The Game

History of Army vs. Navy Rivalry

Photo from Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

After conference championship week in college football, many fans wait until the playoffs begin to watch their next game. However, one of the biggest rivalries in college football is the week after conference championship week, and that is the Army vs. Navy game, also known as the Patriot game. These two programs have played against each other for over 100 years, with their first game being on Nov. 29, 1890. Since then, this rivalry has become one of the highlights of the college football season and is the only regular season game held on its own week, showing how important the game is.

The Army-Navy is not only one of the most prestigious rivalries but also has one of the most interesting origins explaining how the teams became big rivals. During Army and Navy’s annual rivalry game in 1893, a player named Joseph Mason Reeves made history by wearing the first helmet ever worn during a football game. The contraption was so new that if another player got a head injury caused by the helmet, it could be detrimental to them for life. Due to the helmet, an Army general and a Navy admiral got into a verbal altercation, which led to a complete brawl between both teams, which included the fans. The issue got so large that Grover Cleveland, the president at the time, banned the Army Black Knights and the Navy Midshipmen from playing until 1899. Since then, the rivalry has been going strong with Navy currently beating Army all-time with a record of 63-55-7.

During this game, there are many traditions that always happen. During the pregame march, students of each military academy enter in military formation. This includes both the football players and students of each school. Along with this tradition is the pregame prisoner exchange. During this time, a select group of students from both schools spend a semester at the other’s campus as a part of the Service Academy Exchange Program. Then, before the game starts, the cadets run back to their original academy and celebrate with their peers. 

In recent years, anew tradition has begun for the Patriot game. In 2016, Nike worked with both schools to create special jerseys just for this game. This year, both the Army and Navy have uniforms that are especially important because they represent the 250th anniversary of the United States Army and Naval Academy. The Army’s uniforms this year have special patches and symbols to represent the history of the Army and have many other cool features within the jersey, including the school’s motto, “This We’ll Defend.” Navy’s uniforms also have many different symbols on the uniform, though the most prevalent is the Naval Seal on the top right corner on the front of the jersey.

This football season Navy has played much better than Army. Currently, Navy has a record of 9-2 and came in third place in the American Athletic Conference. The team is led by quarterback Blake Horvath who has over 1000 yards throwing and rushing this season and has never lost to Army as the starting quarterback for the Midshipmen. Though Army has not had as great of a season as Navy, upsets are common within this rivalry. Last year, Army was much better than Navy and lost, so the Black Knights are looking to take back the crown of the Patriot game.