The Time VMI Nearly Beat a Top Ten Navy Team

To say the VMI-Navy series is lopsided would be an understatement. Across ten meetings dating back to the Spanish-American War, the Keydets are winless against the Midshipmen. The average score is 32-6, with the Keydets never scoring more than 14 points and failing to score at all on three occasions. However, somehow VMI almost beat one of Navy's greatest teams ever.

Navy began the 1963 season ranked #9 in the AP Poll and rose to the fourth spot after a 3-0 start. A loss to SMU on October 11 dropped the Midshipmen to #10 entering the VMI game which was that year’s edition of the Oyster Bowl in Norfolk, once a staple of the Eastern college football schedule. On the other hand, the Keydets had a shakier start to the 1962 season.

VMI entered the 1963 season with high hopes winning the Southern Conference with 6-4 overall record and an undefeated mark in league play in 1962. Unfortunately, those hopes did not materialize at the start of the season. The Keydets entered the Navy game with a 1-2-1 record. The lone win came against a George Washington team that went 2-7 in 1963. A tie against a Davidson team that would end the year with a 1-5-2 record and a loss to eventual 2-7-1 Virginia were early low points for the Keydets.

All signs pointed to a Navy blowout ahead of their meeting in the Oyster Bowl game. Somehow, the Keydets gave the Midshipmen one of their toughest games of the season. After falling behind 21-0 to the Midshipmen. VMI scored 12 unanswered to make the game more competitive in the fourth quarter.

The game would have been closer if not for one of the most baffling plays in college football history. VMI safety Mark Mulrooney blocked a field goal late in the first half. That would have been a fortuitous break for VMI if Mulrooney had not deflected the ball by the goal post, essentially committing the football version of goaltending and making it a live ball. Navy recovered the ball in the end zone to break the scoreless tie before halftime.

The Keydets fell further behind when Navy scored two more touchdowns to take a commanding 21-0 lead. Chuck Beale scored VMI's first touchdown on a 42-yard run with 10:33 left in the game to make the score 21-6. VMI made the score closer with an eight-yard touchdown pass from Butch Nunnally to Mike Talley as time expired. The two-point conversion failed and VMI left Norfolk with a 21-12 loss.

Nonetheless, the Keydets defense had a stellar performance in holding eventual Heisman Trophy winner Roger Staubach to -1 net rushing yards, likely his lowest total of his historic season. Mulrooney's blocked field goal blunder may be one of the biggest "what-ifs" in VMI history. Had he not touched the ball, the Keydets could have played for a tie on their second touchdown of the game.

VMI finished their season with a 3-5-2 record and was one of two teams to lose to Navy by less than 10 points in 1963. Navy continued its historic run to the Cotton Bowl, ending with a 9-2 record and losing to Texas on New Year's Day. The closest VMI has come to beating Navy since then was a 37-10 loss in 2003 that the Keydets pulled to within 18 points in the fourth quarter.

History is not on VMI's side entering their game with Navy. Similar to 1963, they face a Navy team receiving much of the country’s attention ahead of a 10-3 season where they appeared in the AP Poll. VMI could finally break their drought in this series with a performance that makes up for that 1963 near-upset.