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Co-captains Josh Brindel and Donnie Fricks along with the rest of the seniors on Navy's 2002 football team didn't enjoy a whole lot of success during their careers.</p>
<p>The Midshipmen won only eight games from 1999-2002, going 3-30 over the final three seasons of that stretch. However, those seniors could take solace in the fact three of those wins came over archrival Army, including a 58-12 thumping in the final game of their careers....
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Some day, Zerbin Singleton figures he'll be playing connect the dots with stars. He plans to write his story of personal triumph across the sky.</p>
<p>But this day, like many at the U.S. Naval Academy, begins with sweating the details.</p>
<p>By 7 a.m., Singleton stood at attention in his uniform blues, ready for inspection. Most of his brigade goes through this drill at noon. Navy's football players answer to a different schedule....
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When President George W. Bush last attended an Army-Navy showdown in 2004, an interviewer asked him beforehand which squad he believed would win. </p>
<p>His reply was terse and direct: "The United States of America." </p>
<p>In a nutshell, that answer underscores what is embodied in the football rivalry that is unmatched anywhere -- one that has ramifications not only nationally but worldwide. For American sailors, Marines and soldiers, many of whom are currently stationed in harm's way, this is the ultimate athletic event....
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As far as traditional rivalries go, college football is stocked with more than it can handle -- last week alone saw Kansas-Missouri, Virginia-Virginia Tech, Tennessee-Kentucky, Auburn-Alabama, the list goes on and on. But one annual game stands out more than any other -- Army-Navy. There is no better rivalry in football. </p>
<p>On Saturday, the Midshipmen and the Black Knights square off for the 108th time. Only 10 Division I rivalries have featured more meetings. Baltimore will play host for the first time since 2000, and just the fourth time in the history of the series. Charm City will be treated to a spectacle of tradition like none other off the field and a game on the field played by student-athletes with a future not in the NFL, but on battlefields around the world....
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Josh Meek's dream of playing division I-A football did not seem further away than the time he enrolled at North Texas and, instead of playing football, got a full-time job as a waiter. </p>
<p>Meek has since made good on his goal: He will start at left tackle for Navy tomorrow against Army. A 6-foot-1, 274-pound senior, Meek has started the past two years at tackle. The Midshipmen lead the nation in rushing with a school-record 357.4 yards per game (the previous mark was 323.2 set in 2003). </p>
<p>They also led the nation in rushing in 2005 and '06....
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In the early morning hours on Nov. 17, a band of cadets from the U.S. Military Academy sneaked onto an 875-acre organic dairy farm, located about 15 miles outside Annapolis, and stole three goats. They raced back to West Point, N.Y., slapped together some photos and created a YouTube video that detailed "Operation Good Shepherd" -- the theft of the Naval Academy's unguarded and defenseless mascots.</p>
<p>Yawn.</p>
<p>This still passes as a legitimate prank in this rivalry? C'mon, cadets. Log off the computers and crack open a dusty copy of the Army-Navy Prankster History Book....
<p>Billick, whose father, Don, was an Air Force pilot, offered his appreciation
for the annual Army-Navy rivalry, which will add another chapter tomorrow at
M&T Bank Stadium.</p>
<p>"That's one of those things where even if you're not a football fan, that's
one of the sporting events you need to see, like the Indy 500, like a
Kentucky Derby, like a Super Bowl," Billick said. "You need to go to an
Army-Navy game. It's an incredible atmosphere, and it ought to be a great
game Saturday."</p>
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In 1989, Ken Niumatalolo's college football career, a frustrating four-year ride at Hawaii, was coming to a close.</p>
<p>It had not been the stuff that fairy tales and highlight reels are often made from. A third-string quarterback for much of his tenure, Niumatalolo was ready to move on. Already married with a newborn daughter, he was dreaming of a career in broadcasting as a sports anchor. He figured he'd spend the rest of his days in his native Hawaii and let football fade into memory.</p>
<p>Paul Johnson, then Hawaii's offensive coordinator, had a different idea. He asked Niumatalolo to come see him in his office....
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Local advertising executive Bob Leffler spent his Oct. 5, 1997, oozing with excitement as he witnessed both a Baltimore Orioles game and Ravens game in person. </p>
<p>Leffler was among the crowds of sports fans who converged on Baltimore to attend either -- or both -- the Ravens-Steelers game at the old Memorial Stadium and game four of the American League Division Series pitting the Orioles against the Seattle Mariners at Camden Yards, with about 110,000 people passing through the stadiums' turnstiles....
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Every year on the first weekend in December, one football game draws the attention of millions of people across the country.</p>
<p>Army vs. Navy.</p>
<p>First played in 1890, the series is one of the most storied rivalries in all of college football. From their first day at their respective academies, players from both teams are taught a single mind-set. Whether it is printed on free weights in strength and conditioning facilities, painted on buildings or sung in the alma mater, the Midshipmen and Black Knights know they have to beat the other....
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Earlier this season, Army athletic director Kevin Anderson announced he would be going on a "retreat" with head coach Stan Brock and the rest of the football staff.</p>
<p>This getaway, supposedly to some private and secluded location away from West Point, would be designed to take a long, hard look at the Army program and come to a consensus on how to get things turned around....
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Navy defensive end Chris WR Kuhar-Pitters represents a lot of people whenever he steps on the football field.</p>
<p>Dr. Lisa Kuhar, a career Air Force officer who has reached the rank of colonel and practices internal medicine, is his mother. Stephen Pitters, a civilian social worker who specializes in domestic violence training at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, Wash., is his father. Those two middle initials stand for Williams and Reynolds, a pair of last names in the family lineage....
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In terms of games and minutes played, Kaleo Kina and Adam Teague are among the most experienced members of the Navy basketball team. One would think the two juniors would be starting at this stage of their careers.</p>
<p>Instead, Kina and Teague are both coming off the bench....
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History could be made today at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. </p>
<p>Navy is seeking a sixth straight victory over archrival Army, a feat never accomplished in the 108-year history of the storied series. Paul Johnson could also become the first head coach at either service academy to win his initial six Army-Navy games....
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It's tradition for players in the Army-Navy game to wear jersey patches sent to them by servicemen around the world.</p>
<p>Of course, Army players sew on patches representing infantry, artillery and tank units while their Navy counterparts sport patches honoring ships, flight squadrons and Marine Corps regiments.....
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By the end of the 108th Army-Navy game on Saturday in Baltimore, 5-foot-6 senior Reggie Campbell was towering over the proceedings. Campbell finished with 227 total yards and two touchdowns in Navy's 38-3 victory before a sellout crowd of 71,610 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. </p>
<p>His performance was such that he was given the rare duty of conducting the Navy drum and bugle corps in the alma mater after the game. So after the traditional playing of Army's alma mater, Campbell climbed a six-foot podium and led "The Navy Blue and Gold" in front of the Brigade of Midshipmen. </p>
<p>"I didn't know what I was doing," Campbell said. "There was a girl in front of me, she was trying to help me, but it wasn't working." ...