:Draft:1926 Army–Navy Game

File:Group photo of the 1926 West Point football team.png]]

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{{see further|Army–Navy Game}}

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{{See further|1926 college football season|1926 Army Cadets football team|1926 Navy Midshipmen football season}}

1926 was the first season where efforts were made to name a single national champion. Both Army and Navy arose among contenders to be named the season's champion. Navy entered the game undefeated, while Army had lost a single game (against Notre Dame). As a result, it became widely understood that the game would have an impact in deciding whether one of them would be named the national champion, and this importance meant that the game received immense advance hype beyond even that typical of the rivalry.

Indicative of how significant an event the game was anticipated to be was the attendance of Knute Rockne, coach of the Notre Dame football team (one of the top teams of the 1926 college football season). Rockne found the game at Soldier Field important enough an event to warrant him being absent from Notre Dame's game that same day versus Carnegie Tech (a game that a previously undefeated Notre Dame team lost in what ESPN later ranked as the fourth-greatest upset in college football history).

{{cite web |last=Vaughan |first=Irving |title=Army, Navy Flank Custodians Fast, Aggressive, and Smart |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/355211380 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription |publisher=Chicago Daily News |agency=The Associated Press |access-date=16 April 2025 |language=en |date=November 26, 1926}}

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Sportswriter Paul Gallico noted that the 1926 game took on an importance well beyond the traditional rivalry, writing, https://www.newspapers.com/image/411392989

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File:Curtis D. Wilbur and Edward Kelly at the 1926 Army-Navy Game (cropped).jpg (at right, Chicago's South Park Commission) spectating the game alongside Curtis D. Wilbur (at left, secretary of the Navy)]]

The 1926 game was the first instance in which the Army–Navy Game had been played in a location outside of the East Coast. It was additionally the first time either of the academies had played any game outside of the East Caost.

At a cost of $10 million, Chicago had constructed a stadium intended to be a memorial to the city's war dead from World War I.

Chicago invited the military academies to stage their rivalry game at Soldier Field. This was originally a long-shot effort, as Chicago was roughly {{convert|1000|miles}} from either school, whom had in the past been strongly disinterested in holding the game any major distance from their campuses. In the past several strong lobbying efforts in the past (by cities including Hibbing, Minnesota; Reno, Nevada; and Tucson, Arizona) to lure the game outside of the East Coast, but none had succeeded. Superintendents of both academies routinely declined invitations to hold the game in cities outside of the East Coast. The academies were initially uninterested in holding the game in Chicago. However, around the end of 1925, it was reported in newspapers that President Calvin Coolidge had expressed a desire to see it awarded to a midwest city if feasible to stage there, which motivated the academy superintendents to drop their usual objections to a non-East Coast host city.{{cite web |last1=Pegler |first1=Westbrook |title=Jan 10, 1926, page 27 - The Sioux City Journal at Newspapers.com - Newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/509261444 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription |publisher=The Sioux City Journal |access-date=16 April 2025 |language=en |date=January 10, 1926}}

As a site, Chicago held advantages over a number of East Coast cities that were considered as possible hosts for the game. Soldier Field had a much higher seating capacity than the Polo Grounds, where the game had staged before when held in New York City. Chicago had better transportation logistics at Soldier Field than Baltimore had at its stadium. The size of the crowds at the 1924 Army–Navy Game in the had placed severe crowding on the transit lines to the stadium, and spectators had had consequentially to endure a several hour in order to depart the stadium by public transit.

While the superintendents were no longer opposed to holding the game in the midwest, Chicago still had to vie to be selected. The final decision on a site rested with President Coolidge, Secretary of War Dwight Filley Davis Sr., and Secretary of the Navy Curtis D. Wilbur. Chicago was not the only city with a strong desire to host the game. Philadelphia very much wanted to host the 1926, which its municipal boosters believed would be a natural addition to the festivities of the Sesquicentennial Exposition.

Congressman Frederick A. Britten played a key role in Chicago's successful effort to attract the game.

