Bobby Ross understood the nature of the Army-Navy rivalry long before he took over coaching the Black Knights in 2004.
Ross grew up knowing that his father passed up an appointment to West Point because of the Depression. Ross later served in the Army, coached at The Citadel and saw one of his sons graduate from the Naval Academy.
But it was after the first of Ross' three seasons at West Point that the essence of the rivalry was driven home.
It happened at the funeral of former Army football star Glenn Davis in March 2005.
"A gentleman was introduced to me," Ross said. "It was Joe Bellino. He had driven down from his home in Boston to pay his respects. There was a bond between Heisman Trophy winners. But the deeper bond was because they had been part of the Army-Navy rivalry."
Though none of the players in today's Army-Navy game at Lincoln Financial Field has accomplished close to what those two legendary figures did in their long-ago but not forgotten careers, the bond remains rooted deep in a rivalry that dates to 1890.
Today's game will be the 109th meeting, the 81st played in Philadelphia and Ken Niumatalolo's first as Navy's head coach.
"I think there's a great mutual respect because we know what they go through and they know what we go through," said Niumatalolo, who first came to Annapolis 13 years ago as an assistant to then-coach Charlie Weatherbie.
"It's tough just to be a student at any of the service academies, much less to be a football player. There's a lot riding on this game. There's no pro aspirations after this game. This is it."
Said second-year Army coach Stan Brock: "I played in the Super Bowl, and I tell people that this game is 10 times bigger than the Super Bowl. If you go the Super Bowl, and it's in a 70,000-seat stadium, the majority of those people at the game are not rooting for either of the teams. When you go to the Army-Navy game, there are 70,000 people in that stadium that this game means the world to. This is it."
Navy (7-4) will be going for its seventh straight win over Army (3-8), the longest stretch of superiority by either team. The Midshipmen have already clinched retaining their sixth straight Commander in Chief's Trophy, as the football winner among the three service academies, and a victory would give it to them outright.
Navy senior receiver Tyree Barnes said there is a tangible difference in preparation as well as priority.
