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J.C.
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Beat Army : In search of school spirit |
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J.C.
Milliman
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Beat Army : In search of school spirit |
(Editor’s Note: Mr. Milliman climbs down from his ivory cab
this week -- Dec. 7, 2002 -- to show a little school spirit. We hope…)
Was it really that long ago?
I think enough time has gone by to finally unburden myself of terrible memories I have been carrying around, shackled as it were, to soul-numbing guilt. I can’t bear it any longer.
Yes! Sixteen long years ago this week, at the Meadowlands, while attending the Army/Navy game, my roommate – Andy Gordon – rooted for … Army.
Why was he doing that? Could he have been inebriated from the peppermint schnapps my dad smuggled in for us at halftime? And, as long as I’m baring my soul to you, let me relieve myself of the most terrible memory of all – one so dark, so heinous that I scarcely can even tell it to you now.
I was rooting for Army, too. YESSSS, I'VE SAID IT!!!!
You see, kind reader, Andy and I were in our fourth year of wearing a Navy (gasp!) uniform (The emotional scars remain to this day) as Midshipmen (inmates, in our minds) at the Severn River School for the Socially Challenged. And other than for a few brief, shining moments, courtesy of Napoleon McCallum, we had seen Navy beaten week after bloody week by a veritable conga line of lesser lights who trouped to Annapolis every year to pick up an easy win.
Beaten? Did I say beaten? Heck, we were trounced! Destroyed! Humiliated!
And in the 16 years since, things haven’t much improved.
Navy’s new head coach, Paul Johnson, took over a program that's won just one game in the last two years (1-20) -- the worst two-year record in the 122-year history of Navy football.
"The program didn't get this way overnight and it's not going to change overnight," he said recently. He’s right, too.
Johnson got handed a program in a bag – a "program" that had gone 16-39 (.291) the past five years, including 1-20 the last two years. On the up side, in his first year, he’s 1-10 -- which equals the win total from the last two years combined.
Waa hoo.
And Saturday, Navy will once again look to snap a 10-game losing streak when it plays the only game that truly matters. The Navy football squad, approximately 8,000 Midshipmen and cadets, and tens of thousands of family members, alums and fans will make the annual pilgrimage to watch this cataclysm between the Blue and Gold and the Black and Gold in the 103rd iteration of this most hallowed match.
But lest ye think me overly negative … I’ve learned a thing or two since 1986.
Forget that Navy is coming off a heartbreaking 30-27 loss at Wake Forest with a 1-10 record this year. Forget they handed a victory to Notre Dame in the final quarter like a ham sandwich. And forget that Army, with an equally abysmal record, is coming off a 38-10 loss at Memphis.
Football really isn’t the point here. We don’t really care what the records are. Sure, we want our respective schools to win, if only for the ensuing bragging rights.
But we’re not here for yardage, touchdowns, NFL draft picks or multi-million dollar contracts, are we? The fact that both the Naval Academy and the U.S. Military Academy are happy to appear on international television with such horrid records only proves our priorities are properly set on other things.
As events of the past year have shown, America turns to us when the chips are down. It demands leaders, and leadership, not impressive stats on Ian Eagle’s and Craig James’ CBS teleprompters.
And unlike civilian schools, after the last whistle the players will leave field and scoreboard behind them and return to their real task – preparing to lead America’s sons and daughters into harm’s way, not jockeying for position on the NFL draft pick list.
The ugly truth -- Midshipmen and cadets spend their four (and only four, not five or six) years preparing to serve their Nation, not the NFL. And their service does not end when the uniform comes off.
Who knows what they do at Colorado Springs? Who cares? Hold the phone, if you've been following the headlines lately, you and I both know what they've been doing in Colorado Springs but we won't go there, will we? Nope, not us. Wouldn't be fair to jump on that band wagon ...
How many NFL stars have been Secretary of State? Or even President? And Captains of ships often make good captains of industry.
And there you have it. Sure, it’s a clash between also-rans – the laughing stock of collegiate football. But when the attacks come, the laughing stops. The jerseys are replaced with Kevlar vests, and these kids will answer their nation’s call as those who have preceded them did. Who cares what Navy’s record was in 1986?
What matters is that they accomplish their missions and send their enemies home in body bags (if there’s enough of them left to put in a body bag). In the meantime, let’s play a little football. It’s good PT, a decent reprieve from Thermodynamics (Ugh!), Differential Equations, Naval Leadership, Ship Handling and Statistics and Analysis – not exactly the course load of most NFL draftees I’m aware of. And if we actually win – so much the better!
Whoa, talking up West Point, am I? You bet! At least I didn't tell you that the West Point Gymnastics Team played the flying monkeys in "The Wizard of Oz." Nope, you didn't get that from me. I think it's an urban myth, anyway.
Andy and I? Well, this year we’ll be rooting for … the cheerleaders! Funny how they get better looking as the years pass...
Hey Gordo, pass the schnapps and ... Beat Army!
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