Air Force ace in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.
This book takes readers to a bygone United States. The country had flaws: Segregation and racism were endemic. Yet it lacked the new flaws of today’s United States. It was a more cohesive society, one in which patriotism was unapologetically embraced and in which merit mattered. The 1893 game helped heal rifts remaining between North and South after the Civil War. The 1942 game helped focus World War II patriotism.
“Battles at Annapolis” reminds readers why college football was then so beloved. Football was secondary to players’ goals. Players participated for the love of the game, not a future NFL contract. They played for the glory and for the honor of their school and did so unironically.
The book is worth reading for the trip back to a time when college football was king of U.S. sports.
