The list of men who have been invited to coach the Navy from year to year is a long one.  The ideal method of development of an undergraduate team is by a system of coaching conducted by graduates of that institution.  Such alumni can best preserve the traditions, correct blunders of other years, and carry through a continuous policy along lines most acceptable.  Graduate coaching exclusively is nearly impossible for Navy teams, for the graduates, as officers, are stationed at far distant points, mostly on board ship.  Their duties do not permit of interruption for two months.  They cannot be spared from turret and bridge; from the team work so highly developed at present on shipboard.  Furthermore, their absence from our country sometimes for years, keeps them out of touch with football generally, and it is impossible for them to keep up to date—­hence the coaching from other institutions.

[Illustration:  NORTHCROFT KICKING THE FIELD GOAL ANTICIPATED BY THE NAVY AND FEARED BY THE ARMY]

Lieutenant Frank B. Berrien was one of the early coaches and an able one.  Immediately afterward Dug Howard for three years coached the team to victory.  The Navy’s football future was then turned over to Jonas Ingram, with the idea of working out a purely graduate system, in the face of such serious obstacles as have already been pointed out.

One of the nightmares of my coaching experiences was the day that the Army beat the Navy through the combined effort of the whole Army team plus the individual running of Charlie Daly.  This run occurred at the very start of the second half.  Doc Hillebrand and I were talking on the side lines to Evarts Wrenn, the Umpire.  None of us heard the whistle blow for the starting of the second half.  Before we knew it the Army sympathizers were on their feet cheering and we saw Daly hitting it up the field, weaving through the Navy defense.

Harmon Graves, who was coaching West Point that year, has since told me that the Army coaches had drilled the team carefully in receiving the ball on a kick-off—­with Daly clear back under the goal posts.  On the kick-off, the Navy did just what West Point had been trained to expect.  Belknap kicked a long high one direct to Daly, and then and there began the carefully prepared advance of the Army team.  Mowing down the oncoming Navy players, the West Point forwards made it possible for clever Daly to get loose and score a touchdown after a run of nearly the entire length of the field.

This game stands out in my recollection as one of the most sensational on record.  The Navy, like West Point, had had many victories, but the purpose of this book is not to record year by year the achievements of these two institutions, but rather catch their spirit, as one from without looks in upon a small portion of the busy life that is typical of these Service schools.

Scattered over the seven seas are those who heard the reveille of football at Annapolis.  From a few old-timers let us garner their experiences and the effects of football in the Service.