The day prior to the 2017 Army – Navy football game, metro Atlanta experienced a rare winter storm that dumped double digit inches of accumulation and more than twenty hours of snowfall on the region. Local meteorologist reported that the Atlanta region had not seen a storm of this magnitude since the Blizzard of 1993.
Regardless of winter weather and the resulting less than ideal road conditions hampering the Atlanta region, plans had been finalized and promulgated to hundreds of fans regarding the 2017 Army – Navy football game viewing in the Atlanta area.
The venue, Sports & Social Atlanta @ The Battery, quickly resolved their weather-related staffing challenges and welcomed more than 250 Annapolis and West Point alumni, parents, family members and fans to the recently opened sports and entertainment complex co-located with the new Atlanta Braves’ SunTrust Park, in Cobb County, Georgia. Also present at the football game gathering was a contingent of freshly minted Army Second Lieutenants from Fort Benning.
The Naval Academy contingent of alumni, parents, family members and friends was vastly outnumbered by Army at the football game viewing by ratio of four-to-one. Despite the demographics of the crowd, Navy football was well represented by a small, but vocal group of fans.
The near standing room only crowd was boisterous and at times, subdued, as the 118th Army – Navy football classic hung in doubt until the final seconds of the game. Two illegal procedure penalties during Navy’s final drive of the game proved the likely difference between the ball sailing through the uprights for a Navy Midshipmen victory or drifting wide left that resulted in Army Black Knight second consecutive game win streak. At the end of the competition, like at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, the Army contingent in Atlanta sang second at Sports & Social Atlanta.
Navy Midshipmen record versus Army Black Knights over the past twenty years now stands at 16 wins vs. 4 losses.
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Twitter: #2017ATLArmyNavy
Website: atlanta.usnaaasiteadmin.net