Sixty years ago in the fall of 1963, Richard Earnest was a senior receiver and defensive back at the Naval Academy, in the middle of a magical football season with some of the greatest guys he has ever known, people who remain dear to him to this day.
 
A year earlier in 1962, Navy's football team had finished a disappointing 5-5 campaign, albeit with encouraging signs pointing toward '63. Although they had lost a 13-6 road game in mid-November that dropped their record to 4-5, the Midshipmen's tenacious defense held its own against a fine Southern California squad. About six weeks later, USC would be crowned national champions.
 
Navy got back to .500 with a strong finish against archrival Army, behind a sophomore and backup-turned-starting quarterback named Roger Staubach. He led the way in a surprising 34-14 rout over the favored Cadets.
 
"We knew we had something special going with that team [heading into the summer of 1963]. Of course, there was Roger. And there was Tom Lynch," said Earnest, referring to the team captain and fiercely competitive middle linebacker/center who would rise to the rank of Admiral over his 31-year career in the U.S. Navy, a man called "a captain for life" by his Navy teammates. Lynch also served as Naval Academy Superintendent during his military career.
 
"The seniors and the juniors in general were such natural leaders," Earnest added. "Nobody on that team felt they were anything but a part of the team with a job to do. It did not occur to us that it was a big deal, when we started climbing in the polls during that season. In our naïve way, we were wondering how do they know how to rank us?"
 
"Tommy was the captain, but the leaders were everywhere. If you were down, one of them would always pick you up," added tackle Bob Wittenberg.
 
"Our veterans prepared for '63 with much urgency in the offseason in terms of lifting, conditioning and practicing in small groups on their own," said Lynch. "We were determined to make up for our 5-5 inconsistency and build off of that loss to USC."
 
"I remember our two-a-days in the spring of '63, and how everything just clicked," Staubach recalled. "The juniors and seniors could feel it. I think it would show up later in the way we played together the whole year. In terms of caring about each other, that '63 team was as good as it gets."
 
That 1963 edition of Navy football, which was 9-1 and ranked No. 2 in the country when it lost to top-ranked Texas, 28-6, in the Cotton Bowl on the first day of 1964, ranks as the Midshipmen's greatest team.
 
It featured tough, undersized linemen such as Fred Marlin and Alexander Krekich. It had speedy athleticism typified by playmakers such as Earnest, Edward "Skip" Orr, Jim Campbell, John Sai and Robert Orlosky. It had big, fast intimidators such as fullback Pat Donnelly. It had many players who performed capably on offense and defense. It had an exceptional brain trust in head coach Wayne Hardin and top assistant Steve Belichick.
 
The Mids had high-character guys everywhere and plenty of characters, in the form of future U.S. Navy and Marine Corps officers with nicknames such as "Snorter" and "Ragman" and "Radish" and "Dirty Ernie."
 
The 1963 team averaged 29.1 points while giving up only 15 points per game. Staubach threw for 1,702 yards and seven touchdowns, and showed his dazzling ability to scramble out of trouble or dash through a hole instinctively and make plays. He rushed for 371 yards and nine TDs.
 
The Mids set the tone for a magical ride by blowing out West Virginia, 51-7, in the season opener in Morgantown. Orr, who had begun the spring session as a junior varsity player, caught touchdown passes of 26 and 37 yards and returned an interception 52 yards to set up another score. Sai, who had been clocked at 9.7 seconds in the 100-yard dash, scored on a 47-yard dash.
 
"The first pass I caught in that game was the first pass I ever caught playing in any football game," recalls Orr, who grew up playing exclusively quarterback on offense.
 
A week after shutting out William & Mary, the Mids traveled to Ann Arbor, where they made a huge statement by taking a 26-13 decision, in front of more than 100,000 fans at Michigan.
 
Staubach was spectacular, completing 14 of 16 passes for 270 yards and rushing for 70 more. Sai's 54-yard TD catch helped the Mids score the game's first 20 points. The Mids also knocked a handful of Wolverines out of the game.
 
"I don't think we knew how good we were until we kicked off at West Virginia. I was never even on a winning team in high school," said Wittenberg, one of four sophomores who traveled with the Mids in 1963. "Two things that overly impressed me that year were playing in Notre Dame's stadium and playing at the Big House [Michigan] with 110,000 fans on top of you. You could not hear yourself think on the sideline."
 
Navy's only regular-season blemish was a 32-28 loss in week four, on a Friday night in Dallas against SMU that featured numerous questionable calls that went against Navy. The fourth-ranked Mids saw a 25-13 lead evaporate. The game ended, as Orr was stripped of his possible, game-winning TD reception in the back of the end zone. The loss dropped Navy's ranking to 10.
 
