One of the biggest and most storied rivalries in college football will take place on Saturday, Dec. 8 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, as the No. 23 Army Black Knights (9-2) take on the Navy Midshipmen (3-8) for the 119th time.
The annual Army-Navy Game is the last, regular season matchup in college football, and while Navy leads the series 60-51-7, Army will battle for a third consecutive win, having broken Navy’s 14-game winning streak – the longest for either side – in 2016.
The first Army-Navy football match-up was held on Nov. 29, 1890. The two academies faced each other 30 times until 1927 with the only games not being played between 1894-1898, 1909, 1917, 1918, 1928 and 1929. Since 1930, the game has been played annually with the only talks of canceling the game in 1963, shortly after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. However, Jacqueline Kennedy urged the two academies to play to keep some normalcy in the turbulent times.
Philadelphia has hosted the game more than any other city, given that it’s roughly equidistant between West Point and the U.S. Naval Academy. The game has been televised nationally since 1945.
