Army–Navy Rivalry

The Army–Navy rivalry began as a direct clash between two American service academies with competing missions and cultures. The first formal meeting took place at West Point on November 29, 1890, when Navy defeated Army 24–0, establishing a recurring fixture between the academies [1][3]. By 1893 the rivalry spilled beyond the field: postgame crowd fights and involvement by senior officers prompted federal scrutiny and led to a suspension of the series from 1894–1898, illustrating how public order and institutional reputations were entwined with early contests [5][7][1]. The rivalry returned and soon grew into a national spectacle; the 1926 game was chosen to dedicate Soldier Field in Chicago before roughly 110,000 spectators and ended in a 21–21 tie, marking the matchup's ability to attract mass crowds and media attention [8][2][1]. Across the interwar years eligibility disputes (1928–1929) further tested the relationship between the academies and produced charity games at Yankee Stadium in 1930–31, showing that governance and public perception repeatedly shaped when and how the teams met [1][7]. Those early decades set a pattern: the contest was never just about wins and losses but about institutional pride, national viewership, and the ceremonial weight that continues to define Army–Navy [1][2].

The Army–Navy Game remains an active, annually contested college football rivalry, traditionally played in December under a joint steering committee that manages site and broadcast arrangements [2][6]. Modern chapters include Navy's 14-game winning streak from 2002–2015 and Army's 21–17 victory on December 10, 2016, that ended that streak [6][2]. The series produced its first overtime in 2022 (a double-overtime game) and continues to draw presidential attendance, high national TV viewership, and periodic political attention to its broadcast window [5][2][9][13]. The rivalry's legacy is institutional ritual combined with on-field drama, still compelling decades after 1890 [1][5].