Army Navy Game

An article in yesterday's Sun gave an incorrect date for the 1992 Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia. The game will be Dec. 5.The Sun regrets the error.The 1993 Army-Navy football game has been moved from Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium to Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., the two service academies announced yesterday.The 1993 game will be played Dec. 4 and mark the second time it has been played at the Meadowlands. In 1989 at Giants Stadium, Navy defeated Army, 19-17, on a 32-yard field goal by Frank Schenk with 11 seconds left.

Whether it's playing pickup basketball games at the White House, watching college basketball on an aircraft carrier or seeing his brother-in-law's Oregon State Beavers take on Towson University, it's clear President Obama loves sports. It was even more impressive the way he jumped out of his seat and helped honor the Towson football team at halftime of the game. The pictures were great. It probably drove the Secret Service guys crazy. More than a few earpieces were squawking when he did that.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- When Naval Academy athletic director Jack Lengyel innocently forgot to introduce football coach George Chaump yesterday at a press luncheon for the Dec. 4 Army-Navy game at Giants Stadium, Chaump said jokingly, "I hope this isn't an omen."Chaump was only half-kidding. His future in Annapolis could hinge on beating Army, the last game on his four-year contract. His record going into the game is 11-32."I put pressure on myself to win every game," Chaump said, "but you especially want to win in a year your contract expires.

This year's Army-Navy game will be the focus if a two-hour docu-drama co-produced by Showtime and CBS Sports. Showtime's cameras are spending six months in full-access, backstage coverage of the two academies and their teams in advance of the the game, according to the cable channel. The docu-drama will premiere Dec. 21 on Showtime, 10 nights after the game, which airs on CBS. A preview on the making of the docu-drama will air Nov. 23 on Showtime. Viewers can get their first look at the material on Oct. 17 when CBS.com launches a 10-part web series.

I HOPE Baltimore gets the Army-Navy game back again because, in my 24 years in the Queen City of the Patapsco Drainage Basin, few events reached the heights this one did for grandeur, good feeling and civic pride - and I'm including the papal visit in 1995, the World Series in 1983 and the Elvis concert in 1977. There are days - too many days - when a Baltimorean can get thoroughly depressed by the grind of human issues in our midst: the poverty, the drug addiction, the lead-paint poisoning, the declining population, the sense that nothing good can stay in this town under the weight of our heavy social problems.

In an article in yesterday's Sun, sports columnist Rick Maese recounted the age-old Army-Navy game tradition of West Point cadets slipping into Annapolis to capture a couple of the Naval Academy's mascot goats. Today's Army-Navy clash at M&T Bank Stadium will be the fifth time the two military academies have played the game locally. The first time was 1893, when they met in Annapolis, with Navy winning, 6-4. Thirty-one years later, when they took to the field at the old Municipal Stadium on 33rd Street in Baltimore; this time, Army trounced Navy, 12-0.

With Baltimoreans about to enjoy the rare experience of watching high-stakes college football at M&T Bank Stadium, the Ravens and city officials already say they want the Army-Navy game back in future years. Baltimore is likely to face stiff competition, however, from the game's traditional home in Philadelphia and other cities along the East Coast. Navy vs. Army Saturday, noon, M&T Bank Stadium, chs. 13, 9, 1090 AM

M&T Bank Stadium is expected to host at least one Army-Navy football game - and perhaps more - as the schools seek sites for future games, according to officials familiar with the process. The committee of representatives from the Naval Academy and West Point could announce sites for games after 2009 by week's end, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because selections have not been finalized. Baltimore had previously learned it was among four finalists, competing with Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field - which will host this year's game - as well as FedEx Field in Landover and the new Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The committee is examining bids for games from 2010 to 2014.

Picture it: It's the first Army-Navy game back in 1890, the Mid are at the line of scrimmage with the ball and the signal-caller is saying things like, "Reef the topsail! Stand by to clear anchor! Down the wind!" The Cadets were still trying to figure out what was going on when Navy was long gone to a 24-0 victory.The Black Knights of the Hudson take an oath of revenge and on enemy turf, no less. Army gets to work learning about this game of football and prepares for the invasion of Annapolis by scheduling five warm-up games, most of which it wins.

