For this West Point grad, nothing tops Army-Navy

	Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside: Army's Glenn Davis (41) and Doc Blanchard (35). Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Magazine
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The first big decision I made in life came in the autumn of my eighth year, when I picked Army quarterback Leamon Hall as my favorite football player. My first favorite football player.

That was in 1977, when I was just learning the game, and all I knew about Army was that the Cadets were coming off of four straight years of pitiful football. From 1973 to 1976, they went 10-33 and lost four in a row to Navy by a combined score of 138-16. But Hall put a stop to that. A strong-armed passer -- until recently, he held every significant academy passing record -- he led Army to a 7-4 mark in '77, its best season since 1968. More important, he engineered a 17-14 win over the hated Midshipmen. It didn't matter to me that Hall graduated the following spring. I was hooked, and still am as Army and Navy prepare to meet this weekend for the 106th time since the two first played on the Plain at West Point in 1890.

It wasn't by chance that I favored the Black Knights of the Hudson. I grew up an Army brat -- my father graduated from West Point in 1959 -- and was inculcated at an early age with the lore of Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside, of the Lonesome End and Pete Dawkins. I used to pore over the pages of my father's yearbook, The Howitzer, looking at the pictures of Dawkins, a Heisman Trophy winner, and Army's undefeated team of 1958 (the last undefeated team in academy history). The first time I watched football on television was when I was four; my father and I watched Navy thump the Cadets 51-0 in the 1973 contest. Five years later, I sat on the 50-yard line at old J.F.K. Stadium in Philadelphia and watched the Midshipmen shut out Army again, 28-0.

Losing is a fact of life when you cheer for Army or Navy, whose programs have suffered their fair share of ups and downs. So when I decided to go to West Point in 1987, it wasn't because I thought the Cadets were going to be national title contenders. It had more to do, I thought, with my father and the career he'd made out of the military. My own career was much shorter than his -- I left active duty in 1995 because I wanted to try my hand at writing -- but I never stopped being an Army football fan. In fact, I realized recently that Army football had more to do with my going to West Point than I had previously thought.

A few years ago, my mother informed me that my father had his own Leamon Hall story. When dad was nine, Army halfbacks Glenn Davis and Doc Blanchard made the cover of LIFE magazine. From that moment, apparently, my father dreamt of nothing more than attending West Point. It's overstating the case to say that I owe everything to Army football, I suppose, but not by much.

There's going to be a lot written this week about how much the Army-Navy game means to the graduates of both institutions, many of whom are currently serving our country all over the world. Take it from me: None of it is hyperbole. My father will actually miss the game because he's traveling out of the country on business. It'll be my pleasure to tape it for him.