Michael Connelly by The President's Team: The 1963 Army-Navy Game & the Assassination of JFK

Author:The President's Team: The 1963 Army-Navy Game & the Assassination of JFK
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 0760337624
Publisher: MVP Books
Published: 2009-11-15T06:00:00+00:00

On Saturday, the team bused down to Norfolk. When they arrived, sports information director Budd Thalman was informed that organizers had forgotten to procure a public address announcer and that he was selected to fill the void. Part of his duties were to narrate the pre-game ceremony that commemorated the anniversary of the 1781 Battle of Yorktown. The ceremony included re-enactments of George Washington’s big upset over General Cornwallis. It was just such an upset that Coach Hardin feared the Keydets of VMI were capable of doling out. He knew that the Midshipmen were distracted. VMI was a good, tough team. In the prior year, it had won the Southern Conference and was undeniably a formidable opponent. Before the game, VMI coach McKenna urged his team to play with unrestrained abandon. Navy was a three-touchdown favorite, and VMI decided to throw caution to the wind. That made the team dangerous.

In the first half, the Keydets blitzed and harassed the injured Staubach, chasing him around and across the field, pushing him back for a negative 21 yards rushing. In the closing seconds before intermission, with the game scoreless, Navy had the ball on the VMI 21-yard line. Staubach dropped back hoping to find an open receiver for the end zone, but the pressure was too much. Yet again, Staubach was thrown for a loss. On fourth down, Hardin called on his kicker, Fred Marlin, to attempt a 31-yard field goal.

Marlin, at age twenty-three, was the oldest player on the team. His odyssey to the Navy was chronicled in an article in Sports Illustrated as follows: “In 1958, Marlin played for Western Maryland. In 1959, he was in the Navy. In 1960, he played for the Naval Academy Prep School. In 1961, he played on the Navy Plebe team. In 1962 he was a sophomore. He has another season of eligibility.”

The freckled lineman with the number 64 on his back and high-top black cleats was not only the kicker but also the leading tackler on the team. Marlin grew up in Woodbury, New Jersey, before joining the Navy prior to his arrival in Annapolis. Marlin was intense but also known to be one of the team’s pranksters, along with fellow lineman Tom “the Rat” Holden and Jim Freeman, while Nick Markoff and Bruce Abel were blessed with quick wits. Marlin and his cohorts had ways to make practice, long bus rides, or a dead locker rooms fun.

Before the season opener in West Virginia, Dave Sjuggerud had been listed first on the depth chart at kicker, but during warm-ups in Morgantown, Marlin’s kicks were solid and true. When Hardin asked him why he was kicking so well, Marlin joked, “Coach I always kick better with new shoes.” At five-foot-ten and 196 pounds, Marlin was subsequently given the kicking duties and became a significant offensive force for the team, leading the nation in scoring in 1963. Prior to the season, Coach Hardin critiqued the kicker and expressed his limited expectations. “Marlin isn’t great,” the coach said, “but he’s the best we have.

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