Gary Danielson gets emotional reflecting on calling his final Army-Navy game
Published:
The 126th edition of the Army-Navy Game delivered another classic, with the Midshipmen rallying for a 17-16 victory over the Black Knights on Saturday night.
But while the annual clash is always a spectacle to behold, this year’s matchup carried with it another major headline.
CBS Sports’ Gary Danielson is wrapping up his legendary career as a broadcaster, and the former Purdue quarterback called his 17th Army-Navy Game on Saturday.
Following the hard-fought battle, Danielson was asked to sum up his thoughts on what covering this rivalry has meant to him over the years.
“It’s opportunity, it’s gratitude, it’s looking around at people that I respect–even the people that just watch the game–and how much it means to them,” Danielson said. “There’s a bit of nervousness when you’re doing the game, cause you want to make sure you do it justice.”
The color analyst also wanted to make sure that the behind-the-scenes crew was properly shouted out for its efforts, as some of the veterans within CBS Sports have actually eclipsed the number of Army-Navy games that Danielson has called.
“Being able to last this long in the business, I had great people around me. Verne [Lundquist] when I came to CBS and now my old partner in Brad [Nessler] back at ABC for the last nine or 10 years. But also the people in the background: the cameramen that showed up here for the march on, our produce Craig Silver, our director Steve Milton, they’ve actually done more games than I have,” Danielson said. “Everybody on this crew takes this game seriously and knows much much it means, so I’m glad to have been part of this team.”
Parker is currently the sports editor for the Enterprise-Journal in McComb, Mississippi. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
