In a Farewell Appearance, McCallum Stuns the Army

Break out the braid, please, and shower it on Navy Coach Gary Tranquill and the Midshipmen. They beat Army in the big one.

It was a game they had no right to win, this 4-7 team with a second-string, sore-kneed quarterback in Bob Misch. But the Brigade of Midshipmen screamed itself voiceless as Navy won, 17-7, before a crowd of 71,640 that got what it paid for: a good old rivalry.

Napoleon McCallum gave a stunning farewell performance, gaining 217 yards in 41 carries from scrimmage and helping set up 10 fourth-quarter points. McCallum, who missed last year’s game injured, along with most of the 1984 season, and returned for an unprecedented fifth year as an academy player, finished with his second-highest rushing game and the second highest in an Army-Navy game, behind Eddie Meyers’ 278 yards for Navy in 1979.

“This is the game I’m going to remember,” McCallum said. “This game made the extra year worthwhile. The offensive line stayed with their blocks, and that allowed me to make the cutbacks I needed.”

McCallum, who discovered after the game that he had finished seventh in the Heisman balloting, said: “There’s a little irony there, I guess. I guess I’m a little late in having a good game.”

With his performance, McCallum increased his NCAA career all-purpose yardage record to 7,172, and set an NCAA record for all-purpose plays with 1,137, breaking the record of 1,120 held by Pitt’s Tony Dorsett.

Tranquill said: “He’s always good. I’ve never seen him be bad. He does a lot of things. The defenses are always keying on him, but you’ve got to stop him.”

Army lost starting quarterback Rob Healy shortly before the end of the first half when he was stopped for no gain on what was perhaps the biggest play of the game, a goal-line stand by Navy. On fourth-and-one at Navy’s two, he suffered a dislocated shoulder.

Healy was replaced by Tory Crawford, a sophomore who had gained 671 yards rushing this season. But he could not move Army, which had only Clarence Jones’ 10-yard scoring run in the first quarter.

“I think Navy took the game to us,” Army Coach Jim Young said. “They controlled the time of possession, plays and yardage, which is what we like to do.

“McCallum demonstrated that he’s a great back. Navy’s game plan was excellent--just run him and keep running him.”

The Midshipmen scored first, on Misch’s 13-yard pass to Troy Saunders in the first quarter. They didn’t go in front for good until Chuck Smith’s five-yard touchdown run with 8:26 left in the game, and couldn’t rest easy until Todd Solomon’s 26-yard field goal with 1:15 left, after a drive on which McCallum carried on 8 of the 10 plays. That sufficed to defeat an 8-3 Army team that is going to the Peach Bowl.

Navy took over for its final possession with 6:06 left after Army was forced to punt from the Cadets’ 37. The Midshipmen started at their 33 and drove to the nine over the next five minutes. From there, Solomon’s kick assured their biggest upset of the season.

Scores by Army and Navy on each of their first possessions held up for a 7-7 tie at intermission, but that wasn’t nearly all there was to the tumultuous first half. The halftime show, which included a guest appearance by Vice President George Bush, a former Navy man, was an anticlimax to two quarters spent in a near-slugging match on the ground.

Navy scored off the opening kickoff, run out of the end zone by McCallum to the 27, with a 16-play, 73-yard drive that ate up more than half the first quarter. The Midshipmen overcame two illegal procedure penalties and an eight-yard sack before Misch found Saunders with an over-the-shoulder, 13-yard touchdown pass with 6:54 left in the period.

McCallum carried nine times on the drive for 45 yards. In doing so, he became only the 23rd player in NCAA history to rush for more than 4,000 yards in a career. He had 118 yards in the half. His day’s total brought him to 1,327 for the season.

Army, which entered the game averaging 350.8 yards a game on the ground, was held to 192 rushing and 288 overall. Navy gained 313 yards on the ground and 397 total.

Navy leads the series, 41-38-7. Army’s 28-11 victory last season was its first since 1977.