In fact, it is much more than a football game to many. But from a football perspective, it represents all that is pure in the game of college football. Few, if any, of the players on either side will ever have a chance to play professional football upon graduation. And the game is a national treasure, a tradition where football fans and citizens alike stop to watch the only game that is played that day. It is always nationally televised, and it is a fan favorite.
Every player gives it their all, and every player plays with heart and emotion. The players may not be as big, their team speed may be a bit slower, and they may not be playing for a national championship, but, football fans would not trade this game for anything. Why is that noteworthy?
Because during World War II, Notre Dame was having financial problems and was having difficulty sustaining operations as a university. The Naval Academy struck an agreement with Notre Dame to use part of its campus as a training facility, and the revenue paid to Notre Dame by Navy was enough to keep the university in operation. Since that time, Notre Dame vowed to always invite Navy to play every year in football. No doubt, the annual game produces revenue for both schools, and the promise to play was a way of repaying the Naval Academy for coming to its rescue financially during a very tough period in its history.
In , Navy defeated Army But with all of its dramatics, that was not the story of the day. The game took place on December 7, , approximately two weeks after the assassination of President John F. Some say that the Kennedy family wanted the game to be played in honor of the President who had served in the Navy himself. Players on both sides played their hearts out, just as they always do, and the result was a dramatic finish that saw Navy go on to the Cotton Bowl to play Texas.
Again, playing in Philadelphia, which is traditionally played there because it is geographically the approximate halfway point between the two military campuses, both teams did not enter the game with good records. But significantly, the game again helped the nation move forward. Tragically, and serving as a reminder of the true significance of the game, two players in the game were later killed in action as they served their nation. Army cadet and later officer J.
P Blecksmith was killed by a sniper in Iraq in , just three years after the game, and in , Navy lieutenant Brendon Looney was killed in a helicopter crash in Afganistan. But I must confess that my head was swimming; there was so much I wanted to know, but in fairness to our readers, I struggled with how to succinctly tell his story where it would make sense to you all.
But very soon after I met him at this office, I was greeted with him fully adorned, wearing an Army football jersey, and was shown photos of his son who is a junior at West Point, and another son who is a graduate of Missouri University of Science and Technology. And oh by the way, they have a daughter, Rachel, who is a junior and played on the state championship Paris High School volleyball team this year! In fact, if you look up the admission data on applicants to West Point, the admission rate is So, for every applications to attend college at the United States Military Academy, approximately ten are admitted.
Hammerschmidt represented the third congressional district in Arkansas from Jeff works as a financial planner for Edward Jones of Paris. Not surprisingly, Jeff has been a success in every work of endeavor he has ever attempted throughout his adult life. But it is a long way from his days as a student and later graduate at County Line High School, studying at West Point, serving a long and successful military career as an officer, and upon retirement from the military, working as part of the high school faculty at Subiacco Academy before entering into private business.
Jeff has a wonderful and very interesting story, and it is our pleasure at Resident Press to bring it to you. I got to go to several places. You do your basic training there; officer basic training course. Then I went to the First Cavalry Division; working with multiple-rocket launching systems.
So, it was pretty cool. I became the second in command of that battery. I did that for about two years, and then became an executive officer of a cannon battery.
I really enjoyed that because you are out in the field more, shooting, and I was in charge of all of the maintenance and logistics of the battery. From there, I went back to Fort Sill for the officer advanced course and then on to the Republic of Korea to a place called Camp Hovey which is about 15 miles from the DMZ demilitarized zone.
So in Korea, there was a certain seriousness added to my experience to that point. That was in When the regime in North Korea was ramping-up, we had two pilots in a helicopter crash across the DMZ.
Though photographing so many of the service academies' annual duels could become blurry to him, he feels every one vividly. Because to the year-old Hoffmann, who also shoots for the Baltimore Ravens, it's not just the thrill of taking part in one of the most hyped college football games of the year. It's a moment like many moments — a comeback win for Navy lacrosse, soccer, rowing or baseball — that drive him to carry on. Capturing generations of Navy athletes still feels like a righteous purpose to Hoffmann.
It's their last moments free of danger. And these kids sign up for this when it's not popular to do it. And yet, they do it. With wild white hair and trademark bandana, Hoffmann resembles a rockstar when he stalks the sidelines, at least in the sense that Midshipmen current and past scream his name when he passes them. He's watched legions of players come and go.
As much as each athlete means something to Hoffmann, many of their names vanish from significance after their four years are up at the Academy. Then, unfortunately, sometimes their names reappear. Commander Brian Bourgeois, a former Navy football player, died last week from a training accident.
Hoffmann was flooded with inquiries for photos he may have taken of Bourgeois in a Navy football uniform. But Bourgeois is far from the first during Hoffmann's time. Hoffmann remembers Caleb King, too, a former Navy linebacker and Naval aviator killed in a jet crash in He worried immediately for Jenna and Julia Collins, two Navy lacrosse players who were bound to flight school.
Publicly, Hoffmann knows his most meaningful photos are the ones immortalizing dead Naval officers in youth's twilight. Hoffmann spent the past week uploading images from previous games to social media, where players of old respond with stories of their athletic glory days.
Those sparks of nostalgia and joy inflame in Hoffmann's heart when he sees it. Navy sports information director and senior associate athletic director Scott Strasemeier becomes inundated with hundreds of requests for photos from television networks and newspapers before the Army-Navy game, and Hoffmann delivers. With every story, social media post, or headshot taken of an athlete from one of the 33 varsity Navy programs, Hoffmann delivers. Of course, as legendary as Hoffmann's become in the Naval Academy community for his four decades of sports photography, he didn't come into it completely normally.
With a proud Navy officer as a father, Hoffmann was never going anywhere but the Naval Academy. He flourished, graduating in , rising to lieutenant commander, and for nine years, he served.
But photography still tugged at him. Prior to last season, which was effected by the coronavirus pandemic, the two teams had met on the gridiron twice each of the previous two seasons , '19 squaring off in the Star Game and the CSFL Championship.
The Midshipmen's defense was once again on display as the Mids were able to hold the Black Knights to under yards of total offense, including yards rushing.
Scouting the Midshipmen Navy enters the weekend on the season and in division play. The Midshipmen have been balanced on offense, rushing for 1, yards and passing for 1, yards for 2, yards of total offense.
Defensively, the Mids have limited opponents to just 40 points 6. The Midshipmen have held opposing offenses to yards of total offense on yards passing and yards on the ground. Tyler Massena Snohomish, Wash. Massena has found the end zone twice, while Copeland has added a score.
William Leong Irvine, Calif. Leong is for for yards and four touchdowns, while Atwood is for for yards and seven touchdowns. Andrew Margiotta Vienna, Va. Jake Smith Union, Ky. Marco Pezzini Salinas, Calif. Paul Kuehler Roanoke, Va. The linebacker has a team-best 8. Devyn Martin Las Vegas, Nev. Martin leads the team with 3. Adam Weissenfels Richland, Wash. Jake Karczewski Chicago, Ill. Mychal Golden Jonesboro, Ark. The kicker is for on field goal attempts and for in extra-point tries.
Martin anchored a defense that held the top scoring offense in the league to just 14 points and total yards of offense passing, 76 rushing.
The sophomore led the Navy defense with 10 total tackles — double what the next Midshipmen defender had — posting a team-high five solo stops to go along with a team-best five assisted tackles.
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