When the Navy meets the Army,
      When the friend becomes the foe,
    When the sailor and the soldier
      Seek each other to o’erthrow;
    When old vet’rans, gray and grizzled,
      Elbow, struggle, push, and shove,
    That they may cheer on to vict’ry
      Each the service of his love;
    When the maiden, fair and dainty,
      Lets her dignity depart,
    And, all breathless, does her utmost
      For the team that’s next her heart;
    When you see these strange things happen,
      Then we pray you to recall
    That the Army and Navy
      Stand firm friends beneath it all.

There is a distinctive flavor about an Army-Navy football game which, irrespective of the quality of the contending elevens and of their relative standing among the high-class teams in any given season, rates these contests annually as among the “big games” of the year.  Tactically and strategically football bears a close relation to war.  That is a vital reason why it should be studied and applied in our two government schools.

On the part of the public there is general appreciation of the spirit which these two academies have brought into the great autumn sport, a spirit which combines with football per se the color, the martial pomp, the elan of the military.  The merger is a happy one, because football in its essence is a stern, grim game, a game that calls for self-sacrifice, for mental alertness and for endurance; all these are elements, among others, which we commonly associate with the soldier’s calling.

If West Point and Annapolis players are not young men, who, after graduation, will go out into the world in various civil professions or other pursuits relating to commerce and industry, they are men, on the contrary, who are being trained to uphold the honor of our flag at home or abroad, as fate may decree—­fighting men whose lives are to be devoted to the National weal.  It would be strange, therefore, if games in which those thus set apart participate, were not marked by a quality peculiarly their own.  To far-flung warships the scores are sent on the wings of the wireless and there is elation or depression in many a remote wardroom in accordance with the aspect of the news.  In lonely army posts wherever the flag flies word of the annual struggle is flashed alike to colonel and the budding second lieutenant still with down on lip, by them passed to the top sergeant and so on to the bottom of the line.

Every football player who has had the good fortune to visit West Point or Annapolis, there to engage in a gridiron contest, has had an experience that he will always cherish.  Every team, as a rule, looks forward to out of town trips, but when an eleven is to play the Army or the Navy, not a little of the pleasure lies in anticipation.

Mayhap the visitor even now is recalling the officer who met him at the station, and his hospitable welcome; the thrill that resulted from a tour, under such pleasant auspices, of the buildings and the natural surroundings of the two great academies.  There was the historic campus, where so many great Army and Navy men spent their preparatory days.  An inspiration unique in the experience of the visitor was to be found in the drill of the battalion as they marched past, led by the famous academy bands.