On Saturday, one of the oldest rivalries in college football will take place – as the Army Black Knights of the United States Military Academy at West Point will face off against the Navy Midshipman of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis.
It is the 125th meeting of the teams on the gridiron, where they compete to win the Commander-in-Chief’s trophy.
To mark the milestone, when the players hit the field on Saturday afternoon at Northwest Stadium – home to the Washington Commanders – they’ll be wearing uniforms that serve to honor the Greatest Generation.
The Fighting Spirit of the 101st Airborne Division
Army’s players will don Nike black-and-white jersey, pants, socks, gloves, helmets, and cleats that pays respect to the 101st Airborne Division “The Screaming Eagles.” The choice of historic units was made to also commemorate the role the famed division played 80 years ago this month during the Battle of the Bulge in the Second World War. For three weeks, the paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division held the Belgian town of Bastogne, facing a German force of more than 54,000 troops.
“The 101st Airborne Division, encircled by Nazi forces, endured three weeks of relentless close combat in freezing weather,” the West Point Uniform website noted.
The color of the uniform was selected to “reflect the canopy of fog and snow,” which gives way to the shadows beneath the snow-covered pine forests of the Ardennes. The football helmets will be adorned with markings used by the 101st Airborne Division’s paratroopers and glider troops – first used to identify their unit affiliations during the D-Day drops and then throughout the European Theater of Operations.
The jerseys also feature the “Invasion Star” above a patch with the word “Bastogne.” The star was used on American aircraft and vehicles to aid in battlefield identification; while the jerseys include the variant that has seven gaps in the outer ring to represent the junction of the seven roads at Bastogne. The style of the lettering in the patch is meant to reflect the road sign held by General McAuliffe seen in a now famous photograph taken after the siege was broken.
A “Screaming Eagle” shoulder patch and “Airborne” tab have been placed on the left shoulder pad, while on the front of the helmet above the face mask is a “Parachutist Badge.”
The Navy Evokes the Tradition of the Jolly Rogers
Football fans would be forgiven for thinking that Navy’s team is evoking a “pirate” theme as the players’ helmets are adorned with the infamous “skull and crossbones” – but in fact, it is meant to honor the U.S. Navy’s Fighter Squadron 17 (VF-17), which first flew the F4U-1 Corsair fighter.
The unit’s first commanding officer, Lt. Cmdr. John T. “Tommy” Blackburn, sought the pirate theme to match his squadron to the fighter. “Corsair” was a type of buccaneer who sailed the waters of the Caribbean. According to Military.com, his men came up with the skull and crossbones insignia and called themselves “the Jolly Rogers.”
VF-17 went on to be the “deadliest squadron in naval aviation,” amassing more than “150 kills” and 313 victories in the Pacific Theater. The unit was later redesignated VF-5B after the war, and later VF-61, until it was decommissioned in 1959. In addition to the Corsair, its aviators flew the F6F-5 Hellcat during the war, and later the FJ-3 Fury and F3H-2M Demon.
Following its disestablishment, two other U.S. Naval Aviation squadrons employed the name and insignia of the Jolly Roger – including VF-84 from 1955 to 1995; and currently, Strike Fighter Squadron 103 (VFA-103), which operates the Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet. VFA-103 is assigned to Carrier Air Wing Seven.
The Navy uniform from Under Armor features color blocking that is meant to mimic that of the World War II aircraft, while the neck of the jersey incorporates the dark Navy blue color and the Jolly Rogers insignia, and the collar striping is a direct reference to the classic stripe found on the top edge of the tail fin.
The football helmet is ornamented with chevrons, which are incorporated with the skull on the sides of the helmet as well as chevrons representing the nine different aircraft that the Jolly Rogers had flown.
The 125th annual Army-Navy Game will kick off at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, on Saturday, Dec. 14, at 3 p.m. ET and will be aired on CBS.
