\u201cIn a very real sense, it stood for exactly what Americans most desired, a return to the normality of American life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet the matchup almost didn\u2019t happen. A little less than three years earlier, when the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor<\/a> plunged the U.S. into World War II, there were calls from politicians and those within the military for Americans to set aside peacetime frivolities, according to the Wall Street Journal<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou can\u2019t train a man to be a fighter by having him play football and baseball,\u201d said Cmdr. James Joseph \u201cGene\u201d Tunney, the Navy\u2019s director of physical training and boxing\u2019s former heavyweight champion. College football, he said, \u201chas no place in war or preparing for war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Others disagreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe British are going all out for sports as a morale builder, despite their proximity to the Luftwaffe and robot bombs,\u201d Rep. Samuel A. Weiss<\/a>, D-Penn, said in 1944. \u201cWhy, they have scheduled sixty-five sports events over there, thirteen of them major events expected to draw between 65,000 and 125,000 people. Our government realizes that if the British feel the need for public sports events so keenly, we certainly ought to do the same thing when we\u2019re practically out of danger here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cmdr. Thomas J. Hamilton, the head of the Navy\u2019s Pre-flight and Physical Training program and a former head coach at Annapolis, felt similarly to Weiss, and, since he had the ear of much of the military brass, managed to shoehorn collegiate sports back on the menu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The war itself had been a boon to both of the service academies\u2019 football programs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to SB Nation<\/a>, a dismal 1-7-1 record in 1940 prompted the United Press to describe the U.S. Military Academy <\/b>Cadets as \u201ca national calamity,\u201d and military officials seriously considered mothballing the football team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, due to the war, the widespread influx of young men into the ranks of the U.S. military meant a swell of talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Further still, West Point, determined to snap its five-game losing streak against the <\/b>U.S. Naval Academy <\/b>Midshipmen, hired Earl \u201cRed\u201d Blaik in 1941, who was, according to SB Nation, \u201cspartan and abstemious by nature.\u201d His most profane epithet was a blistering \u201cGeez, Katy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet his soft-spoken manner belied spectacular football acumen. His insistence on clean fundamentals and timing earned him the title of \u201cthat metronomic drill devil,\u201d but his team was the better for it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Interest in the game, originally set for Dec. 2, 1944, at the Naval Academy\u2019s 12,000-seat stadium, swelled, with the rivalry matchup relocating to the 66,000-seat Municipal Stadium in Baltimore just a mere two weeks before kickoff. Tickets sales went toward war bonds and sold out in 24 hours, raising $58.6 million for the war. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the country\u2019s preeminent sports writers at the time, Grantland Rice, wrote that it would be \u201cone of the best and most important football games ever played.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Army entered the contest with an undefeated 8-0 record, while Navy, coached by Cmdr. Oscar Hagberg, who had just returned from a Pacific submarine command, came in at 6-2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Led by running backs Felix \u201cDoc\u201d Blanchard and Glen Davis \u2014 known as Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside, respectively \u2014 Army had decimated their opponents throughout the 1944 season, outscoring them 481-28. In fact, their last defeat had come in 1943 \u2014 at the hands of the Midshipmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not to miss out on the spectacle was that of Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall, Gen. Hap Arnold, commander of the Army Air Forces, and Adm. Ernest King, chief of naval operations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And, while not televised \u2014 that would come the following year when Army was ranked No. 1 and Navy No. 2 \u2014 the eyes and ears of millions of Americans at home and abroad turned their attention from the battlefield to the gridiron. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWin for all the soldiers scattered throughout the world,\u201d came the pregame telegram from Army Gen. Robert Eichelberger, a former West Point superintendent stationed in the South Pacific. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Both teams entered the field that day in spectacular fashion, with the Navy contingent sailing across the Chesapeake Bay to arrive at the field, while the Army men were carried in on troopships escorted by Navy destroyers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Winning the toss and electing to kick off, the Cadets struggled to get anything going offensively in the first quarter. So too did the Midshipmen. However, the defensive slog, noted New York Times sportswriter Allison Danzig<\/a>, meted out \u201cunusual ferocity of the give and take.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the end of the third quarter it was a mere 9-7 with Army in the lead after a safety. The game finally broke up in the fourth quarter with Army scoring two more touchdowns to win 23-7 against their archrival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite throwing five interceptions and fumbling the ball three times, Army kept control, outgaining the Midshipmen 181-71 on the ground with Navy only completing 14 of 24 passes for 98 yards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/MarshallAt44ArmyNavyGame.webp_.jpg\")
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