POINT OF FACT
? Army and Navy have met 61 times in football. Which team leads in the series?
•The Army-Navy series is not only one of the oldest football rivalries in the country (Navy won the first game, 24-0, in 1890) but one of the closest as well. Army has won 30 games, Navy 26. There have been five ties.
? Navy has won the last two games between the two teams. What is the longest winning streak in the series?
•Five games in a row, once by Army, once by Navy. Army won in 1927 (14-9), 1930 (6-0; they didn't meet in 1928 and 1929), 1931 (17-7), 1932 (20-0) and 1933 (12-7). Navy stopped the streak with a 3-0 win in 1934. Navy's five straight came in 1939 (10-0), 1940 (14-0), 1941 (14-6), 1942 (14-0) and 1943 (13-0). Army stopped the streak with a 23-7 win in 1944.
? Not only has the series been close through the years, but most of the games have been close. What was the largest margin of victory for each team?
•Army's largest edge was in 1949 when the Cadets won 38-0. Navy responded to this defeat with three straight wins. Navy's widest margin was registered in the 1951 game when the Middies beat the Cadets 42-7.
? Navy's Joe Bellino was everybody's All-America for the last two years. Who was Army's last All-America?
•Bill Carpenter, the Lonesome End of Army's novel 1958 and 1959 offenses. He was picked in 1959.
? Which service academy has had the most players named as first-string All-America?
•Bellino was Navy's 26th first-string All-America football player. Army has had more than twice as many—54 first-string All-Americas in 70 years of football.
? Army has had three men named to first-string All-America teams three seasons in a row. Who are the players?
•Halfback Glenn Davis and Fullback Doc Blanchard (both 1944-46) and Halfback Chris Cagle (1927-29).
? Navy has not had any three-time All-Americas hut has had five two-time All-Americas. Who were they?
•Tackle Don Whitmire (1943 and 1944), Center Dick Scott (1945 and 1947), Guard Steve Eisenhauer (1952 and 1953), End Ron Beagle (1954 and 1955) and, of course, Joe Bellino (1959 and 1960).
? Has an Army or Navy player ever won the Heisman Trophy or the Maxwell Club award?
•Yes, Army and Navy have had three winners apiece. Glenn Davis won the Maxwell Club award in 1944 and the Heisman Trophy in 1946; Doc Blanchard won both awards in 1945 as did Pete Dawkins in 1958. Ron Beagle (1954) and Tackle Bob Reifsnyder (1957) both won the Maxwell Club award, and Bellino was given both awards last year.
? Joe Bellino scored three touchdowns against Army in the 1959 game, which Navy won 43-12. Who was the last player before Bellino to score three touchdowns in an Army-Navy game?
•Doc Blanchard in 1945 when Army beat Navy 32-13.
? Army's mascot is a mule, Navy's a goat. How did these animals win selection as the mascots of the academies?
•Legend has it that both actually came from the Army. The mule was selected near the turn of the century because it was the best-known animal to be identified with the U.S. Army (The mule hauled guns and supplies in most of the Army's battles). Naval Cadets commandeered a goat from the noncommissioned officers' quarters in 1890 on arriving at Highland Falls, N.Y. (site of the military academy) for the first Army-Navy game. The goat has been a Naval Academy symbol ever since.
? What is the longest run ever made in an Army-Navy game?
•Elwyn Rowan and Bobby Vinson, both of Army, share the record. Rowan ran 92 yards from scrimmage in 1947, and Vinson went 92 yards with a kickoff return in 1949. Oddly enough, neither runner scored, and Navy shut out Army in both games—21-0 in 1947 and 38-0 in 1949.
? What player threw the most touchdown passes in a game?
•George Welsh threw three in 1954, for all of Navy's touchdowns. Army, however, won 27-20.
? If Army breaks Navy's two-game winning streak in the series this year, the hells at Annapolis will not ring. What are these hells and when do they ring?
•The traditional Navy victory bells, which ring when the Naval Academy defeats Army in football, are the Japanese Bell and the Big E Bell. The Japanese Bell was presented to the Academy upon the death of Commodore Perry who brought it home from Japan. The Big E Bell comes from the bridge of the aircraft carrier Enterprise.
? Army's head football coach, a West Point graduate, owns an athletic distinction never achieved by any other cadet at West Point. What is it?
•Dale Hall was the only West Point basketball player to ever make first-string All-America (1944-45). He also was a halfback on the 1944 and 1945 football teams.
? What were Navy Coach Wayne Hardin's athletic accomplishments?
•He was an all-round athlete at the College of the Pacific and won 11 varsity letters—the largest total ever earned by a COP athlete. Hardin is also the second-youngest Navy head coach (32) and a winner over Army in his first two seasons at Navy.
? What man coached the longest at Army? At Navy?
•Earl Blaik coached the Army football team for 18 seasons (1941-58). His record was 121 wins, 33 losses and 10 tics. His teams beat Navy eight times and tied twice. Eddie Erdelatz holds the Navy record with nine seasons as coach (1950-58). His teams won 50 games, lost 27 and tied eight. He beat Army five times and tied once.
ILLUSTRATION