Army-Navy Football Game

On this date (November 29) in 1890, the first Army-Navy football game was played at West Point. Navy creamed the cadets, 24-0, in the game played at West Point. This weekend, on December 2, the two squads will take to the field in Philadelphia for the 107th meeting between these two teams. This will be the 80th year the game will be played in the City of Brotherly Love. The careful observer will immediately recognize there are 116 years between 1890 and 2006, so what's up with the other nine games?

The first interruption, and the best story, came in 1894 (from the Nimitz Library website):

A reputed incident between a Rear Admiral and a Brigadier General, which nearly led to a duel after the 1893 Navy victory, caused President Cleveland to call a Cabinet meeting in late February 1894. When the meeting ended, Secretary of the Navy Hillary A. Herbert, and Secretary of War, Daniel S. Lamont, issued general orders to their respective Academies stating that teams would be allowed to visit Annapolis and West Point to conduct football games, but the Army and Navy football teams were "prohibited in engaging in games elsewhere." The result was that the Army/Navy game was suspended for the next five years. The annual series would not resume until 1899, when it was played in a neutral locale, Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

There were two other interruptions, in 1917-1918 during the United States involvement in World War I, and finally in 1928-1929, when there was disagreement on player eligibility.

In the interest of fairness here are links to the two academies for information on the Classic football rivalry.

• The Nimitz Library, Special Collections and Archives, United States Naval Academy
• Army Public Affairs Office, Information about Army-Navy football