Newspaper Page Text
ARMY/vs/NAVY
EATRIOTSGAME
With a sly wink
he gave
to me and my
teammates,
Kennedy wanted
us to win.
game would be canceled. We >
were all in mourning, as was
the nation, so this seemed like
the sensible thing to do. Then,
the Kennedy family asked that
we play the game in his memory.
6
USA WEEKEND • Nov. 23-25,2007
Today they play. Tomorrow they serve. These memories of football field
and battlefield will make next Saturday’s matchup all the more meaningful.
During the Army-Navy
game, students face
off in the nation’s
greatest rivalry. But
in times of war, they
are brothers and sisters. As
much as each team wants to
win this football game, both
always know they’ll be called
to serve together. To celebrate
this tradition, USA WEEKEND,
working with Army Times
and Navy Times, asked for
★ A Win for a
Fallen Leader ★
M In 1962, when I played
1 quarterback for Navy, I
m was privileged to meet
F President Kennedy. He was
m supposed to be impartial.
F But we knew, given that he
was a Navy hero on PT 109
and with a sly wink
he gave to me and my
teammates—he wanted A
us to win. And we did I
indeed win.
The next year, on
the Friday before the
game, we were told in
thermodynamics class
that our president
was dead. We
heard that the i
a week after it was originally scheduled.
The game turned out to be one of the all
time classics. In the second half, we went up
21-7, but Army scored a touchdown, made
good on a two-point conversion, then kept
possession on an onside kick. They were driv
ing again but simply ran out of time. We won,
21-15.
We knew that many men on the field on
both sides of the ball—would soon be in
. Vietnam. I served over there on a 10%
% gistics unit. One of my offensive line-
I men. Tommy Holton, was a Marine who
& "A . *
Staubach was a star with Navy.
and received hundreds
of e-mails from men and
women who attended the
service academies, recalling
stories that are funny,
sentimental, poignant and
proud. (For more, go to
armytimes.com and
navytimes.com.) In the end,
whether the narratives are
about football or war, they
speak to a rich legacy of
honor, sacrifice and freedom.
was shot and killed.
Today, when I see a
teammate, we em
brace, knowing what
we went through to
gether in football and
where we ended up
shortly after.
Roger Staubach
Navy Class of 1965
Executive
chairman.
The Staubach
Company
' H SI
Mm HgpMSyH
Army cadets salute during a pre-game march.
★ Friends Never Forgotten ★
I played on the Army teams from 1986 to 1989.
My best memory? During my last game, CBS
caught me on camera butting helmets with my
best friend. My other close friend, Ken Nader
mann, didn’t play football, but he was in the
same F 4 Fighting Frogs Company with me. We
got through all four years together, and it wasn’t
easy. We started with 35 FYogs. In the end, about
20 graduated.
Ken served in Desert Storm, and by 1994, we
found out that he had amyotrophic lateral scle
rosis, also known as ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s dis
ease. Today, a number of the Frogs and I make
it a tradition to watch the Army-Navy game
with him at his home in Cedar Rapids, lowa. He
can’t talk to us anymore. His nurses read his
lips for us. But he starts preparing for the game
about eight weeks in advance, and you should
see his house when he’s done, all decked out with
Army paraphernalia and chow, sodas and beer.
Last year, I got back from Iraq in November
and went directly to Cedar Rapids so I could
watch with Ken and the guys. My wife and 7-
year-old son, Clay, actually got tickets to the game,
Cover and cover story photographs by Peter Gregoire for USA WEEKEND