Since the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, first started playing football in the late 19th century, it has posted undefeated seasons, claimed national championships and been the home of Heisman Trophy winners. Then there was the 1912 Army team — a squad that finished with a mediocre 5-3 record but might be the most militarily skilled the academy has ever produced.
In an era when two-way players were prevalent and rosters were much smaller than the bloated depth charts found at most NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision programs today, Army probably dressed out no more than 15 players that season. Yet at least eight of those young men became highly ranked military officers who led troops in as many as three major international conflicts: World War I, World War II and the Korean War.
Gen. William Hoge played for the Cadets in 1912, as did Lt. Gen. Geoffrey Keyes, Maj. Gens. Leland Hobbs and Vernon Prichard, Brig. Gen. Robert Neyland (later a College Football Hall of Fame coach for the University of Tennessee) and Lt. Col. Leland Devore, the team’s captain. Gen. Omar Bradley did not letter in football that season but was considered part of the team — he was in the team photo — and later helped the Cadets capture their first of the academy’s three national titles, as recognized by the NCAA, in 1914.
And then there was Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was considered “one of the most promising halfbacks in Eastern football,” also played linebacker and later became supreme allied commander during World War II and ultimately the 34th president of the United States.
“I believe that football, perhaps more than any other sport, tends to instill in men the feeling that victory comes through hard — almost slavish — work, team play, self-confidence and an enthusiasm that amounts to dedication,” Eisenhower once said.
In 1912, Army not only possessed players with so much untapped military acumen but was coached by a highly accomplished military man himself, former Brig. Gen. Ernest Graves Sr. His players seldom forgot what he taught them, Prichard even reminding Eisenhower, his lifelong friend, during the Battle of the Bulge of one of Graves’ principles: “If things break badly or go against you, stay with it all the harder.”
Make no mistake, these men knew something about perseverance. Several commanded divisions during their military careers, including Keyes (“the best tactical mind of any officer I know,” according to no less of an authority than Gen. George Patton) and Hoge who — under Eisenhower’s leadership — helped the allies establish an initial foothold on Omaha Beach after the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. (Two years earlier, Hoge directed the construction of the nearly 1,400-mile Alaska Highway, which originated in British Columbia and established a key military supply route over land.)
They made history — Devore, the All-America tackle who became the Army’s first motor transport officer in 1916, only a few years after leaving West Point; Hobbs, who helped the allies break through at St. Lô during the Normandy invasion; Bradley, who — nicknamed “the GI’s General” after his outstanding service in WWII — served as the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1949 to 1953; and, of course, Ike.
“In war, there is no second prize for the runner-up,” Bradley famously said in 1950.
Likewise, football doesn’t fancy runner-ups. Quarterbacked by Prichard, who commanded the 1st and 4th Armored Divisions against the Nazis, the Cadets didn’t exactly play a powerhouse schedule, facing the likes of New Jersey’s Stevens Institute of Technology and Massachusetts’ Tufts College (in a game in which Eisenhower sustained a career-ending knee injury).
Two of Army’s losses came by the always scintillating final score of 6-0 — against Yale in the third game that year and against Navy in the finale in Philadelphia. Its other setback was more definitive, 27-6 to a Carlisle Indian Industrial School team led by Olympic legend Jim Thorpe.
Yet, in the end, the results didn’t matter. The cadets on that team were exceptional in a way that cannot be measured by wins and losses or yardage totals, and as Army and Navy prepare to meet for the 125th time on Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024, at 3 p.m. EST at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, no one knows what these players’ futures will hold.
No matter whether they are Black Knights or Midshipmen, both sides could do worse than to heed the encouraging words that Eisenhower — nearly four years after leaving the White House after serving two terms — offered Army’s squad before it played its biggest rival in 1964.
“You will always have what you give today,” Eisenhower said in a telegram. “The more you give[,] the more you will keep.”
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