File:Decorated automobiles welcome Navy Midshipmen cadets at Englewood Union Station in Chicago ahead of the 1926 Army-Navy Game.jpg]]

File:Army Cadets football team arriving at Chicago's Central Station ahead of the 1926 Army-Navy Game.jpg]]

File:Maj. Campbell B. Hodges, 3-9-26 LCCN2016841911 (1).jpg was in charge of the movement of West Point cadets]]

Numerous special trains transported students from the two service academies to Chicago to spectate the game. The New York Central transported 1,200 cadets and a 100 member band from West Point{{cite web |title=Cadets On Way |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/355211380 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription |publisher=Chicago Daily News |agency=The Associated Press |access-date=16 April 2025 |language=en |date=November 26, 1926}} aboard ten special trains. The first train from West Point departed New York at 7 AM local time on November 25, with the rest of the trains departing at ten minute intervals thereafter. Commandant of Cadets Campbell B. Hodges was in charge of the movement of West Point cadets. The Baltimore and Ohio and the Pennsylvania Railroad transported 1,700 midshipmen{{cite web |title=1,700 Middies, 1,200 Cadets Off for Game |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/355211380 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription |publisher=Chicago Daily News |access-date=16 April 2025 |language=en |date=November 26, 1926}} from Annapolis in ten trains (with each of the two railroads operating five special trains). Both academies' student bodies arrived on November 26th, with trains scheduled for arrival at approximately 9 AM local time in Chicago.

Both teams had live animal mascots at the game. Navy transported its campus mascot Bill the Goat. Rather than transporting the mule that normally served as the Army Mule, Army instead opted to borrow a mule from Fort Sheridan for the game.

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File:Army Cadets football team at the Windermere Hotel in Chicago ahead of the 1926 Army-Navy Game.jpg]]

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File:Army football players unwind at South Shore Country Club after their first practice in Chicago ahead of the 1926 Army–Navy Game.jpg on November 25 after practicing at Soldier Field that afternoon]]

File:Navy Midshipmen leave Soldier Field after finding it too muddy for practice.jpg

{{cite web |title=Secret Drill Held By Army, Navy Team |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/355211380 |website=Newspapers.com |publisher=Chicago Daily News |access-date=16 April 2025 |language=en |date=November 26, 1926}}

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After the student bodies both arrived in the city in November 26, they marched in a parade to their hotels. Following this (at approximately noon), Marshall Field and Company hosted a 1,000 luncheon for the Military Academy. Later that afternoon, both student bodies participated in a parade down Michigan Boulevard to the tadium in order to kick-off a dedication ceremony for the stadium. While a ceremony had previously been held on November 11, (Armistice Day) to officially rename the stadium as "Soldier Field", on November 26 (the eve of the game) the stadium was given a more grand rededication in a large free-admittance public ceremony. Vice President Charles G. Dawes game the main remarks. His remarks were preceded by the performance of a historical pageant. https://www.newspapers.com/image/243236382

After the dedication event, the student bodies of both academies were hosted at a reception organized by the Union League. That same night, a ball was held for the student bodies at the Drake Hotel, with hundred of young women from Chicago and elsewhere in the nation invited to attend and dance with the academy students. The ball ended with a midnight show.{{cite web |title=Chicago Ready for Army–Navy Battle |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/292060897 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription |publisher=Chillicothe Gazette The Associated Press |access-date=16 April 2025 |language=en |date=November 26, 1926}}

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File:1926 Army-Navy Game (Chicago Tribune photo1) (a).jpg

File:Louis M. Nulton, Charles Dawes, and their wives at the 1926 Army-Navy Game.jpg (at left, superintendent of the United States Naval Academy) and Charles G. Dawes (U.S. vice president) attend the game with their wives, Minnie and Caro]]

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More than 110,000 spectators attended the game. Many sources considered this to have set a new single-game attendance record for American football.{{cite web |title=The Army–Navy Game (originally published in Chicago Journal of Commerce) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/444743256 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription |publisher=The Daily News–Times (Neenah, Wisconsin) |access-date=16 April 2025 |language=en |date=November 30, 1926}}

Among the notable government figures who attended the game and other related functions in Chicago were the Vice President Dawes and Secretary of the Navy Wilbur;

governors Al Smith of New York, Richie of Maryland, and Blaine of Wisconsin; U.S. House Speaker Nicholas Longworth; Mayor Jimmy Walker of New York City and Frank Hague of Jersey City; Will Hays (motion picture head and former postmaster general); former U.S. senator Tom Taggart; as well as numerous incumbent U.S. senators and congressmembers.

