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The Mark of Failure
It was the year 2000 during the Army-Navy Game when Maj. Omari Thompson’s expectations fell short. Yet and still, even after 20 years, the memory is powerfully evocative for Thompson. For it was one of those nip and tuck college football games that added to the legendary, 122-year rivalry between the Army and Navy.
The PSINet Stadium (now known as the M&T Bank Stadium) in Baltimore was jam-packed with over 70,000 roaring spectators as Army battled its way to a steady comeback against the Navy. The Army needed a touchdown and a field goal to win.
However, Navy didn’t give up ground playing prevent defense to stonewall a big, quick scoring play.
“We lost that game,” Thompson said as he recalled his misstep during the contest. “What was particularly difficult for me was I muffed the punt return in the fourth quarter of that game when we were on the trail to try to come back and take the lead.”
Thompson fumbled it. The Navy defender got the ball back, which gave them an extra possession. The Navy kicked a field goal as a result.
“For me, that was a play that I had to sit with for a whole ‘nother year on top of everything else that was going on at the academy,” Thompson said. “So, in every practice run — with every opportunity, I had to touch the ball, there was a strong desire to make up for my past mistake.”
Thompson, along with the rest of the team, sought redemption. However, the team and the rest of the Nation were unaware of the life-changing events that would forever impact the country in the following year and, ultimately, changed what the 2001 Army-Navy Game represented for the Nation.
The Day West Point Stood Still
The morning began like any other day on Sept. 11, 2001. Clear blue skies, the radiant sun, cadets heading to class and West Point faculty and staff clocking in for work.
Jim Fox, the chief of Community Relations at West Point, remembered the day. His oldest daughter, Jenny, was waist-high, inquisitive and staring avidly at the sky.
Every day, before getting to work, it was customary for Fox, a sportswriter for the Pointer View at the time, to lean by his car at the bottom of his driveway alongside Jenny as they waited for the school bus in New Windsor.
Every morning, because Stewart Airport was located west of where Fox lived, Jenny, a kindergartener at the time, would ask where the planes were coming from as the aircraft flew overhead.
Fox would explain to Jenny where the planes probably flew from and where they were likely to arrive. However, on this particular day, something stood out to her, and she asked, ‘daddy, why is that plane so low?’
Her bus arrived, she got in and went to school. Fox got in the car and drove whichever way gave him the best radio reception.
“I was listening to Imus in the Morning as I was coming around the mountain when early reports came up that a plane had hit the World Trade Center,” Fox said.
It was 9:30 a.m. when Jim parked his car, and upon entering the office, he saw people crowded by the television watching the horrific news.
Back then, Fox had established friendships with many cadets. He spent the bulk of his time with them writing stories on them for his first five years at West Point.
“I did all the scholarship and sports stories at that time,” Fox said. “I remember cadets coming up to me and asking, ‘Mr. Fox, what’s going to happen?’ I was like, ‘well, the world just changed for you guys.”
Three U.S. Military Academy graduates who were part of the Army football team recalled the moments of the attack.
Brian Bruenton, USMA Class of 2002, watched as a plane struck the second tower during his business law class.
“We had the projector on CNN at the time and we saw the second plane going in live, and we almost thought it was like a replay of the earlier plane going in,” Bruenton said. “But we realized the other building’s already on fire. So, it can’t be a replay. It was really surreal. At West Point, you’re kind of insulated. You’re in this bubble, prior to 9/11, and this attack reached well beyond the bubble and to be able to see it live and the lack of finality in all of it was the eeriest thing for me that day.”
Meanwhile, Chad Jenkins, USMA Class of 2002, watched the attack apprehensively in his barracks room on a computer monitor.
“I was in my room by myself watching this and trying to process hearing that we’re now a Nation under attack,” Jenkins said.
Thompson had left the library after studying and completing his homework. He was on his way to math class when he ran into his colleagues, and they told him the news.
“I went on to class, and for that hour class, we didn’t do any of the work we were supposed to do,” Thompson said. “For the rest of the day, we all focused on the 9/11 attacks. We were watching the news and really taking in what was going on at the time, and we knew our lives were changing forever.”
The terrorists caused the Twin Towers to collapse and carried out widespread destruction at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania. During the attack, the Department of The Army had ordered the U.S. Military Academy to go on the highest level of security, Force Protection Condition Delta.
