As the Navy football team looks forward to playing the school’s 300th game at Jack Stephens Field at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on Saturday against Tulane, Tom Lynch recalled the excitement he felt while being recruited to play football at the U.S. Naval Academy.
In the spring of 1960, everything about Lynch’s first visit to the academy impressed him, from the professors he met to the coaches and future teammates who treated him like a family member. Among the many sites on the picturesque Yard that caught his eye, Lynch was especially amazed by the two-year-old, multi-purpose arena known as Halsey Field House.
But the real topper on that recruiting trip was Lynch’s chance to see Navy’s new football stadium, located a mile from the school’s Annapolis campus.
During the previous fall, on September 26, 1959, Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium had been officially unveiled. The Midshipmen christened the new digs appropriately, with a 29-2 victory over William & Mary, played before 25,000 fans.
Junior running back Joe Bellino, soon to become the school’s first Heisman Trophy winner in 1960 – quarterback Roger Staubach would follow three years later – scored the first points in stadium history on a 53-yard touchdown run. The Mids rolled with 289 rushing yards, while the Navy defense held William & Mary to only 101 yards of total offense.
“I remember being taken to see the stadium. My first thought was, ‘Wow, this is beautiful!” said Lynch, who was also moved by the essence of the place – a memorial to those in service of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, featuring numerous plaques honoring soldiers and sailors and commemorating the battles in which they had fought. “I knew right away that I wanted to be a part of [the academy].”
Navy had finally upgraded its football home, since Thompson Stadium had become badly outdated after more than 40 years of use. World War II had set back original building plans about 15 years. Thousands of alumni, sailors, marines and friends of the academy had combined to donate $3 million to finance the project.
Lynch, who would go on to serve for 31 years in the U.S. Navy and retire as a Rear Admiral following a three-year stint as Superintendent of the Naval Academy, was part of the first wave of student-athletes to play football at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
With President Dwight D. Eisenhower in attendance on September 24, 1960, Bellino led Navy to a 41-7 thrashing of Villanova, scoring two of the Mids’ six touchdowns. President Eisenhower returned seven weeks later to witness a 41-6 rout of visiting Virginia. He saw Bellino become the first Navy player ever to score four touchdowns in a game on rushes of one, 39 and 90 yards. Bellino also caught an eight-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Hal Spooner.
Bellino led the Mids to a 9-2 season, which ended with a 21-14 loss to Missouri in the Orange Bowl.
After Staubach was promoted to starting quarterback in week four of his sophomore season in 1962, the future NFL Hall of Famer and two-time Super Bowl champion secured the job at NMCMS by dominating visiting Cornell with his throwing arm and his legs.
Staubach pushed Navy to a 41-0 romp on October 13, 1962. He completed nine of 11 passes for 99 yards and added 89 yards rushing and two touchdowns. But a late, three-game losing streak sent the Mids to a disappointing, 5-5 finish.
“We expected more from ourselves after going 7-3 the year before,” recalled Lynch, who was a junior and an outstanding middle linebacker throughout that season. “But there was no doubt that Roger was our guy.”
It all came together in 1963, when Lynch, a senior, earned the coveted job as team captain. Staubach dominated as a passer and scrambler throughout the Mids’ 9-2 season that ended with a loss to national champion Texas in the Cotton Bowl.
Navy won all three of its games at NMCMS with ease in 1963, widely considered the best year in program history. The Mids walloped William & Mary and Maryland in Annapolis by a combined score of 70-7. But it was a midseason, 24-12 whipping of third-ranked, unbeaten, visiting Pittsburgh that propelled Navy, which would rise to #2 in the national rankings.
Staubach completed 14 of 19 passes that day in late October, including seven connections with end Jim Campbell. Lynch produced his lone interception of the season to highlight a stifling defensive effort by the Mids.
“After that win, we thought we’d be going to one of the four bowl games available,” Lynch said. “We ended up playing for the national championship.”
In his final game at NMCMS against Duke on November 14, 1964, Staubach gave the home crowd what it wanted to see. He broke his own single-game yardage record with a 308-yard performance in a 27-14 win.
The list of great football moments on the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium gridiron is hefty.
It includes Navy receiver Rob Taylor, who set school records for most catches (10) and yards receiving (140) on Sept. 23, 1967, when Taylor caught a 16-yard TD pass with 57 seconds left to lift the Mids to a 23-22 win over Penn State.
On October 23, 1976, running back Tony Dorsett rushed for 180 yards and three scores in Pitt’s victory to become the NCAA’s all-time career rushing leader. Navy beat Georgia Tech, 20-12 on November 12, 1977, with Naval Academy graduate and President Jimmy Carter watching.
Running back Eddie Meyers, who ranks fifth all-time at Navy in career rushing yards (2,935 yards), had a career day as a senior on November 7, 1981, in a 35-23 win over Syracuse. Meyers set a single-game school record with 298 rushing yards and four TDs.
“I’m getting nervous as I’m thinking about it. I don’t remember much of the game,” said Meyers, who described his 67-yard cutback run for a TD. “I remember giving the game ball to our offensive line.”
On November 17, 1984, Eric Rutherford recorded 11 tackles, four sacks, a forced fumble, and a blocked field goal to lead Navy to a major upset – a 38-21 victory over second-ranked, undefeated South Carolina. It was just the third time Navy had beaten an opponent ranked that high.