With advance expectation of attendance in excess of 100,000, the game required 10,000 police, concessionaires, and ushers in and around the stadium. It was reported in advance that there was expectation of attendance in excess of 100,000, which would be the largest to ever witness a football game, as well as the second-largest sports attendance in the history of the United States behind the Gene Tunney–Jack Dempsey boxing match held earlier that year in Philadelphia. Advance estimates placed likely official ticket revenue at $800,000, also expected to set a new record for the sport of American football.

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Considerations for potential presidential attendance https://www.newspapers.com/image/666066958 business prevented, listened to radio instead. https://www.newspapers.com/image/768566768 https://www.newspapers.com/image/604274938 ,box auction after president declined https://www.newspapers.com/image/562810541

In addition to the president, many West Point academy officials were similarly unable to attend the game, and were also left listening to the radio broadcast.

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The game was also broadcast nationally on radio, a notable early use of the rising broadcast medium.

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File:Navy quarterback Hannegan driving through the Army Line to gain 12 yards in the second quarter of the 1927 Army–Navy Game (photograph by Pacific and Atlantic).jpg

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File:Charts of 1926 Army-Navy Game (Chicago Tribune).jpg chart, illustrating gameplay]]

The game was considered to have exceeded its advance hype, being regarded as highly-exciting and competitive. It ended in a 21–21 tie.

Walter Eckersdall of the Chicago Tribune wrote that the game was, "one of the greatest football games ever played" and was witnessed by "the largest crowd that ever saw a football game in this country".

The Chicago Journal of Commerce wrote that it was the most exciting football game of the 1926 season, observing, {{quote|Perhaps special credit should go to the Navy for the valiant spirit and cool ability it demonstrating in tying the score in the last quarter. A team which has established an early lead is psychologically handicapped if that lead is later surpassed by the opposing team. It is easier to come from behind if one has been behind all the time than it is to come from behind if one has been in the lead but has dropped back. Yet this psychological handicap was overcome by Navy.
It was overcome by a team which averaged a shorter football experience than the opposing eleven. Although both service schools accept studnets at an age beyond the average collegiate freshman, and the graduates of the service schools are more mature than college graduates, the navy comes closer than the army in maintaining college standards. It is noteworthy that the new army captain, now in his third year at West Point, had three previous years of varsity football.
The navy, coming from behind to tie the score accomplished the result that the crowd wanted to see. Except for the students themselves, practically all of the 111,000 spectators were not only pleased but overjoyed that the game ended in a tie. The crowd was in a singular mood of exuberant kindliness in which the defeat of either team would have been painful .The 21 to 21 score was regarded as a victory for both elevens.}}

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==Aftermath==

The tie result was widely seen as destroying Navy's chances at being named the national champion.

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Had Navy beaten Army, it likely would have become the front-runner for the eastern title (especially due to Notre Dame's unexpected defeat the same day), and would have been in a strong position to be named the consensus national champion. Navy's failure to defeat Army, as well as Brown's tie in its game against Colgate the same day left Lafayette as a the sole remaining

undefeated eastern college football team. This Lafayette as the East Coast team with the strongest odds of becoming the consensus champion, with the Sanford and Alabama (respectively the Pacific and southern champions) also remaining as contenders (with it seen as possible that one would be eliminated from contention by the other in the 1927 Rose Bowl, in which they were set to face each other). https://www.newspapers.com/image/604274938

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However, the _____ retrospectively ranked

More than a decade after the game, the readers of Esquire magazine voted the game to have been the best football game of all time. Even recently, many have revered it as the greatest Army-Navy game ever played.

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:Category:Army–Navy Game

Army–Navy Game

Army–Navy Game

Army–Navy Game

:Category:Events at Soldier Field

:Category:American football in Chicago

Army–Navy Game