The next day, Bruenton said, his mind brimmed with thoughts and internal questions. Are the cadets eating at the mess hall? Does it make sense strategically for all cadets to go on The Plain before lunch, and is West Point a target?
Heading to work was no longer a simple ride from home to the installation. Long lines formed for miles outside of Stony Gate, and many employees spent hours in traffic.
Access to interior sections was restricted, patrol activities were increased, and the 24-hour operations center was activated.
“I thought a lot about how our country would never be the same,” Bruenton said. “Many of the country’s policies shifted. How we view security, how we view protection, and how we view safety changed that day.”
After a couple of days passed, West Point lowered the threat level to Charlie, and for good measure, the parking structure was modified for employees to improve the conditions of getting to work.
In addition, the 56th Superintendent, Lt. Gen. William Lennox Jr., contacted the Governor’s office and defense department officials to support and offer resources to aid the catastrophe and assist emergency personnel and law enforcement officials.
“The terrorists, at the time, wanted to beat us down — they wanted us to grieve, and I think the mantra and the view of both West Point and the Nation was we need to get back to some sense of normalcy,” 2005 USMA graduate, Tom Pae, said. “We needed something to look forward to, something to cheer about and be happy with, and what better place to do that than the Army-Navy Game.”
The Battle to Rebuild and Reclaim Hope
Following the terrorist attacks, people gradually redirected their attention to entertainment, seeking some form of escapism. Bob Beretta, the director of Athletics at LeMoyne College, explained that Major League Baseball led the way in terms of rebuilding morale in the hearts and minds of the people through sports.
Beretta added emotions were running high at the academy as the Athletics Department tried its best to facilitate the college football season successfully and safely. However, West Point needed to make a statement, and the department knew what message the Nation needed to rekindle hope, excitement and zeal for the game.
As the assistant athletics director for Athletic Communications at the time, Beretta oversaw all the external communications with the Army Black Knights football team.
“I had a role in crafting the message that we would send to the country through the voices of our players and our coaches,” Beretta said. “In doing that, we tried putting the players and coaches in the best positions to be successful, not overloading their schedule.”
Beretta added, because of its inherent importance in the country’s landscape, the Army-Navy Game was going to be a focal point for West Point moving forward toward the end of that year. However, he also knew that the game could be a high-risk target.
“It was very important to us, on a number of different fronts. Everyone involved felt we needed to execute that game for the betterment of our country and that we managed to execute an event of that magnitude with so many of the country’s military leaders in attendance, including the former President of the United States, George W. Bush, that we could do so in a safe manner, I think the message that sent to the country was extremely powerful,” Beretta said.
On that note, the Black Knights led the way into the college football season. With West Point upholding strict safety measures, every game occurred in stages. The first game was against the Cincinnati Bearcats, a game the Black Knights lost.
It was a steady come-up for the team that year as they battled through losses against the UAB Blazers and the Boston College Eagles. Then, they secured a win against the Houston Cougars in the following game.
The pattern continued this way, with the losses steadily outweighing the victories. From Cincinnati to Memphis, the Black Knights only secured two wins out of the 10 games that season.
After losing to Memphis, the Black Knights set their sights on Navy as they prepared for the season’s final game. But, unfortunately, with the preparation came obstacles that nearly cost Jenkins his opportunity to play.
“One of my biggest concerns was that I had torn my posterior cruciate ligament on my right knee three weeks prior against Buffalo,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins couldn’t play with the injury, so he missed the Memphis game. Afterward, the team had five days off for Thanksgiving, and soon, it was Army-Navy Week.
The recovery process leading up to the Army-Navy game was all Jenkins could think about at the time. He committed fervently to rehab sessions, conducting procedures three times a day on the knee.
“Tim Kelly, who’s still there as the trainer, was helping me out with the recovery process. I don’t think he thought I was going to be ready to play, but he kept an optimistic outlook ... I think he knew that it would be a bit of a nightmare trying to deal with me if I wasn’t allowed to play in that game,” Jenkins said. “So I was just trying my best to play because it was my senior year, then there’s the significance of Army-Navy Game and what it meant to the people after 9/11, and I wanted to suit up because I knew it was the last time I would ever don the gold helmet of the Black Knights and play college football.”
Bruenton shared the same sentiments about getting mangled and worn leading up to the final game of the season. However, he was lucky enough to avoid any crippling injuries.
