Army Wins Battle With Navy, but All Keep Eyes on War

With President Bush cheering from the stands, Army defeated Navy on Saturday in a wartime football game in which patriotism was the 12th player on the field.

The president told both teams during locker room pep talks that his thoughts not only were on the contest at Veterans Stadium but also with U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

“My mind is with the men and women who wear our uniform as we wage a noble cause,” he told the Naval Academy midshipmen.

Visiting West Point’s Black Knights, he added: “The enemy made a mistake. We will win. There is no doubt in my mind about it.”

On the football field, victory belonged to Army, 26-17, which dominated from the first quarter.

The war against terrorism also was on the minds of the officers in training, who traveled to Philadelphia for the 102nd meeting between the rival military academies.

“My thoughts right now are, we are just going to have deal with it as officers when we get out there,” said Eric Wright, 20, of Kansas City, Mo., a junior at West Point. “It is nothing to shy away from. You take it head on.

“The game takes on added significance this year.”

Other cadets and midshipmen said the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the campaign in Afghanistan had brought a stronger sense of purpose to the military academies.

“I see a lot of midshipmen wanting to go aboard the fleet right now,” said Paolo Singh, 20, a junior from Corona attending the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

The trade center attacks were a “reality check,” said Bryan Abell, 21, of Damascus, Md., also a junior at Annapolis.

“After Sept. 11, we’re suddenly at war,” he said. “In a year and a half, we are going to graduate. This is what we are going to be involved in. This is what we train for.”

Abell added that, although rivalry on the football field remained between Army and Navy, the realization also existed that “we are brothers in the service and brothers in the conflict we are involved in today.”

Security was extra tight at the stadium. Philadelphia Police Commissioner John F. Timoney advised fans to arrive at least two hours before kickoff, and many of the 67,000 spectators who packed the stands heeded his message.

Everyone passed through metal detectors, and guards required cell phones and computers to be turned on to ensure they were not bombs. Air travel was sharply restricted overhead, and scores of emergency vehicles were massed on nearby streets in case of trouble.

The game got underway after teams of Army and Navy parachutists landed on the field. One chutist carried a large U.S. flag as he floated to the ground. Bush had the midfield honor of conducting the coin toss, which Navy won.

With temperatures in the high 60s, the weather was perfect, as if specially ordered. The stadium, with a mass of blue uniforms from the Naval Academy on one side and the dress grays of West Point on the other, shared the bright sunshine. Jet fighters and helicopters flew low overhead, in a display of military might typical of Army-Navy games.

Retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who headed U.S. forces during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, sat on the Army side.

Bush, the nation’s commander in chief, was nonpartisan: He started the game sitting with Naval Academy fans, then switched at halftime to the West Point side.

The rivalry between the two service academies is one of the oldest and fiercest in football. Navy won the first game, in 1890, 24-0. The tone of the game was set then by West Point’s superintendent, who said he would give a demerit to “the first Army player who leaves the field in an upright position.”

Army has won 11 of the last 16 games and holds a 49-46-7 edge in the series. Navy won in the previous two years.

Before Saturday’s contest, both teams had mediocre records. Army was 2-8; Navy, 0-9. But all that seemed irrelevant. At both academies, the Army-Navy matchup is the game.

“From the moment you come to the academy, one of the first things you are told is to say, ‘Beat Army!’ ” said Maria Dipaolo, a 19-year-old freshman from Chicago.

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The Army Black Knights defeat winless Navy, 26-17, in the 102nd game between the academies. D9