The second Saturday in December is reserved for the annual Army-Navy Game, and for football fans who don’t care about either team, tough luck: It’s literally the only game in town. But whether or not you have a stake in the outcome of the game, it’s always bound to be a good matchup as both Army and Navy have a long history of totally wrecking each other’s seasons.
If the game itself doesn’t thrill you, you can still stay tuned for a lot of fun and martial tradition that surrounds it, from long before kickoff starts until a winner is crowned. Here are a few of the best Army-Navy Game traditions to look out for.
1. Spirit Spots
The smack talk starts early. In the weeks and days leading to the annual Army-Navy Game, interested viewers can find short videos made by cadets, midshipmen and alumni who are both still serving and who have left the military creating short videos to either pump up their fan base or bring the other side down.
These “Spirit Spots” have varying degrees of creativity. Many are simply units or groups of service members shouting “Go Army, Beat Navy” or “Go Navy, Beat Army.” They can also be full-blown productions, featuring some of the military’s highest-ranking and most notable officers. Few are as (playfully) notorious as Rylan Tuohy, an Annapolis grad who built a reputation for creating hilarious spirit spots (and is now working in commercial television). Tuohy recently released a teaser for his upcoming spot, his first since leaving the Navy in 2022.
2. The Pregame Flyover
The Army-Navy Game may not mean all that much to the world of college football at large, but for the Army’s and Navy’s top brass, it means everything. To call the decisive show of raw military power that happens before the big game a “flyover” would be putting it lightly. Both services tend to bring more ass than most countries can even afford, and oftentimes it’s enough to invade most tinpot dictatorships.
In the past, the Army has sent all manner of helicopters, including CH-47 Chinooks, UH-60 Black Hawks and even AH-64 Apaches, not to mention an honest-to-God field cannon and crew (it fires blanks). Not to be outdone, the Navy has no problem bringing its vaunted F-35 Lightning II fighters in tight formations, even if the Blue Angels are also doing a flyover.
3. ‘The Prisoner Exchange’
Every semester, the two service academies invite each other to send select students to study at their respective campuses. A number of West Point cadets attend the Naval Academy while an equal number of midshipmen go to the U.S. Military Academy. The idea is to foster close interservice relations — their first taste of joint interoperability.
Before the annual Army–Navy Game kicks off, a quick ceremony takes place around midfield. The “prisoners” march from their rivals’ side of the stadium so they can watch the game with their comrades-in-arms (and other fans).
4. ‘The March On’
Imagine the entire student body of Texas Tech or the University of Alabama slowly walking onto the football field before their biggest rivalry game. Some of them wouldn’t be able to walk, let alone come onto the field for any reason, but that’s not so with Army and Navy.
Before the Army-Navy Game officially kicks off, the field (literally) gives way to both the Army’s Corps of Cadets and Navy’s Midshipmen to take the field in a structured formation. This doesn’t mean that the academies’ football teams march on the field; the entire student body of each service academy marches on, then marches off in true military fashion.
5. ‘Honoring the Fallen’
The Army-Navy Game is always a toss-up, no matter how well each team has performed throughout the rest of the season. For the Black Knights and the Midshipmen, everything has been leading up to the second Saturday in December. Their rival might win the conference championship, but no victory is sweeter than an Army-Navy Game victory. It could mean the difference between “better luck next year” and a trip to the White House to get the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy from the president of the United States.
The idea of one side singing the other’s alma mater after any college football rivalry game might seem like anathema to most people (can you imagine the Michigan Wolverines singing “Carmen Ohio?”), but that’s how it goes after the Army-Navy Game. In a tradition that has become known as “Honoring the Fallen,” the two teams gather to first sing the loser’s alma mater, then sing the winner’s. If you hear the phrase “Sing Second,” this is what they’re talking about.
6. What the President Does
Ten presidents have attended the Army-Navy Game as president of the United States: Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. POTUS isn’t obliged to attend the game, but when he does, it changes everything — not just for the teams, but also for the crowd and the traditions of the game.
There are a couple of things the commander in chief is expected to do. The first is to perform the pregame coin toss. After all, who could be more trusted as an impartial observer than the president of the United States? The president, being the chief executive, can sit on either side he wants, but at halftime, he’s expected to walk across the field and sit on the opposite side, showing no favoritism toward either team (or service).
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