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Cadets Relay Football Over 150 Miles to Deliver It to Army-Navy Game

1,036 views · Published 13 December 2018 · 3:13 · Indexed 6 October 2026

Channel: Runner's World · 2018 · Sports

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Clad in neon shirts, the Army marathon team took off from the famous steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art around 3 p.m. on December 7. Having already trekked 150 miles from West Point, New York, the team had only five miles left before the mission was completed.

In their possession was precious cargo that they held since they had set out from campus around 5 p.m. the night before. By foot, the group of cadets had relayed the cargo to Philadelphia on the annual mission they call the “Game Ball Run.”

The cargo? A football.

While the football game is the centerpiece of the weekend—which showcases one of the greatest rivalries in college sports between the Naval Academy and United States Military Academy—the “Game Ball Run” is another draw. It is, after all, each school’s duty to bring the game ball to the field.

“We’re both going off into different services and we’re fighting on the same team, but for this week, it’s a bitter rivalry,” said Dan Whitfield, a senior cadet at the U.S. Military Academy. “It’s roughly 270,000 yards of rushing for just the Army Marathon team to start the game off.”

The tradition started in 1982 with Naval Academy’s “unlucky” 13th Company as a way to bring the group together. All 150 members of the group relayed the ball the first year, and the tradition has since continued. Now, their 130-mile journey is broken up into 13 legs and split up between all 150 members.

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