Long before the Army-Navy football players take to the field in PSINet Stadium on Dec. 2, cash registers will start to ring up what promises to be a $10 million to $12 million weekend for Baltimore. The sold-out game will draw 70,000 ticket-holders to Baltimore during a traditionally slow time of year. Downtown hotels began selling out months ago, and national media coverage promises the kind of publicity that few cities would want to pay for. But, what is really at stake for Baltimore is the chance to land the game on a regular basis - a deal that could have an impact of hundreds of millions of dollars on the local economy.

Devin Jones (Old Mill) matched his season high with 21 points, helping Salisbury (4-5) end a two-game losing streak with an 86-71 men's basketball victory over Maryland Bible in the consolation game of the CNU Classic at Christopher Newport. Greg Palmer added 19 points and 10 rebounds, and Mike Maczko (John Carroll) had 10 points and 10 rebounds. College football: CBS Sports' coverage of the Army-Navy game on Saturday earned an overnight household rating/share of 4.2/10, up 75 percent from last year's 2.4/6.

Whenever he gets the chance, Army coach Rich Ellerson watches the football teams from Navy and Georgia Tech on television. He does so partly because of his long-standing friendships with those teams' coaches, Ken Niumatalolo and Paul Johnson. But Ellerson is also curious; his team, like Niumatalolo's and Johnson's, employs the triple-option offense. "We try to see what kind of answers people are coming up with [to defend it] along the way," said Ellerson, who's in his first season as Army's head coach.

Go ahead and tell me why you don't think the Army-Navy football game is a big deal anymore. No BCS glamour teams? No Heisman Trophy candidates? Nobody who'll be decked out in a pricey designer suit and jabbering into a cell phone when the TV cameras show him as a top pick in the next NFL draft? Not enough big-time atmosphere, not enough glitz - that's your problem with the Army-Navy game? If so, you're missing the whole point of the best pure rivalry in college sports, which takes place for the 110th time Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

M&T Bank Stadium will play host in 2014 and 2016 to the Army-Navy football game, a rivalry long associated with Philadelphia that is expected to generate as much as $22 million per game for the Baltimore-area economy. The annual, tradition-rich game will also come for the first time in 2011 to FedEx Field in Landover, home of the Washington Redskins. It was last played in Baltimore in 2007. Baltimore, which has been host four times since the series began in 1890, had particularly sought the 2014 game, which will coincide with the bicentennial celebration of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

M&T Bank Stadium is expected to host at least one Army-Navy football game - and perhaps more - as the schools seek sites for future games, according to officials familiar with the process. The committee of representatives from the Naval Academy and West Point could announce sites for games after 2009 by week's end, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because selections have not been finalized. Baltimore had previously learned it was among four finalists, competing with Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field - which will host this year's game - as well as FedEx Field in Landover and the new Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The committee is examining bids for games from 2010 to 2014.

My husband and I were standing in an enormous human bottleneck outside Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field, waiting to clear security and take our seats at last month's Army-Navy game - President Bush was attending - when we came to the same conclusion. We'd driven a little over two hours to get there, and then we sat in traffic for 45 minutes. While waiting to go through the metal detectors, we missed all the pre-game pageantry, the kickoff and the first score. We were cold and hungry.

The ammunition the 1944 Army-Navy game provided to the American effort in fighting World War II came on two fronts: one symbolic, one tangible. Moving this potential national championship game to the showcase location of Baltimore provided a serious morale boost to a nation and military that was persevering through years of rationing. But what was foremost on the minds of Washington politicians was the sale of bonds to help pay off the most expensive war in history -- in excess of $260 billion.

WASHINGTON - As Navy cornerback Rashawn King raced toward the end zone after scooping up a fumble in the first quarter of yesterday's EagleBank Bowl at RFK Stadium, an interesting thought went through his head. "I'm thinking I've got to get those yards that I didn't get against Pitt, everybody's been telling me," said King, who had a 91-yard return on an interception against Pittsburgh this season. "I was glad I got those back. I've never been in the end zone before. I felt like Shun White feels a little bit."