Anchors Aweigh!

We took a two night getaway this past week to Annapolis, MD.  The state capital of Maryland is a delightful and quaint town.  Filled with wonderful little retail shops and great restaurants, many of them overlooking the waterfront.

We had great meals at three different places: Mission BBQ, a barbecue joint, as the name implies, a wonderful brunch at the Iron Rooster, and absolutely fabulous dinner at a linen tablecloth restaurant called Osteria 177.

We saw the Kunta Kinte - Alex Hailey Memorial, the very spot where Kunta Kinte, and thousands of other kidnapped Africans were auctioned into slavery.  We saw the Residence of the Governor of Maryland, where Spiro Agnew once slept and accepted bribes.  However, the most memorable part of our visit was our visit to and tour of the United States Naval Academy.

The Academy was about a ten minute walk from our hotel, and when we took a dry run down to there the night before our tour, I was surprised at how easy it was to walk right onto "the Yard".  It's not a campus.  It's The Yard.  Of course, it wasn't all that easy as it turned out.  To really get onto the grounds the next day, we had to present photo ID, empty our pockets, go through metal detectors, etc etc.  

For our tour we rode in an electric car and rode all around the Academy for a 75 minute tour.  It was fascinating and informative, and I would highly recommend it.  When the Tour ended, we were able to walk into a building that housed much of the Academy's sports administration offices and included a look at all of the athletic trophies and awards from over the years.  The centerpieces of this display were plaques and busts of Navy's two Heisman Trophy winners, Joe Bellino, 1960, and Roger Staubach, 1963.  

Everyone remembers Staubach, of course, due in large part to his Hall of Fame NFL career with the Dallas Cowboys, which included two Super Bowl victories.  However, did you know that Staubach won seven athlete letters at Navy, not only for football, but for baseball and basketball as well?  I didn't.

Less remembered is Joe Bellino.  My memory of him is from among my very early days of following sports.  Bellino fulfilled his five year commitment to the US Navy, serving on a destroyer during the Cuban Missile Crisis and on a minesweeper in Viet Nam.  After a brief three year career in pro football, he became a successful businessman and retired as a Captain after serving 24 years in the Naval Reserve.  He was 81 years old when he died in 2019.

Both Staubach and Bellino had quite different post-Heisman lives than did, say, O.J. Simpson and Johnny Manzel.

Our timing in visiting the Naval Academy was perfect for we were there the week prior to the arrival of the new class of Midshipmen, which will happen this coming Thursday.  (We probably would have been unable to get hotel space during Plebe Week.)   We brought our own prospective plebe with us, but we were told that the Class of 2027 had no further openings, and she also was unable to obtain a Congressional appointment.  

She took the news well though.