Army-Navy Game Remains Pure Joy -- Integrity Makes Game A Pure Joy

PHILADELPHIA - After Army's final cannon shot celebration concussed around Veterans Stadium, after another remarkable, emotional Army-Navy tug-of-war, the players stood together in the middle of the field and listened to their school songs.

No player left early. None sulked into the locker room. Nobody gloated or mugged for the television cameras. The setting was as somber as a graduation.

I'm a sucker for this game.

My father took me to my first Army-Navy game when I was 9. It became a tradition.

Because he served in the Navy in World War II, he cheered for Navy. Naturally, I rooted for Army.

Every December we bundled to protect ourselves from the biting winds off the Delaware River. We laughed and hugged and cheered ourselves hoarse.

The memories are wonderful.

Back then, in the 1950s and early '60s, this game decided national championships and Heisman Trophy winners.

This game has changed, but its integrity hasn't.

There are no agents here, no NFL scouts. Nobody is playing to improve his draft status.

This is a game as pure as Division I-A football can get. There are no ulterior motives. This is all about love.

Going to Army or Navy is a nine-year commitment - four years of school, five years of service. This is the last game of football for the seniors.

You'll never see another Heisman Trophy winner in this game. You'll never see another national champion.

But you'll see Craig Stucker play the game of his life in the last game of his life.

Stucker had the only 100-yard rushing day of his college career yesterday. He ran for 106 yards, including a second-quarter, 71-yard touchdown run.

"You just know when you play Army football that this is a big game for seniors," said Stucker, after Army's 34-30 victory. "You know, we're not going pro. This is it for us.

"Year in and year out, this is what you can expect in Army-Navy games. I mean, this is your last game ever. This is the last time I'll ever put on pads. That's all I can say. You have no reason, no reason at all, to hold anything back."

Army Coach Bob Sutton says this game isn't played for the moment. "It's played for forever."

This was another Army-Navy game filled with forevers. A buffet of big plays.

There were four scoring plays of 69 yards or longer. Army had fourth-quarter drives of 98 and 80 yards. And Navy quarterback Brian Broadwater threw touchdown passes of 49 and 69 yards to Ryan Read.

It was a strange brew of an afternoon that included a 31-minute delay in the middle of the fourth quarter.

Four Army cadets and five members of the U.S. Military Academy Prep School were injured when a railing collapsed and they fell onto the artificial turf, about 15 feet below.

"They were selling out for us. Cheering like crazy," said Army quarterback Joe Gerena. "That's what we asked them to do at our Thursday pep rally and that's what they did. "

Gerena is the latest legend born on another Army-Navy afternoon.

A backup to starting quarterback Johnny Goff, Gerena replaced senior Goff after two Goff first-quarter fumbles gave Navy a 10-0 lead.

First Gerena, a sophomore, scored on a 25-yard touchdown run. Then he ran an option down the sidelines for a 69-yard score.

He played the rest of the game, never completed a pass, but ran the anachronistic wishbone offense as if it were 21st-century high-tech. He finished with 14 carries for 92 yards.

I'm a sucker for this game.

After watching it for 40 years the agony feels as real as the ecstasy.

Navy fullback Matt Harden was shedding tackles, twisting into the end zone for a touchdown that would have given his team a 35-25 lead with less than nine minutes to play.

But as the senior spun toward the goal line, he lost the ball. Army recovered and the momentum swung.

Harden carried 10 times for 40 yards, including a 9-yard touchdown run. But the last run of his life was a fumble, on the goal line that changed the Army-Navy game.

Still wearing his uniform, standing at a podium in front of a room full of reporters, Harden was stiff-lipped and unblinking as he answered questions.

"It hurts, of course," Harden said. "But who's to say if we had scored then, if we still would have won. The bottom line is that the game didn't end up the way we hoped."

As dusk fell on this strange, balmy, springlike day, Craig Stucker reluctantly left the field. He didn't want the day to end. He didn't want to admit his football career was over.

Stucker would have spent the night on the hard, scarred turf if his teammates would have agreed to join him.

"It was so hard to leave," Stucker said. "I really don't think it's hit me yet that this is my last game. It's tough leaving a game that I've played all these years.

"I mean Army was the only D-I school that gave me a shot. The only other schools interested in me were Division III schools. I owe Army a lot. I owe these guys a lot."

In his last football game, Craig Stucker settled all those debts.