Alton Grizzard became Navy’s all-time leader in total offense in a 23-21 win over Villanova on Sept. 22, 1990.
On November 9, 1996, Navy clinched its first winning season since 1982 with a 30-14 victory over Delaware. A year later, on September 13, quarterback Chris McCoy tied an NCAA record by rushing for three TDs on consecutive carries in a 36-7 rout over Rutgers. Pat McGrew scored on a 91-yard TD run on November 22, 1997 – the longest run in stadium history – in a 62-29 blowout over Kent State.
Quarterback Craig Candeto and his fellow seniors had suffered through a 3-30 stretch over three seasons, before Navy reversed its fortunes in 2003 by finishing 8-5, including 5-1 at home. The Mids earned their first CIC trophy since 1981 and went to their first bowl game since 1996.
On November 22, 2003, Candeto directed TD drives on all eight possessions he played. Navy demolished Central Michigan, 63-34, before a Senior Day crowd of 29,527.
“No mistakes, no missed assignments, no fumbles. That is hard to do in practice against air, or a scout team,” Candeto said.
On November 20, 2004, Navy achieved a perfect record at home for the first time since 1996 with a 54-21 win over Rutgers, before a Senior Day crowd of 33,615. Led by Kyle Eckel, Aaron Polanco and Eric Roberts, Navy scored 47 consecutive points.
The rededication of NMCMS set the tone for October 8, 2005, when sophomore kicker Joey Bullen nailed a 46-yard field goal, in the rain and in the final second, to complete a thrilling 27-24 comeback win over Air Force.
Two months after Shun White rushed for a school-record 348 yards and three TDs on only 19 carries in a season-opening, 41-13 victory over Towson on August 30, 2008, linebacker Clint Sovie’s 42-yard fumble return for a TD with 37 seconds left in regulation capped Navy’s 20-point, fourth-quarter comeback to force OT. Quarterback Ricky Dobbs’ one-yard run finished a miraculous, 33-27 win over Temple, dubbed the Miracle at Navy-Marine Corps.
On September 26, 2009, the 50th anniversary of the first game played at NMCMS, Dobbs rushed for 143 yards and four TDs in a 38-22 win over Western Kentucky. One week later on October 3, junior kicker Joe Buckley made three field goals, including a 38-yarder in overtime, to lead the Mids to a 16-13 win over Air Force, before a sellout crowd of 37,280.
On October 20, 2012, Navy scored 10 points in the final 5:30 to shock Indiana with a come-from-behind, 31-30 victory on Homecoming. In his first start at NMCMS, freshman quarterback Keenan Reynolds hit Matt Aiken with a TD pass with 2:02 left to give Navy the lead. Parrish Gaines’ interception sealed Navy’s first win over a Big Ten opponent since 1926.
Reynolds rushed for 251 yards and three touchdowns on 39 carries on October 25, 2014, to lead the Mids to a 49-39 Homecoming win over San Jose State.
On December 28, 2015, in his final game of a record-setting career as a Mid, Reynolds led Navy to a 44-28 victory over Pittsburgh in the Military Bowl. He rushed for three TDs and threw for another. His final score with 4:19 left, gave him 88 total career touchdowns – the most in FBS history. His 4,559 career rushing yards are also the most ever by a quarterback in FBS history.
On October 22, 2016, Will Worth rushed for 115 yards and tossed two TD passes, Navy ran for 306 yards against the top-ranked rushing defense in the country and Josiah Powell’s 34-yard interception return for a TD lifted the Mids to a 46-40 win over #6 Houston – Navy’s first victory over a top 10 team since 1984.
“I can still see the Brigade storming the field. We had an overflow crowd, beat them in dramatic fashion,” said Chet Gladchuk, Director of Athletics at the Naval Academy. “It’s a day I’ll always remember.”
On October 7, 2017, Zach Abey threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Carmona with 15 seconds left to lead Navy to a 48-45 victory over Air Force, in front of a stadium-record crowd of 38,792.
In his first career start at QB on November 11, 2017, sophomore Malcolm Perry rushed for 282 yards – third most in school history – and four TDs to lead Navy to a 43-40 win over SMU.
Two years later on October 5, 2019, Perry finished an 11-play, 75-yard scoring drive with a four-yard TD run with 23 seconds left to overcome a 16-0, fourth-quarter run by Air Force, as Navy took a 34-25 victory. Navy linebacker Tony Brown returned a fumble seven yards for a TD in the closing seconds to conclude the scoring. Perry would set a single-season Navy rushing record with 2,017 yards that year.
On November 11, 2023, junior safety Rayuan Lane III returned an interception a stadium-record 97 yards for a touchdown to cap Navy’s 31-6 victory over UAB.
On September 21, 2024, with Memphis driving for the potential game-winning touchdown, Lane picked off a pass in the final minute and sprinted 86 yards for the score that clinched Navy’s 56-44 victory.
“Pick sixes are hard to come by in college football. Those are the kind of moments you live for, practice for, do everything for,” Lane said.
“There is an aura about Navy-Marine Corps. I felt it again watching that Memphis game,” said Reynolds, who lost only two games at home as a starter over four years. “We found ways to make plays that mattered. In the fourth quarter, we just knew the defense would make a stop or get a turnover, or the offense would drive the ball and score. It was a shock if that didn’t happen.”
