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Cadet Stilwell seated front row next to Team mate with large Army A. Stilwell earned his Football A as an Army Quarterback.
The Team went 6-2-1, beating the Nationally Acclaimed University of Chicago. They played Navy at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. The Coach was Edward King Class of 1896 while the Captain was Edward Farsworth
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Howitzer 1904
http://digital-library.usma.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/howitzers/id/8945/rec/51
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The following is from ‘Bill Stern’s Favorite Football Stories’ published in 1948 by Blue Ribbon Books, Garden City, NY:
VINEGAR JOE
On November 14, 1903, the great Chicago University football team, with the immortal Walter Eckersall, (http://www.hickoksports.com/biograph/eckersall.shtml) came to West Point to play against an under-dog Army team. The odds were twenty-to-one that Eckersall with his trip-hammer Chicago teammates would slaughter the Army team.
As the game opened, Chicago lived up to all advance notices. Their methods were revolutionary and revelationary, but by some miracle, the Army players managed to plow through for a touchdown. Whereupon, the enraged Eckersall and his equally angry teammates ripped through for a touchdown to tie the score a 6 to 6. And there it stood as the game moved foot by foot, yard by yard toward its finish. Suddenly, with very little time left in the game, the Army quarterback was hurt. And from the Army substitute bench came Joe!
And the guy named Joe found himself nose-guard to nose-guard with the famous Walter Eckersall probably the greatest quarterback in gridiron history.
Well, Army started down the field with a touchdown glint in its eye. But there was a fumble on the ten-yard line and Chicago grabbed the ball. Eckersall fell back to his five-yard line for a neat kick and the ball landed directly in Joe’s hands on the 45-yard line. The substitute might have done the usual thing of trying to carry the ball. If he had done that, he might have been tackled and dropped in his tracks, – for the great Eckersall was bearing down on him even while the punt was still in the air.
But substitute Joe was an unusual guy. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Eckersall charging down at him – so, he made a split-second decision. He simply decided to “hold”. He was half crouched when the decision was reached, and it caught Eckersall completely off guard. The Chicagoan, expecting him to dash off, interfered. It was a costly blunder. Chicago was penalized 25 yards and the ball moved down to the 20-yard line. The substitute Joe, by deciding merely to hold, outfoxed the great Eckersall. And so, with only a few minutes left to play, Army gambled on a field goal. They made it, and the game was won by Army, with a single field goal. It was one of the most stunning football upsets in gridiron history!
Substitute Joe became the hero of the hour – and all because he had made that split-second decision which brought a startling victory.
That was “Vinegar Joe” – a football hero from long ago – known the world over, until his death, as General Joe Stilwell, who commanded the U. S. forces in the East and bedeviled the foe with the sledge-hammer tactics he learned as a number one football star at West Point
Cadet Joe Stilwell – later to be remembered as Vinegar Joe Stilwell
NO ARMY-NAVY CONTESTS; Eligibility Rule Dispute May Pre- vent Annual Games. Charles Daly, Famous Quarter Back and Former Harvard Captain, Will Not Play Again. – Mar 25 1903
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FA0910FF385D16738DDDAC0A94DB405B838CF1D3
ARMY AND NAVY FOOTBALL; West Point and…- New York Times – Nov 27, 1903
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F30915FF345F1B738DDDA10A94D9415B838CF1D3
Army Versus Navy Football At Philadelphia
Newburgh Daily Journal – Nov 28, 1903
… looked upon as a football society function rather than as a spectacular gridiron, battle, and ‘or that reason the demand for tickets has been enormous…
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=6rpgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZXMNAAAAIBAJ&dq=football%20philadelphia&pg=4401%2C4337637
Army Against Navy Rival Cadets Meet…- Boston Evening Transcript – Nov 28, 1903
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Ux00AAAAIBAJ&sjid=xOAIAAAAIBAJ&dq=football%20philadelphia&pg=4866%2C3766033
Douglas MacArthur Class of 1903 was injured playing football.
For What They Gave on Saturday Afternoon 