Army-Navy Game History: Midshipmen Lead 111-Game Series Over Black Knights

The Army Black Knights and Navy Midshipmen renew one of the most storied rivalries in the history of college football on Saturday afternoon at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland.

Navy has won nine straight meetings with Army, the longest winning streak in the history of the series. Combined with winning 11 of the last 12 games, Navy has taken a 55-49-7 lead in the all-time series, which began on November 29, 1890 in West Point, New York.

The series alternated between West Point and the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland for four years before neutral sites were chosen when the series re-started in 1899. Legendary venues such as the Rose Bowl in Pasadena (1983), Soldier Field in Chicago (1926) and the Polo Grounds (1913,1915-21, 1923, 1927) and Yankee Stadium (1930-31) in New York have hosted the Army-Navy football game, but Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has been the series' primary home, with the city hosting 83 of the 111 meetings in four different stadiums. Philadelphia hosted every meeting between 1945 and 1982, but in recent seasons, other professional stadiums such as The Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey and M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland have emerged as alternate host sites.

FedEx Field will become the 16th different venue to host the event and bringing the game to the Washington, D.C. area is something Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder is very proud of.

“It’s shocking the game has never been here before,” Snyder said on November 30. “It’s something we have been working on for a long time and we see this as an important tradition to bring it here – and to start a tradition."

The winner of this year's game will finish second to the Air Force Falcons in the annual series among the service acadamies. Air Force beat Navy 35-34 in overtime on October 1 and beat Army 24-14 a month later to win a second straight Commander-in-Chief Trophy. Navy had won seven consecutive CIC trophies before the Falcons' recent success in the annual competition that hasn't been too friendly to Army, who will be looking to snap a 12-game losing streak to Air Force and Navy on Saturday.