Army-Navy 'more than a game' for a dozen local football lifers

Their voices:

“When you see the players walking in the stadium you feel the pride, the history. These players will soon be defending our country.” - Bill Bowman

“The first two years it was just three guys. Then we had 12. You get hooked. It never gets old.” - Bob Croatti

“The game is an afterthought. The national pride is humbling.” - Pete Cronan

“I thought it’d be like any college game. I used to watch it on TV as a kid. I didn’t realize how big a deal it was, the magnitude of it.” - Jim Gable

“It’s the hardest hitting game. You can hear the hitting from the stands.” - Brian McCann

“I’d been coaching a lot. When I retired it was time to do this. An Army-Navy game is a tremendous experience.” - Bob Sannicandro

“I’m going again. The first time I went, 18 years ago, I was in awe. I’m still in awe.” - Jack Trabucco.

“I tell my (Nipmuc High) players the relationships you make now can last 40-50 years. This Army-Navy trip we make is an example.” - Dave Tupper

It all started when Marian High star quarterback Rollie Savage knew that teammate Bob Croatti liked reading military books. So Savage suggested a tome entitled “A Civil War.” No, no, said Croatti, who was rather hooked on reading about more contemporary warfare. “A Civil War” was written by noted author John Feinstein who had spent a year following the Army and Navy football teams. A Civil War of another color.

Croatti skimmed it, got interested and read the book. When finished, he knew he had to attend an Army-Navy football game. He talked Jack Trabucco and Bill Bowman into going. The year was 2002.

Croatti has gone every year since. Trabucco, a three-sport star at Natick High, and Bowman, a basketball standout at Framingham South, quickly jumped aboard. Along the road of life, Bowman and Trabucco became long-time Wellesley College campus police officers. Both recently retired.  Soon Croatti coaxed others to come along, as many as 16. A dozen signed up for this year’s game in Philadelphia.

The bond among these guys runs deep, in some cases, from their St. Stephen’s elementary school days to Marian High. Regrettably, both Framingham schools have closed. But the link perpetuates. It’s not just the Army-Navy game that brings these guys together. They golf. They dine, they go to high school football games together, they shoot the breeze, they cajole. The six-hour ride to the game allows for plenty of that.

Croatti handles everything. Game tickets, hotels, transportation. “He’s the maestro,” said Trabucco, a non-drinker who drives the van. Bowman is in charge of the picture-taking.

One year the game was played in a blinding snowstorm. Brian McCann figured he’d leave the stands early, sweep the snow off the van, start it up and turn on the heat. But when he reached the van something was missing. The key. He reached deep in his pockets. Nothing.

It’d be easier to find a needle in a haystack than a key in a blizzard. The guys rallied around McCann. What to do, what to do? This could get costly. Towing the van, another night in the hotel.

Feeling somewhat guilty, and with the other guys trying to gather some sleep, McCann sneaked out of the hotel and decided to backtrack his steps in the wee hours of the morning. He walked until the sun rose. “I saw something shining near the highway.” The key.

“It was a miracle,” said Bowman.

Everyone felt the relief. “But we won’t give Brian the key again,” said Croatti.

The average age of the group is 67. Perhaps the Army-Navy game adventure produces a youthful spark in all of them. Croatti’s long-standing friendship with Navy’s athletic director Chet Gladchuk has been a godsend in the arrangements. “The game is really moving, the players marching into the stadium, the parachuting to the field, the flyover.” said Croatti. A huge gala the night before the game is a must-attend. It’s the only time the guys get spiffed up all weekend. They bump into upper crust military personal and football heroes of the academies.

Pete Cronan is no stranger to big football games.  A star player at Marian High and Boston College, he won a Super Bowl with Joe Gibbs’ Washington Redskins in 1983. Gibbs named Cronan defensive captain for the game.

Unforgettable of course. Still, as a spectator, nothing’s been quite as moving as Army-Navy, “if you’ve got any national pride,” said Cronan. “You see soldiers with no arms, no legs.”

Some things you never forget.

“The games are great, but so are the stories we tell on the ride down,” said Tupper. “It’s the whole thing.” Something shared; Something treasured.

“When the game was in D.C. (2011 in Landover, Md.) we were there for two or three days and toured the Capitol, Pentagon and 9/11 Memorial,” Bowman remembered. “It was a wonderful experience for everybody. It’s more than the game, it’s the pomp and circumstance.

“It’s America.”

“They players fight like hell for 60 minutes, then they’re going to be unified fighting to keep our country safe.  It’s very moving,” said Gable, who has coached at Marian, Westwood and Walpole.

At one of the Army-Navy classics Trabucco recalled looking up and spotting Donald Trump. “How many times do you see the President at a game?” Trabucco thought.

The camaraderie of the trips is what Trabucco holds dear. The memory of Hugo “Scooch” Giargiari is always with them. Giargiari had coached at Ashland, Keefe Tech and Framingham. A local legend for sure. They all looked up to and loved Scooch, who made the Army-Navy trips until he passed away five years ago.

Most of these guys played ball with and against each other growing up. Scooch would tell stories for six hours on the way down. They thought of muzzling him. When they went out to eat it was ‘party of 12.’”

“Good conversations, good memories,” said Sannicandro, Scooch often a hot topic.

“In many ways we were all influenced by him,” said Sannicandro. “He was a mentor in more than sports.”

After McCann made his first trip, a thought arose. “You’ve got to experience it more than once.” It began 15 years ago for him.

“You need a couple of day to recover,” said Cronan, the analyst on Boston College football broadcasts with play-by-play guy Jon Meterparel, a Framingham homeboy.

Croatti is already in the planning stage for the Gillette Stadium Army-Navy rumble next year. Emails have been exchanged.

So, on it goes, and these friends for life will be counting the days before they get a chance to add to the memory bank of 20 years and ongoing. They may be pushing or already in their 70s, but for a December weekend together, they transition into their youthful selves, bottling new memories, which pull even tighter the ties that bind.

Scooch would approve.

Lenny Megliola can be reached at lennymegs41@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @lennymegs.

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Army-Navy more than a game for a dozen local football lifers