If not for the kindness and generosity of hundreds of New England families, the organizers of the Boston bid for the 124th Army-Navy Game might fallen flat.
With the distance from Annapolis to Foxborough, Massachusetts, more the 400 miles, the biggest challenge facing organizers was transporting and housing the Brigade of Midshipmen. Officials with Kraft Sports and Entertainment, which led Boston’s bid for “America’s Game,” had to convince Naval Academy officials they had a viable plan for doing so.
Kraft’s plan called for housing the Brigade of Midshipmen at the Rhode Island Convention Center. Doing so required installing bunk beds and building shower areas to create a makeshift dormitory. But there was nowhere near enough space or beds to accommodate all 4,000-plus midshipmen.
So, New Englanders stepped up.
Families primarily located in either Massachusetts or Rhode Island welcomed large contingents of midshipmen into their homes for two nights. Marcy Vandale, who had a total of 12 service academy students stay at her home in Holden, Massachusetts, said it was rewarding to do so.
“These young people work so hard and sacrifice so much to ultimately become officers and defend our freedom,” Vandale said. “Anything we can do to help and support them is an honor.”
Amy Vandale is a member of the Class of 2026 at the Naval Academy and invited nine of her classmates to stay at the family home. That contingent grew to a total of 13 with the addition of three other service academy students — two from Air Force and one from Army West Point.
They all arrived at the Vandale home on Thursday night then spent most of Friday in Boston attending the Patriot Games competition between Army and Navy. With Navy football wearing “Silent Service” uniforms in honor of the submarine force, Marcy Vandale thought it was appropriate the visiting midshipmen watched the movie “Greyhound” upon returning to her house Friday night.
“Greyhound,” starring Tom Hanks, follows a U.S. Navy officer commanding a submarine tasked with defending an Allied convoy of 37 ships from German submarines in early 1942 during the Battle of the Atlantic.
Marcy’s son, Zach, a recent Naval Academy graduate now serving as a Marine Corps officer, showed up at the game Saturday fresh from field training while attending The Basic School at Quantico. After the big game, the whole group was returning to the Vandale home for a catered Italian dinner Saturday night.
“The manta of the Naval Academy is that your mid is our mid. There are hundreds of families around the Annapolis area that sponsor midshipmen,” Marcy said. “For us New England parents to get a chance to take care of some mids for a few days is a great feeling.”
As it turns out, only members of the plebe class spent Friday night at the Rhode Island Convention Center. But they were given a choice. If they did not want to spend Friday night at the convention center, they were allowed to travel directly to the Army-Navy Game at Gillette Stadium provided they arrived in time for muster at 9 a.m.
Josephine Fink of San Antonio was among the plebes who chose to spend Friday night at the Rhode Island Convention Center, saying it would be fun to have a giant sleepover. Those plebes that did stay in Providence were treated to entertainment as World Wrestling Entertainment brought its Tribute to the Troops show.
Heidi Henderson of Cumberland, Rhode Island, hosted five members of the Navy women’s cross country team for the weekend. Susanna Henderson is a freshman on the team and brought home teammates Emily Boutin, Ellie Abraham, Sophie Compton and Phoebe Spackman.
They made pizza on Friday night. They were planning a big dessert party Saturday night. Cumberland is located just 15 minutes from Gillette Stadium, so the travel back and forth to the game was easy.
“I think the big story of this year’s game is how so many families are hosting mids. We’ve heard from family after family saying ‘We have 12, we have seven, we have five.’ Everyone up here who is connected to the Naval Academy is hosting, which is pretty amazing,” Heidi Henderson said. “There are at least three homes in our small town that have mids. Our children that attend the academy have sponsor families in Annapolis. It’s rewarding to be able to return the favor.”
The Parents Club of New England hosted a tailgate party in the recreational vehicle lot at Gillette Stadium. Massachusetts resident Scott Dubey provided his RV to serve as headquarters for the event.
Bill and Kate Logan of Scituate, Massachusetts, welcomed nine members of the Naval Academy Glee Club. Their daughter, Megan (Class of 2024), is a member of the Glee Club, which joined its Army West Point counterparts in singing the national anthem before the game.
Pregame pageantry began around noon with the Brigade of Midshipmen march-on with “Anchors Aweigh” blaring over the sound system. The Corps of Cadets followed to the strains of “My Country Tis of Thee” and both student bodies were in the stands by 1 p.m.
Bill Belichick and Lee Corso, headgear heroes. pic.twitter.com/VyEhKtA3vR
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 9, 2023
ESPN College GameDay set up in the parking lot and featured several special guests. A highlight included legendary New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick serving as a guest picker. Longtime College GameDay analyst Lee Corso, also a former Navy assistant coach, is famous for donning the head of the mascot of the team he is picking. Belichick stole a page out of Corso’s book when picking Navy, as expected.
Belichick put on an original version of the specialty helmet the Midshipmen wore in the 1962 Army-Navy Game. Navy coach Wayne Hardin came up with the idea of having “Beat Army” written in Chinese on the helmet and placing the skull and crossbones patch on the front.
Hardin was poking fun at the fact Army coach Paul Dietzel dubbed his defense the “Chinese Bandits.”
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft appeared on the CBS pregame show and talked about the 12-year effort his organization executed to lure the Army-Navy Game. Gillette Stadium has hosted some of the most famous musical acts in the world — from the Rolling Stones to U2 to Taylor Swift — along with all sorts of sporting events such as the NCAA lacrosse championships and Premier League soccer.
Kraft made it a personal mission to host the Army-Navy Game at the NFL facility owned by his organization.
“Our whole team worked very hard to bring this game here because we felt it represented something that is so special in this country. The gravitas of this game is similar to a Super Bowl,” Kraft said. “I’m not sure we appreciate and support our armed forces the way we should. We live our lives thanks to the people right out here. We have our freedoms because the armed forces protect us.”
The Naval Academy football team took the field at the exact time as the flyover of four FA-18 Super Hornets from Carrier Air Wing One based out of Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia. The Army football team took the field as a fleet of Black Hawk helicopters soared over the stadium.
Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense, handled the pregame coin toss. Attendance was announced as a sellout of 65,878.
