Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Patriot games

America pays tribute to those who have served in the armed forces on Nov. 11 - Veterans Day. Many athletes have traded their jerseys and caps for uniforms and helmets in wartime and in peace. Here's our tribute to some as a way of honoring all who have served.

.

Napoleon McCallum

He played in the same backfield as Marcus Allen. But during his formative years, McCallum's dream was to follow in the footsteps of fellow Naval Academy graduates such as Alan Shepard, Wally Schirra and Jim Lovell, all the way to the moon or wherever that would take him.

McCallum wanted to be an astronaut, and the best way to do that was to become a Navy fighter pilot. That's why, when he was attending Milford High School in suburban Cincinnati, he spurned offers from Big Ten schools such as Indiana and Iowa to enlist at Annapolis.

"I don't want to say I was being all patriotic and that I had a dream of serving my country," said McCallum, who has lived in Henderson for 12 years and is the director of community development for the Las Vegas Sands Corp. "I was just looking for the thrill of being a fighter pilot."

But nobody told him that before you can fly like an eagle you must first swim like a fish. McCallum said he swam more like a rock, the reason most of his thrills at Navy were realized by scoring touchdowns.

He was a two-time consensus All-American and set an NCAA record with 7,172 career all-purpose yards. He gained 536 yards as a rookie for the Raiders in 1986 while splitting playing time with Allen while on weekend leave.

But there would be no football for McCallum during the next four years while he fulfilled his commitment to the Navy.

He returned to the NFL in 1990, mostly as a special teams player, and was working his way back into a regular role with the Raiders when he suffered a gruesome knee injury while playing against the 49ers on "Monday Night Football" in 1994. The injury ended his career.

"I wish we could lead double lives, to see how high a draft pick I might have been," said McCallum when asked whether he had misgivings about spending so much of his prime serving his country instead of Al Davis. "But I don't regret it at all. The best part was working with the service men and women and the camaraderie we developed and all the neat things we did."

So McCallum didn't quite become Jim Lovell. Or even Roger Staubach. But he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1993.

Moreover, he became an officer. And he is still, and every bit the gentleman.

Army-Navy game

Twenty-three years? That was my first reaction when the boss asked for a few lines about the 1983 Army-Navy football game I attended at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., the only one in the historic series played on the West Coast.

The pageantry was highlighted by 9,000 military academy attendees, the largest peacetime military personnel airlift in history, among the crowd of 81,347. I was there with my girlfriend, Gwen, and other junior-college friends.

Eric Wallace took a lateral from Napoleon McCallum and ran 95 yards for a touchdown, the first on an opening kickoff in the series.

Other than that, it looked like a game between a pair of 2-8 teams. There were 13 fumbles, and Navy passed for only 29 yards. Navy won 42-13. McCallum ran 30 times for 182 yards, setting a Navy record by busting triple digits in yardage for the eighth time that season.

Gwen ran off with the journalism professor.

But, c'mon. Twenty-three years?

Military rivalries

The 107th edition of the Army-Navy game will be played Dec. 2 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. The first game was played on Nov. 29, 1890, at West Point, N.Y. It's the 80th time the game has been played in the City of Brotherly Love. Navy has won 50 times and Army 49 with seven ties.

Since 1972, Army, Navy and Air Force have played a triangular series for the Commander-in-Chief's trophy. Air Force, which plays with UNLV in the Mountain West Conference, has won the trophy 16 times; Navy, eight; Army, six; and the trophy has been shared four times. So far this year, Navy has beaten Air Force, 24-17, and Air Force beat Army, 43-7.

Honor roll

Pat Tillman: As an NFL standout, Tillman had it all. Then he sacrificed it all for his country, enlisting in the Army following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan.

Rocky Bleier: The Pittsburgh Steelers running back took a grenade in the leg in Vietnam and was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. That's why blocking for Franco Harris came so easily to him.

Ted Williams: The Splendid Splinter also was a splendid fighter pilot for the Marines during World War II and the Korean War with his unit pal John Glenn.

Bob Feller: Many experts believe Rapid Robert would have amassed 350 wins and 3,000 strikeouts had he not been assigned to an anti-aircraft gun on the USS Alabama during World War II.

Tom Landry: The former Cowboys coach joined the U.S. Army Air Forces as a B-17 bomber pilot during World War II. He flew 30 missions and survived a crash landing in Belgium, which probably made losing to the Packers in the playoffs a little more bearable.

