These Army-Navy game players would go on to receive the Medal of Honor
By Claire Barrett
Dec 11, 2025, 02:30 PM
Portrait of four unidentified members of the Navy football team following a game against Army, 1945. (Navy/PhotoQuest/Getty Images)
Throughout its 135-year history, the Army-Navy game has featured hundreds of athletes who would later serve in combat, including the likes of Omar Bradley and Dwight D. Eisenhower in West Point’s Class of 1915, later known as “the class the stars fell on” for producing 59 generals.
However, less than a dozen cadets or midshipmen who played for their school have gone on to receive the nation’s highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor.
Six midshipmen who lettered in varsity football have received the honor, while five cadets from West Point — who played, albeit minor roles, on their teams — would go on the receive the award.
Four of those came prior to World War II, including three — Navy’s Allen Buchanan, Jonas Ingram and Frederick McNair Jr. — from the same Vera Cruz campaign in Mexico in 1914. (Ingram held the distinction of being the only player to score a touchdown during the 1906 Army-Navy game.) The fourth, presented to Carlton Hutchins in 1938, was a rare peacetime award.
https://www.militarytimes.com/smr/army-navy-game/2025/12/11/these-army-navy-game-players-would-go-on-to-receive-the-medal-of-honor/
