This site is dedicated to coverage of Navy athletics, especially football. We usually stick to sports here, with game breakdowns, recruiting updates, depth chart battles, and everything in between. But Navy football doesn't exist in a vacuum. A true understanding of the program requires an acknowledgment of its place in the larger picture.
Navy football supports the Naval Academy in two important ways. The first is visibility. Most Americans know their colleges and universities through their sports programs. College football gives the Naval Academy mainstream exposure crucial to increasing awareness as the school seeks qualified applicants. Just as the Navy itself has a diplomatic responsibility as it is deployed around the world, the football program acts as the ambassador for the Naval Academy to the public.
The second way the football program supports the Naval Academy is through the players themselves.
As midshipmen, we all learned the apocryphal words of John Paul Jones' Qualifications of a Naval Officer. In addition to being a "capable mariner," a Naval officer should be "a gentleman of liberal education, refined manners, punctilious courtesy, and the nicest sense of personal honor."
For most of history, athletics has been considered an essential part of any liberal education. The ancient Greeks believed in mens sana in corpore sano-- a healthy mind in a healthy body. In the late 19th century, the "Muscular Christianity" movement promoted the idea that athletic activity helped instill moral values: manliness, self-control, honor, teamwork, and perseverance. This thinking led to the establishment of the college athletics programs we still see today. University presidents framed athletics as a way to prepare their students not just for work, but for civic responsibility and public life. That is the traditional purpose of a liberal education, and it is echoed in the Mission of the Naval Academy.
Those values have also been reflected in the service and sacrifice of Navy football players in peace and war. Their stories have been written in deck logs, command histories, and award citations since 1879.
They include Jonas Ingram, a star fullback known for catching the first touchdown pass in Army-Navy history in 1906. Reporters gave Ingram the nickname "One-Armed Admiral" after he once remarked, "I'd give my right arm to win this ball game." His commitment to victory on the football field carried over to the battlefield, where he was awarded the Medal of Honor as part of a landing force at Veracruz from the battleship USS Arkansas. During World War I, he received the Navy Cross. He was later the athletic director at USNA during the 1926 national championship season. His brother, Bill, was the team's head coach.
Two other Navy football players (Allen Buchanan and Frederick McNair Jr.) were also awarded the Medal of Honor at Veracruz.
There is Slade Cutter, the hero of the 1934 Army-Navy game, who scored the game's only points in a 3-0 Navy victory. A first-team All-American at tackle, Cutter commanded the submarine USS Seahorse during World War II and was awarded the Navy Cross four times after sinking 21 ships and providing vital intelligence in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. In 1957, Cutter reflected on the value of athletes in the officer corps:
"There is a grapevine in the ranks of all the services. The men make it their business to find out who their officers are. There is a special respect for those who would carry the ball on a football field, throw a wicked block, or make a dead-stop tackle."
Louis Robertshaw was an All-American center in 1935. He was commissioned into the Marine Corps, serving in China for two years after completing The Basic School. Two months after Pearl Harbor, he entered flight school and became a Naval Aviator that August. He went on to fly 77 combat missions in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, earning 12 Air Medals and three Distinguished Flying Cross medals before retiring as a Lieutenant General.
Navy football players include Medal of Honor and Navy Cross recipients, admirals, generals, commanding officers, fighter pilots, submariners, SEALs, Marines, and surface warfare leaders who served honorably in peace and war. There have been 25 ships named for Navy football players, including three in service today: USS Emory S. Land (AS 39), USS Laboon (DDG 58), and USS Chung-Hoon (DDG 93).
Sadly, their ranks also include several who lost their lives. Charles Cabaniss, a member of the original 1879 team, is believed to be the first former player to fall in the line of duty, in 1882. Others have followed in every generation. Their names are etched into the walls of Memorial Hall-- men like Tom Holden, Jim Barker, Wes Harvey, and Tony Domino. In recent years, Caleb King, Brian Bourgeois, J.P. Blecksmith, and Ron Winchester have joined them. We cheered for them on fall Saturdays. On the last Monday of May, we honor them.
On this Memorial Day, we give thanks for those players who answered their country's call to serve. We remember those who gave their lives in that service. And we pray for the day when such sacrifice is no longer necessary.
Be just, and fear not:
Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s,
Thy God’s, and truth’s.
