No Matter Who Wins Army-Navy Game, Franklin's Kurtz Says It's a Win for MA (UPDATED)

[See update at bottom of story regarding local Watch Party.]

The ‘ball run’ is just one of the many colorful, long-standing traditions that belong to the fierce-but-friendly interservice sports rivalry that is the Army-Navy game. Last week, Navy Times reported on one of those traditions, noting that nearly 200 Midshipmen from the Naval Academy will be making their longest ball run yet to this year’s Army-Navy game at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, ahead of the 124th Army-Navy game on Dec. 9. The men and women delivering the pigskin will cover some 450 miles, starting tomorrow from Annapolis, and will pass through seven states in total.

Of course, for a game steeped in tradition, even playing in New England is anything but and thereby hangs a tale.

Dale Kurtz, Franklin’s former Veterans’ Agent, and currently Norfolk County's Veterans' Services Advocate, explains that he has been working closely with the Kraft Organization for approximately eight years to bring the game here, a project that lost on a technicality the first time it was pitched and has since been refined and improved. In February of 2022, he explained, the athletic directors of both schools came to Foxborough and were thoroughly impressed, giving the official nod to host 2023 a few months later. 

Despite a powerful Congressional delegation in the region, Kurtz said the win is 100 percent based on “business” considerations and, in fact, politicians have only been involved by happenstance. And, he added, everyone in military leadership is always keen to be apolitical and as neutral as possible. So, the key to winning the chance to host is providing a good environment and the kind of extras that support the teams and the military community that comes to town for the event. "The academies spend nothing on the event," he added.

The Migrant Mess

But despite the best planning, there can be surprises. A few weeks ago, the Boston Herald broke the story that scores or perhaps even hundreds of out-of-town veterans and active duty military personnel that were planning to attend the game had suddenly been told that their long-standing reservations at area hotels were being cancelled. The culprit, as is now widely known, was the state’s shelter program, which was leasing entire hotels around the state, including several in or near Foxborough, and filling them with provisionally admitted immigrants and others in need of shelter under the state’s Right-to-Shelter law. No one involved in the game planning had an inkling of what was happening.

But everyone, stepped up to the plate, so to speak. Many local alums and others in the military community offered to host displaced game-goers at their own homes.

And, in most cases, attendees did manage to find hotel rooms somewhere, but often much farther away or at a higher cost.

Still, noted Kurtz, it was really just a speed bump for him and for Robert and Jonathan Kraft and Phil Buttafuoco, Executive Director of Special Events for the Kraft Organization.

Kurtz credits Buttafuoco in particular for his vision and his ability to “get things done and done right.” This past Thursday, some 200 individuals convened to work on security, ranging from the FBI and NCIS to individual services, the Secret Service, State Police and local police. “We have no way of knowing whether the Secretary of Defense or even the President might choose to attend, but both have often attended games in the past,” he noted, so security is always paramount.

Kurtz, himself a 1973 graduate of West Point, also was a member of the academy football squad, though never, he admits, on Game Day. For Kurtz and the vast majority of those attending, it is not only a sporting event but a kind of annual reunion that has the loudest of competing fans inside the stadium sharing in each other’s camaraderie outside and in the rich “tailgate” environment.

Kurtz said Buttafuoco was surprised by the number of charity tailgate events associated with the game, for example organizations such as the Johnny Mac Soldiers Fund that provides scholarships to veterans. It is a unique feature of the game day.

Over the years, the game has most often been played in Philadelphia, the approximate midpoint between West Point and Annapolis, but the game has also been held in Chicago in 1926, Pasadena, California in 1983 as well as the New York area, Baltimore and Washington.  Massachusetts, the birthplace of the US Army and US Navy during the Revolution seems like it has been overdue for the honor. And Kurtz and his team are pleased that the years of effort have finally paid off.

Kurtz will definitely be in Foxborough on Saturday, keeping an eye on things and cheering on Army. Locally, he noted, the Franklin VFW is also hosting a “watch party” for vets.{CLARIFICATION: VFW and American Legion are co sponsoring a WATCH PARTY at FRANKLIN TV...the party is now open to all vets. Anyone who wishes to attend must sign up by sending an email to: MAPost75@gmail.com   Pizza is provided, bring your own snacks and beverages. No hard liquor.   The doors open at 2:30pm at the Franklin Access TV Studio, 23 Hutchinson St.]