[ COLLEGE FOOTBALL ]
ILLUSTRATION BY BRYANT FUKUTOMI;
TOP PHOTOS COURTESY UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY;
BOTTOM PHOTO BY CRAIG T. KOJIMA
The Army football team is 0-11, but has one of the greatest legacies in the history of college football, including College Football Hall of Famers Pete Dawkins, Doc Blanchard, Earl Blaik and Glenn Davis. Bottom, Blaine Cooper turned the corner during practice yesterday at Schofield Barracks.
We were Champions
A once-great Army team brings
a grand tradition and a 13-game
losing streak to Honolulu
NO greater irony exists than the mightiest army in the world being represented by a team that can't win a game in the sport most analogous to war.
The United States Military Academy is 0-11 in football this year and has lost 22 games in the past two seasons while winning one.
This from a program that has three national championships and three Heisman Trophy winners in its storied past.
Hawaii vs. Army
When: Tomorrow, 6:05 p.m.Where: Aloha Stadium
TV: KFVE (Channel 5), delay at 10 p.m., with rebroadcast Sunday at 9 a.m. Also available live on Pay-Per-View. Call 625-8100 on Oahu or (866) 566-7784 on neighbor islands to subscribe.
Radio: KKEA, 1420-AM.
Tickets: $25 sideline, $22 south end zone, $17 north end zone (adult), $12 north end zone (students/ seniors, age 4-high school), UH students free (super rooter only). Available at Aloha Stadium, Stan Sheriff Center, UH Campus Center and Windward Community College's OCET Office. Or call 800-944-2697 or etickethawaii.com on the Internet.
Parking: Gates open at 2:30 p.m. Parking is $5. Alternate parking at Leeward Community College, Kam Drive-In and Radford High School.
Traffic advisory: 1420-AM is the official traffic advisory station and provides updates before each home game.
This from a program with 622 wins in 1,066 games since 1890.
This from a program at the school that produces the U.S. Army's leaders, and where Vince Lombardi and Bill Parcells were assistant coaches.
Why is it that Army could win in the past and not now?
The main reason is the NFL.
During the first 60 years of the 20th century, pro football was not the glamorous, profitable career choice it is now. It was not the reason young men played college football like it is now.
Now, nearly every high school football player in America's goal is to play in the NFL; they see college football as merely the training ground.
Army and the other service academies are burdened with a critical disadvantage in recruiting top athletes -- after commission as an officer, an academy graduate has a four-year active duty military commitment.
Few athletes are as far-sighted as Greg Gadson was 20 years ago.
"As a high school student I had aspirations to play pro," Gadson said. "But at Army I got a first-class education, made lifetime friends, played Division I football and played in two bowl games."
Maj. Gadson, 37, is now an artillery officer with the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks. In the late 1980s he played defensive end for Army, leading the team in tackles for loss in 1987 and 1988. The Cadets went 29-17 in Gadson's four years at West Point. They've had only four winning seasons since.
Since joining Conference USA in 1998, the Black Knights are 11-54 and coach Todd Berry was fired last month with a 5-25 mark since the start of the 2000 season. A good friend of Berry, defensive line coach John Mumford, was chosen as his interim replacement.
"I have a lot of mixed emotions, it's a tough transition for all of us," Mumford said after practice yesterday. "But these are great young men to work with and for, and our job is to put them in the best possible situation to start winning some games."
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Above, Col. Chuck Cardinal and Maj. Greg Gadson, both West Point grads, watched during Army's practice yesterday at Schofield Barracks.
ALUMNI UNDERSTAND things are vastly different from the national championship years of 1944 to 1946, but they are frustrated.
"Yes, the game has changed. Some say what we see in the NCAA is not amateur, college football has undergone commercialization," said Lt. Col. Broc Perkuchin, a West Point graduate assigned to Ft. Shafter. "But the Air Force Academy seems to have broken the code (for modern-day football success). Army should be able to do so, too."
Gadson, who spoke to the Black Knights yesterday after they practiced at Schofield, said college football games can be won without future NFL players.
"I truly believe we can be successful again. We played quality schools, not Top 25 every week, but a quality schedule. We beat a lot of them, and if we didn't, they weren't laughers. And it wasn't very long ago," Gadson said. "We never have a lot of size, but size is not everything. Attitude, discipline. Like in life, you can make those a premium and be successful."
Al Vanderbush also experienced on-field success as an Army football player. He was a star on the undefeated 1958 team that featured Heisman Trophy winner Pete Dawkins and Bill Carpenter, "The Lonesome End."
After service ball, a tour in Vietnam, and a six-year stint at Schofield from 1978 to 1984 (his wife, Carin, an Olympic silver medalist in swimming, taught at Iolani), Vanderbush was athletic director at West Point from 1990 to 1999.
It was his job to figure out ways for Army to beat the odds. He's still working on the answers.
"Very complicated. The desire of the players is still the same. Maybe the training methods and the emphasis on going pro might have hurt our recruiting," he said.
"In the '90s we had one good team. In the '80s we had three bowl teams. It wasn't too long ago that teams have acquitted themselves well. Our objective is we'd like to be in the top 50 teams consistently and occasionally grab a Top 25 spot, like Air Force.
"I think there are a lot of patriotic kids who want to help this country," Vanderbush added. "And to play football or any sport here is a great opportunity to do that."
The academies count on rare young people like sophomore outside linebacker Taylor Justice.
"To play college football is an accomplishment, but to play Army football is an honor," Justice said. "We don't represent a state or city, we represent a nation, which we serve and protect once our careers as Army football players are complete."
COURTESY UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY
Al Vanderbush played on Army's undefeated 1958 team. He went on to become A.D. at West Point.
GADSON, WHO WAS undersized at his position in college at 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds, admits he dreamed of playing pro football as a youngster. But he said he does not regret giving up that dream before he had to -- even as he prepares to go to war for a second time.
"My parents instilled the importance of a good education," Gadson said. "The NFL wasn't the only way. I don't feel like I lost an opportunity."
When Gadson ticks off his assignments over the past 15 years -- Desert Storm, Bosnia, staff positions, advanced leadership training -- it sounds like he has followed the path that could lead him to general stars. Perhaps his Class of 1989 will rival that of 1915, the "Class the Stars Fell Upon" that included football players Dwight Eisenhower and Omar Bradley. Few would argue that their contributions to world affairs were less important than those of Heisman winners Glenn Davis and Doc Blanchard.
If Gadson had made it as a pro football player, his career would be over by now, not headed toward its peak.
"I played against Tim Brown in college. He's one of the few still around," Gadson said. "Yeah, other than that it's kickers and Doug Flutie."
Gadson and his comrades in the 25th Infantry are on notice for duty in Iraq at any time. Some of the Army seniors in tomorrow's game will undoubtedly join them.
"It's important to remember that a lot of those guys will be wearing the same uniforms we see on the evening news soon. That makes them a little different," Perkuchin said.
"Consistency, execution and confidence," Mumford replied when asked why the Black Knights keep losing.
"But these are the kind of kids who keep working no matter what. Some teams fold and just finish out the season when they get in this situation. These young men keep believing."