“When you get to week 12 of the college football season, everybody’s banged up to some degree, so there’s that, but trying to put all those things aside, I think that’s a challenge for any football player,” Bruenton said. “The obstacle for me was how do you make the Army-Navy Game feel like a week four game?”
Focusing on the objective and not allowing the magnitude of the moment to overwhelm him was the biggest challenge for Bruenton.
“It’s no different than if you ask Tom Brady how he prepared for the Super Bowl,” Bruenton said. “He’d probably say, ‘try to make your performance close to a week seven game as much as you can — you want to go out there and execute based on muscle memory and not let the moment be too big for you.”
For Thompson, everything hinged on redemption from the last Army-Navy Game. As a result, he approached every training regimen with an intense hunger to refine his technique after each workout.
“I could say we probably went a little bit harder than any other season we prepared for,” Thompson said. “We knew it was different circumstances. But as far as how our coaches prepared us, they didn’t really do anything different aside from keeping us focused on the bigger picture, resulting in us being a bit more mature on what was at stake in our preparation.”
Customarily, a win against the Navy would supersede all the losses the Black Knights sustained over a lousy season. However, this particular game wasn’t simply about winning.
Although both teams had a strong desire to win, Army and Navy ultimately battled each other to bring the Nation out of the gloom looming over the country post-9/11.
“Two months after the attacks, the World Trade Center was still smoldering. Rescue and recovery efforts were still being coordinated. The 9/11 attacks were still raw for a lot of folks,” Pae said. “With a tragedy, particularly, of that scale, America just needed a win.”
The 2001 Army-Navy Game
Gameday had finally arrived on Dec. 7, 2001. Pae was 18 years old and had never been to a college football game before going to West Point. Nevertheless, he remembered putting on his uniform, donning the gray coat, and looking at the mirror to ensure he was spic and span for gameday.
“I was looking at the mirror and thinking, ‘we are all on the big stage supporting our players and representing the Army. The eyes of the world were on us that day,ʼ” Pae said. “I was excited because I knew the history behind Army-Navy. I saw all the media coverage that went into it. Everyone was talking about it. Clearly, this game was different.”
The seats sold out to a roaring, reinvigorated crowd at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Millions of viewers watched from their homes as the Black Knights and the Navy Midshipmen were mentally preparing themselves for victory in their locker rooms.
“A man who set the tone for us in the locker room was none other than Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf,” Jenkins said. “He comes in, and he gets the team together, and it was so awesome! He came in and filled the room with his presence. He had an aura about him, and he goes, ‘Men! Today, not only do you represent Army football, not only do you represent the U.S. Military Academy and the Corp of Cadets, but men, you represent the U.S. Army as a whole! Men, today you are going to war and the U.S. Army does not lose wars!’ and the entire locker room goes nuts!”
The speech from Schwarzkopf set the tone for all the players in the locker room before they took the field. After that, the players were set and ready. There was no going back. The game had commenced.
The Black Knights rushed the Navy in full force. During the game, Jenkins managed a 42-yard connection to Bruenton.
“Bruenton was always a great player and Chad was the last Army quarterback to beat Navy until the 2016 Army-Navy Game,ˮ Fox said as he recounted his experience covering the game as a sports writer. “Omari Thompson’s play at the beginning of the third quarter running that kick back — I think that was the move that gave us control of the game the rest of the way.”
Thompson astonished the crowd while finding his retribution with the second half’s opening kickoff, tearing through the field toward his first career kickoff return for a touchdown. The Black Knights had battled their way to victory with a 26-17 win.
“We didn’t have a winning season to go to a bowl game, but in the end, beating Navy was really all that mattered like every season,” Thompson said. “That 96-yard kick return was my god-given opportunity to, in a sense, redeem myself for that mishap in 2000 coupled with running to the victory that our Nation would need over the terrorists that had attacked us. So, there was a lot of emotion wrapped up in that game, and every time I touched the ball and every opportunity that we got into the endzone, we took a step toward victory.”
| Date Taken: | 12.16.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 12.16.2021 10:16 |
| Story ID: | 411273 |
| Location: | WEST POINT, NY, US |
| Web Views: | 142 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, More than just a game, post 9/11: Revisiting the 2001 Army-Navy Game, by Jorge Garcia, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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