The Mids would not drop in ranking again until their New Year's Day defeat. They started a six-game winning streak by beating VMI, then played host to unbeaten, third-ranked Pittsburgh and made short work of the Panthers in a 24-12 victory. Navy scored the game's first 17 points, while the defense picked off four passes to seal the deal.
 
Navy moved into the No. 2 spot to stay for the rest of the regular season. They then traveled to South Bend and, following an uninspired first half, broke open a 7-7 tie and blew away Notre Dame, 35-14. Donnelly was unstoppable in the second half that included his TD catch and a 41-yard scoring run. It would be Navy's last win over the Irish until 2007.
 
Maryland and Duke next would suffer at the hands of the Mids, who scored a combined 80 points in two more impressive victories.
 
The biggest dose of football suspense arguably arrived with Navy's annual, emotional confrontation with Army on December 7 at the close of the regular season. That game had been postponed for a week, following the shocking assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22 in Dallas. Kennedy was a Navy enlistee who became a World War II hero and rose to the rank of Lieutenant.
 
The President's death hurt the Mids deeply. Kennedy had met the team prior to the 1962 season, as Navy was finishing training camp at Quonset Point, R.I. The President shook every player's and coach's hand, and declared his love for the Naval Academy and its football team.
 
"We got to march in his inaugural parade [in 1961]. We had a real love for him," said former two-way lineman Alexander Krekich. "He let us know that he was a Navy fan. We were extraordinarily sad after what happened in Dallas."
 
"We knew the President was with us all the way," Lynch added.
 
That Army-Navy game played out in nerve wracking fashion for the Mids, who got three rushing touchdowns from Donnelly yet barely escaped with a 21-15 victory. The Cadets drove down the field with the game's final possession, only to have time run out on them with the ball at Navy's two-yard line. Lynch picked up the ball and ran off the field with it.
 
Staubach could not bear to watch Army moving closer and closer to a possibly disastrous touchdown.
 
"I was over on the bench saying my rosary, literally praying," he said. "If we had lost to Army, it would have ruined our season. We wouldn't be talking about the '63 team if we had not beaten Army."
 
Staubach was then awarded the Heisman Trophy, after completing 106 of 161 passes for 1,474 yards, while earning consensus All-America honors, as well as the Maxwell Trophy and Walter Camp Memorial Trophy. In Navy's loss to Texas, Staubach set Cotton Bowl records for pass completions (21 of 31) and yards passing (228).
 
The surviving members of that 1963 team who could make it to Annapolis this week for yet another reunion weekend will be swapping plenty of familiar stories about that historic season and their time together as Midshipmen.
 
Staubach will be honored during the Navy-Air Force game at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. His #12 will be placed on the turf at the 12-yard line, on the opposite ends of Joe Bellino's #27 that was placed on the turf in 2019. Bellino (1960) and Staubach (1963) are Navy's only two Heisman Trophy winners.
 
Lynch, who has been the team's caretaker for decades, has continued to organize 1963 team reunions since the 1980s. He expects 30 letter winners and nine JV players from '63 to attend the festivities, along with four widows of team members, plus the sons of deceased Navy coach Rick Forzano and trainer Red Romo.
 
Most of the surviving members of Navy's greatest team have reached or passed age 80. The Mids have lost 15 from that cherished squad. The thoughts of mortality are impossible to avoid.
 
"I don't know if any season in my life was as good as 1963," said Staubach, who won two Super Bowls, played in four and earned a Super Bowl MVP honor during his 11 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. "Every time we get together like this, it's more special."
 
"I think less about the football side of things than the personal side of it," Orr said. "The experiences we had during those four years are still vivid in our minds, even though the minds aren't what they used to be. Now we have the added factor of a significant portion of us is dealing with some type of problem physically. Tom keeps this group anchored to each other."
 
"It gets more precious to get together like this every five years, probably because we see the other end [ahead]. We don't know when that's going to be, but we see it," said Earnest, who attended his first reunion 35 years ago. "Now, [reunions] mean much less about what we did as a team at the Naval Academy and more about what we've experienced as friends. We've gotten to know much more about each other's families and the kids that have grown up."
 
"We're got multiple alums suffering with various ailments. It's the point where you start facing what's really important – peace of mind, happiness, love," he added. "We've got to live every one of these days like it's important to us. I am really looking forward to another reunion. It's going to be a loving weekend, and somewhat bittersweet."