| dbo:abstract
|
- Until 2015 the Navy Midshipmen football team, who represent the United States Naval Academy were an independent school in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). Since the start of the 2015 season Navy has been a member of the American Athletic Conference. The Midshipmen have played in 24 post-season bowl games and have a record of twelve wins, eleven losses, and one tie. Prior to the school's first true bowl game, a team of Navy players from Naval Station Great Lakes played in the 1919 Rose Bowl; however, that game during World War I was not a true college football game, since it drew teams from the armed services personnel. Navy's first post-season bowl game was at the conclusion of the 1923 college football season, when they played the Washington Huskies in the 1924 Rose Bowl. During the Great Depression in 1930 and 1931, the Midshipmen played the Army Cadets before large crowds at Yankee Stadium (1923) in postseason charity games, with Army winning both contests. With the exception of the 1942 season, Navy finished each season between 1941 and 1945 ranked in the top ten teams in the Associated Press College Poll, but did not play in a bowl game. The Midshipmen ranked in the top five teams in the Associated Press poll after the 1954, 1957, 1960, and 1963 college football seasons, and played in the 1955 Sugar Bowl, the 1958 Cotton Bowl Classic, the 1961 Orange Bowl, and the 1964 Cotton Bowl Classic, respectively. At its second appearance at the Cotton Bowl Classic, Heisman Trophy winner Roger Staubach led the Midshipmen against the undefeated Texas Longhorns in a 28–6 loss. After coach Wayne Hardin's departure in 1964, the Midshipmen did not play in a bowl game until the inaugural edition of the Holiday Bowl in 1978. After sporadic bowl game appearances in the 1980s and 90s, Navy hired coach Paul Johnson in 2002. Using an updated form of the triple option offense, Johnson led the team to five straight bowl appearances between 2002 and 2006. Two weeks prior to the 2007 Poinsettia Bowl, Johnson left Navy to coach the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. He was replaced by Ken Niumatalolo, who has led the team to bowl games in six out of the last seven seasons. Most recently, the Midshipmen won the 2015 Military Bowl against the Pittsburgh Panthers. Navy became a football-only member of the American Athletic Conference (formerly the Big East Conference) in 2015. Among the conference's bowl game tie-ins will be the Military Bowl, which moved to Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium beginning in 2013. (en)
|
