A Retaliatory Strike for an Old Loss: Army's Gridders Invade the Stadium

We took it pretty hard last year...some people took two weeks to recover."--a West Point sophomore in 1981 a year after Harvard's 15-10 win over Army.

They wouldn't get so excited at West Point over this game if the Crimson were the pushover the Cadets expect it to be. They have a lot of respect for Harvard at the Academy--Just not so much for its football team.

Even knowing this, it's still difficult to fathom the blow to the USMA psyche that occurred in October 1980, when, in the first Harvard-Army game in 29 years, the 12-point underdog Crimson left a packed Michie Stadium with a 15-10 win over the Black Knights.

"We should've blown you out," said a shocked West Point administrator after that game, "in all fairness to your team I just can't stand the frustration."

Since then, the Cadets have soothed their bruised egos somewhat Running back Gerald Walker helped by tearing through the Crimson defense in a 27-13 Army win at the Stadium in 1981. Last year's 17-13 affair was a bit unsettling for the Cadets, though, with Harvard just missing a come from-behind victory when Don Allard's 20-yard pass failed on the game's final play.

And when the men in gray spend their second afternoon since the rivalry resumed standing (yes, for the whole game) in the Stadium, their team will be rated no better than even with the Crimson.

Actually, the Cadets have had only one bad outing so far, a 31-7 debacle at Louisville. Their other loss came by a 15-13 score at the hands of Colgate, one of the ECAC's toughest division I-AA teams.

Army eked out its first win of the season last week at home against Dartmouth. Down 12-3 at the half, the Black Knight defense swarmed over the Big Green in the last 30 minutes, holding Dartmouth to 22 yards offense, if its seven quarterback sacks aren't counted. A touchdown and field goal gave Army the 13-12 decision.

The leaders of that defensive unit that came alive so suddenly are two junior linebackers, Jim Gentile and John Roney. The home team may not be so sharp in the same department, due to injuries. Captain Joe Azelby will play hurt, as he has in every game so far, and fellow linebacker Andy Nolan won't dress at all, still sidelined by a pulled thigh muscle. Defensive tackle Barry Ford will start, having recovered from an accidental kick to the mid-section in a pileup last Saturday.

The big question mark for both teams will be in the quarterback spot. Harvard's signal-calling duties, the property of senior Chuck Colomnbo after a strong performance two weeks ago versus Columbia, were up for grabs again after last week's 21-7 loss to UMass Sophomore Brian White conducted the only Crimson touchdown drive last weekend, and while Colombo is listed as today's starter, he'll need at least another strong performance before Coach Joe Restic's mind is made up.

The offense at Army has been firmly in the hands of sophomores Rob Healy, the starter so far, suffered a concussion in last weekend's game; if he doesn't start, his replacement will be another sophomore. Bill Turner.

When Healy got concussed against Dartmouth, Turner came in to lead the Cadets to their come-from-behind victory.

Today's game shapes up to be a cliff hanger, and it could become a battle of the boots, with Army's star place-kicker Craig Stopa or Harvard thunder foot Jim Villanueva kicking the deciding field goal.