I have a better recollection that there was a guy who played basketball at Navy and was given a pass on his service. His nickname on the court was "Admiral Robinson"
Obviously the military academies recruit a different kind of "student athlete" than regular universities. A few years ago, Air Force came to Norman to play my team. Before the game, the network had former coach Switzer on for a casual interview about Air Force coming to play, and he jokingly/truthfully said something about they would surely have a higher aggregate GPA than our guys. Air Force played really a pretty good game that day. In the post-game interview, Coach Stoops said "They're a tough bunch, we're proud of 'em."
The point being that the academy teams don't turn out many NFL players, but they do have athletes who are smart, disciplined, and coachable even if they aren't NFL prospects. So almost all fans of college football like and support the service academies. They serve as a good example for all the regular schools that play football, if you know what I mean. (Oh yeah... Army came to Norman last year and just almost beat us. After the game, the Athletic Department cleanup crew went to the visiting locker room to clean up, as always, and... they found the place spotless. The Army team had cleaned the place up themselves before they left...)
We have three military academies that play football, etc: US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, US Military Academy (Army) at West Point, New York, and US Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, CO.
Footnote, the Marines don't have an academy of their own because they are organized as part of the Navy, and they get Academy-trained officers from the Naval Academy.
All the military academies are four-year colleges that incorporate serious military training with serious academics. They are not party schools... They make them do stuff with a lack of sleep, missing meals, heavy, serious academic load too... and still some guys find time to play football and other sports.
BTW Others are involved in music and probably other activities which is fine and good, which takes time but frankly is not physically demanding on top of military training like athletes deal with. OTOH one would have to suppose that athletes would be excused from certain activities that everyone else has to do while they're at football practice.
So it's cool. We're all fans of the service academies whether we know it yet or not. :)
I don’t know if they still require them to play one varsity sport. My son-in-law (USNA ‘89) played field hockey.
I was a Mustang so for my first 14 years my interest was how many future junior officers got hurt.
Wow you guys just answered a MILLION question I had.
Thanks that was great.
Navy Vet, I THINK many of the questions I asked you in that long winded last post were answered in OKSooner’s last response and I don’t want you to have to type it over again.
But any new info is gladly accepted.
Like I said before, this is something that should be taught in high school as all of these schools play an important part in preparing the future leaders of our military, I assume.
But then, that would be too patriotic for the history books of today...
I have been a Blue & Gold Officer - and have helped ‘mentor’ kids looking to go to any service academy. Here are a few factoids....
At USNA - 75% of graduates must be in STEM fields. 25% are ‘liberal arts’...(English, Political Science, Economics, Chinese, Arabic and very few other choices.) BUT -for those ‘non-STEM majors’ - they still must complete 2 years of Calculus and Differential Equations, 1 year of Chemistry, 1 year of calculus based physics, 1 year of electrical engineering and 1 year of naval architecture. Since these non-STEM majors still require this technical stuff - they get a Bachelor of Science Degree...(in English, Poli Sci. etc.) The other academies have similar policies.
I wonder if college football players had to complete the same level of course work as academies ….how many playing would be ruled ineligible? That alone would make the academies far more competitive with other colleges - since at other colleges - there are plenty of soft liberal arts majors that don’t require any science, engineering, or even math approaching calculus.
Several years ago - Keenan Reynolds was permitted to go to the reserves and fulfil his obligation through reserves -while trying out for the NFL. He was drafted, put on waivers, signed with teams, demoted to practice squads, etc....hasn’t played yet. He was drafted for the new XFL that will be starting in 2020. The service academies want the primary focus on service after graduation and commissioning, but will make some certain exceptions....and doing so can help recruit people to the service academy - and to enlist in the service.
Typically - the maximum weight for a future service member is around 245 lbs...and football players are allowed to get up to 280+ during the season. Still not very competitive with college players that are over 300 lbs!
USNA, USAFA and USMA have about 4500 students (including 20% to 30% women) -but all are typically very healthy - so they do have the ability to compete with a college or university that has 10K to 15K students. All students must be involved in either Varsity athletics, Club Sport Athletics, intramural athletics, or approved alternates. (IOW - Not all do varsity...) My son - class of 2008 - did “Drum & Bugle Corps” - which was the marching band and played at all games -home and away - and that counted for the ‘sports requirement.’
USCoast Guard Academy is about 1200 students (1/4th the size...) - so they don’t compete at Division I level - for obvious reasons. The US Merchant Marine Academy - also about 1/4th the size - has some sports teams. IIRC -both of these smaller academies are ‘Division III’.