Before Army-Navy, there’s the Game Ball Run: How the two sides will combine to run over 350 miles in 2024

Army and Navy take great pride in everything they do, but this week, their mutual respect is also an opportunity for competition.

The Army-Navy Game provides one of the most striking and patriotic scenes in all of sports, but before the entire student body of cadets and midshipmen march on the field, and the AAC teams meet Saturday inside Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, there’s a game ball to deliver. That’s where Army Marathon Team and the Naval Academy’s 13th Company step in. A tradition that began 43 years ago, the Game Ball Run’s mission is simple: run footballs from the Naval Academy and U.S. Military Academy to the site of that year’s game.

For Navy, it’s a 63-mile trek from Annapolis. For Army Marathon Team, it’s roughly 300 miles from West Point, perhaps the longest run in the academy’s history. Sixteen members of the marathon team and roughly five officers will participate in the event. Army will take three vans along the route, with seven to eight people in each. Each van is responsible for two 50-mile legs of the run, resulting in about a 15-mile responsibility for each participant.

Army’s team is comprised of marathon runners. Navy’s group is its entire 13th Company of roughly 127 midshipmen, minus 19 football players and members in the band.

“That’s what makes our 13th Company Ball Run special,” said Midshipman First Class Will McCrate, the 13th Company Ball Run Commander. “You’re pulling people from all different walks of life at the academy. They’re coming together as a unit and we all get the job done.”

Again, that’s where the competitive nature of the Ball Run bears out. Army’s 300-yard trek began Wednesday. Both game balls will arrive Friday evening, the night before kickoff, after detours running through Washington, D.C., for a scenic journey through national memorials and monuments.

“Army is always better than Navy,” said Major Dustin Thomas, Army Ball Run commander. “And Navy takes a whole company of midshipmen to get the game ball there. It only takes 16 Army cadets.”

Said Conner Mollberg, 13th Company Ball Run executive officer: “I would take a second to mention that the people that run the ball for Army is their marathon team. All they train for is to run long distances. They might be saying we’re running shorter this year, but last year we had (463) miles to cover to get the ball to Boston and we were able to handle it just fine with group of Midshipmen in our company not needing to take the top-tier runners at the Academy in order to get it done.”

Yes, everything is a competition, but it’s all tongue-in-cheek. Navy also quickly points out that it runs in uniform, with camo pants and boots, while Army runs in shorts, sweatpants, and running shoes.

What matters is the pageantry and pride. 

“We’ve run past elementary schools, and all the kids will come out and line up on the curb and cheer us on,” said cadet Aubrey Boatright. “They make little signs, and that really keeps the energy up.”

In 2023, the Naval Academy had a 463-mile trek to the game at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachussets. The runners fell several hours behind their pacing during the multi-day run, so late at night, a group of running athletes in the company got together with a plan.

“Me and a few other midshipmen that are all running athletes, we hopped on one of the legs, and instead of us running 12 miles each, we sent three guys out of the van to basically sprint a mile and a half, and then we’d replace him with another, to catch up,” said Mollberg. 

The game of leapfrog occurred in the snow in New York as they ran to Boston. Their plan worked.

On Saturday, when the game balls are delivered 26 minutes before kickoff at Northwest Stadium, Army and Navy runners will quickly fall out, shower and then dress in full uniform before they rejoin the student bodies as both military branches march onto the field.

The scene is unlike anything in college football.

“You’ll get a chance to have some reflection on what each of those American citizens has signed up to do,” Thomas said. “And then you’ll obviously get to see that play out on the football field between the two teams. But you know, for all the seniors that march and the ones that are playing (in the game), they’re a few months away from leading the daughters and sons of the American people.”