With one game to go in the season, Army found themselves on the cusp of snapping a 13 year streak without a bowl bid. With a win over arch rival Navy on Saturday afternoon, the Cadets would have gained the all important sixth win of the season, qualifying them for a bowl game. The Eagle Bank Bowl, located in Washington D.C. had already announced that should Army win their sixth game, they would get an invite to their game and they would have faced off against another Cinderella, in the 9-3 Temple Owls.

Some football fans wonder why Army winning the absolute minimum number of games is something to get so excited about. Those fans haven’t really paid attention the amount of sports suffering that’s been going on if West Point, New York over the last decade or so. The 6-6 record would have been the first time that Army had even finished .500 since their inexplicable 10 win season in 1996. That record seemingly came out of nowhere, and followed seven straight seasons where the Cadets hadn’t won more than six games. Since that 10 win year, they haven’t won more than four. Until this year.

Make no mistake about it; Army hasn’t been world beaters this year. In fact, if the bowl rules were the same as they were the last time the Black Knights made the post season, they wouldn’t have had a shot to go bowling this year, no matter the outcome of this game. Coming into this afternoon, Army “boasted” wins over Ball State, Eastern Michigan, North Texas, Vanderbilt, and FCS school Virginia Military Institute. What’s the common thread among those teams? All but Eastern Michigan have just two wins. Eastern Michigan has none. Which is why their victory over an 8-4 Navy team would have counted as an almost astounding upset.

If a BCS Bowl conference school sported that pedigree, they’d be rightfully embarrassed to be accepting a bid. In only one of Army’s losses have they even stood a shot, against 3-9 Tulane, the Cadets had set up the game winning 37 yard field goal with 16 seconds left, but saw it go wide. Against Duke, Temple, Iowa State, Rutgers, and Air Force, the Cadets didn’t come within two touchdowns.

But for Army, a team that has post a 20-76 record since 2000 coming into the season, any win, against any team is something to celebrate. This is a team that has already had four different head coaches in this decade. The newest Army head coach, Rich Ellerson has already become the most successful Cadet head man since Bob Sutton’s 10-2 team and the future appears somewhat bright for the sad sack program. Navy’s 17-3 victory to end the Cadets’ season notwithstanding.

There’s another reason to be proud of the season Army has put forth. It’s hard not to root for a group of men who know they have almost no shot at the NFL. These are not kids who are playing for a shot at the next level. These are kids who are playing a game they love, and once they’re done will most likely will ship off to one of two wars in the Middle East. Some of these kids might be leaving never to return home again. It’s hard not to want them to go bowling, even if most other teams would be hard pressed to make a case for a post season bid.

Army isn’t a state school like Arizona, or Nebraska, or Michigan. They don’t represent one group of alumni or boosters, or fans. To some degree or another, they represent all of us, and it makes their story after all their struggles all the more compelling. While Army fell short this season, they have something to build on for the first time in quite a while, and that should make everyone, everywhere smile just a little.

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