Joe Louis: The Brown Bomber served in the Army from 1942 to 1945, visiting with the fighting troops and boxing in exhibitions around Europe. He also became a national spokesman for the Army.

Hank Greenberg: At 28 years old, the Tigers' slugger had the option of sitting out World War II. Instead, he became the first of more than 500 major league ballplayers to enlist after the Japanese bombe d Pearl Harbor.

Roger Staubach: After graduating from the Naval Academy and being drafted by the Dallas Cowboys, Staubach could have requested an assignment in the States. But he chose to volunteer for a tour of duty in Vietnam, where he served as a supply officer until 1967.

Warren Spahn: The Braves' Hall of Famer was wounded in Germany during World War II and was a recipient of a Purple Heart and Bronze Star. Then he was recipient of a lot of home runs by Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews.

Gene Tunney: The Fighting Marine, who earned that nickname during World War I, defeated Jack Dempsey twice and lost only one fight of the 69 he had as a professional.

The Admiral

He was called "The Admiral," although in truth, when David Robinson was excused from the final two years of his commitment to the Navy because at 7-foot-1 he was too tall to fit into a submarine, his rank was lieutenant junior grade.

But when it came to filling seats at the Thomas & Mack Center, Robinson was lieutenant commander. On Dec. 29, 1986, a fire-hazard crowd of 20,321 jammed into the 18,500-seat Thomas & Mack to watch Robinson and No. 12 Navy do battle with the No. 1 Rebels.

Robinson, who would go on to NBA stardom with the San Antonio Spurs, scored 29 points but sat out the final 11:08 of the first half with foul trouble as the Rebels sank the Midshipmen 104-79.

The crowd that day remains a Thomas & Mack Center record.

Mike Sanford

Mike Sanford, UNLV's second-year head football coach, served stints as an assistant coach at Army (1979-80) and Virginia Military Institute (1981-82).

"When you're at a military school, it's completely different (than a normal college campus) - especially at West Point because you know for a fact that those players are going to be, in five years, active duty," Sanford said. "The mission of the academy is to prepare officers to defend our country, so it changes your perspective on why you're doing what you're doing and where you fit into the whole picture.

"There are so many other things going on in the life of a cadet at West Point than there are pretty much anywhere else."

Sanford was on active duty as a second lieutenant in the Army during his two years at West Point, where he and his wife, Melinda, lived on campus.

"The athletes - the cadets - knew I was an officer so even though I wouldn't be in uniform, they'd have to salute me. That was interesting."

Red, white and blue boxers

Boxing history is filled with notable fighters who also served their country in the U.S. military.

Storied heavyweight rivals Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney were both veterans - Tunney served with the Marines in World War I and Dempsey with the Coast Guard in World War II, after his boxing career.

Rocky Marciano first boxed in the Army, and fellow heavyweight legend Joe Louis served in the Army during World War II, boxing in exhibitions throughout Europe. Sugar Ray Robinson, often named as the sport's best fighter, pound for pound, also served in the Army.

Among more contemporary heavyweights, Ray Mercer, Leon Spinks and Ken Norton all served in the Marines. One of Norton's teammates in the Marines was longtime Las Vegas referee Richard Steele.

Mills Lane boxed in the Marines before becoming a judge and - as the third man in the ring for the infamous 1997 "Bite Fight" between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield - perhaps boxing's best-known referee.

Hall of Famers

Thirty-four veterans who made it to the Baseball Hall of Fame:

Luke Appling: Army

Al Barlick: Coast Guard

Yogi Berra: Navy

Nestor Chylak: Army

Mickey Cochrane: Navy

Leon Day: Army

Bill Dickey: Navy

Joe DiMaggio: Army

Larry Doby: Navy

Bobby Doerr:Army

Bob Feller: Navy

Charlie Gehringer: Navy

Hank Greenberg: Army

Billy Herman: Navy

Monte Irvin: Army

Ralph Kiner: Navy

Bob Lemon: Navy

Ted Lyons: Marines

Larry MacPhail: Army

Lee MacPhail: Navy

Johnny Mize: Navy

Stan Musial: Navy

Pee Wee Reese: Navy

Phil Rizzuto: Navy

Robin Roberts: Army

Jackie Robinson: Army

Red Ruffing: Army

Red Schoendienst: Army

Enos Slaughter: Army

Duke Snider: Navy

Warren Spahn: Army

Bill Veeck: Marines

Ted Williams: Marines

Early Wynn: Army

archive