A Losing Quarterback with a Winning Quote
It was not “just another” Army-Navy football game. There were many factors that contributed to this particular game being unique.
This particular game was scheduled for November 30, 1963. That meant that, if it was played as scheduled, it would take place only eight days after the assassination of president John F. Kennedy.
There were questions about whether it would be advisable to cancel the game altogether. Ultimately, the decision was made to go ahead with the game, but to reschedule it for a week later. That meant that the game would be played on December 7th – the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
There were questions about the pageantry that is normally associated with this game. Should it happen and, if so, to what extent? As it turned out, a somewhat subdued version did take place.
As for the game itself, there were also some unusual circumstances. The quarterback for Navy, Roger Staubach, had been awarded the Heisman Trophy that year. As of this writing, he would be the last player for one of the service academies to receive that award.
Navy was also ranked as the number two team in the nation. I’m not sure that any of the service academies have been ranked that high since then.
To state what is probably obvious, Navy was favored to win this game. They were doing just that with about ten minutes to go in the game. During those last ten minutes, Army scored a touchdown, made a two-point conversion, and recovered an onside kick. As the clock was winding down, Army was two yards from Navy’s endzone. That meant that they were two yards from tying the game and, with a successful attempt for an extra point, defeating the number two team in the nation and the Heisman Trophy winner.
It is at this point that Rollie Stichweh becomes a key figure in all of this. He was the “other quarterback” – the quarterback for Army. To be fair, he was a key figure throughout the game. His ability and performance had a great deal to do with the great position in which his team found themselves at this point in the game.
A host of things went badly for Army. The short version is that they had no more timeouts. The crowd was so loud that the other players could not hear Stichweh call signals. The officials stopped the clock in hopes of quieting the crowd. Army used this opportunity to call a play. The officials restarted the clock. Time ran out before Army could run the play. Navy won the game, 21-15.
I recently watched a documentary about all of this. The documentary aired on the sixtieth anniversary of that historic Army-Navy Game. While I found the entire documentary to be interesting, the most fascinating part to me was the quote by Mr. Stichweh about how the game ended. He simply said,
“The responsibility was mine and the answer is, ‘No excuses, sir.’”
I understand that his comment is a “stock military response.” At the same time, I also understand that he had sixty years to shift at least part of the blame elsewhere, to come up with some sort of excuse, to possibly add some previously unknown details, and/or to say something – anything – other than what he said.
To his credit, he did none of those things. His comment has caused me to do some real thinking. It might be more appropriate to say soul-searching.
Instead of seeking to ignore, minimize, deflect blame, or in some other way not accept responsibility for my actions and decisions, I might be better advised to follow the example of a man I now consider to be a real winner.
AUTHOR: Jim Faughn