Jack Gillooly has lived a remarkable life. Born in September 1920, he is the oldest living former Navy football player at 104 years old. He is a decorated veteran, father, grandfather, and great grandfather, and on Saturday, when his Midshipmen take on Army in America's Game, he'll be reminded of his time as a two-way tackle in two of the most unique iterations of the rivalry on record.
His journey started in 1940 while at a junior college in West Virginia. A friend of his football coach at the time had an ask: Do you have anyone who can do a little arithmetic and also play football? Gillooly's name was passed on to Edgar "Rip" Miller, Navy's line coach who himself was a former lineman for Notre Dame, where he blocked for the famed Four Horsemen backfield.
Miller and Gilooly began corresponding, and assurances were made that Gillooly would get one of the precious few appointments from a West Virginia congressman to attend the Naval Academy. Instead, his mother had to secure one the following year, and in 1941 Gillooly was off to Annapolis. After he finished his season on the plebe (freshman) team, Miller took the entire team to an NFL game where Washington hosted Philadelphia. That day in the stands at Griffith Stadium, everything changed, as Gillooly recounted this week to CBS Sports.
"At halftime of that game, the Chief Petty Officer who had been down with the Eagles spotted us up there because we were in uniform, and he came up and he said to the commander with us, 'Commander, did you hear what happened?'
Oh, no, we hadn't.
'Well, they bombed Pearl Harbor.'
We stayed there through the second half of that game and they were calling out [over the PA system] General, so and so, Admiral, so and so, and all the senators, they were trying to get them back in their offices, because all hell was breaking loose.
By the time I got back to the Naval Academy that evening, they locked the gates down. They had guards marching all around the perimeter. They were on wartime footing."
The Naval Academy accelerated graduating classes which meant Gillooly was then scheduled to graduate in the spring of 1944. He played for Navy's varsity team in 1942 and '43 in Army-Navy games that were played on campus under wartime travel restrictions limiting attendance. They were the only two Army-Navy games played on campus between 1899 and 2020. Both games were in limbo, especially in 1943 when Army cadets were initially banned from playing in varsity sports.
Before that 1943 game at West Point, Gillooly suffered a leg injury and didn't practice for two weeks until the day before Navy headed to New York. Both teams were good that year with players from all over the country who had transferred to both academies in order to enlist. In Gillooly's words, they were "the right material" with a 7-1 record (the lone loss came to eventual consensus national champion Notre Dame). His on-field claim to fame came in the 13-0 victory over Army in 1943 when he came off of the bench as a sub and tackled future Heisman Trophy winner Glenn Davis in the backfield.
"Well, that was my job. I was playing strong side tackle and somebody had to get him," Gillooly said. "We just overpowered Army up there. We really took it right to 'em and we never let them off the floor, they were never in the game. That's a great feeling to have, if you want to have a great feeling. You know, all of us were pretty local yokels from all over the country, and now you're going up there to West Point and playing up there on the Hudson, and we're staying in the Waldorf Astoria? Pretty big time."
Gillooly was soon shipped off to the Pacific where he served on the USS Columbia. While manning anti-aircraft weaponry in January 1945, three kamikaze attacks by Japanese planes hit the ship, inflicting major damage. He survived the attack but suffered burns to his face and hands. At one point he remembers asking a fellow sailor "what's left of my face?"
"You really learn what a shipmate is in that kind of battle, because you rely on this guy next to you, and he's reliant on you," Gillooly said. "He's expecting you to do your job, and if you don't do your job, he's gotta let you know. This is your job. That's what's taught at the Naval Academy. You're taught to lean on one another. You're taught that you have a role to play in operating a ship and in fighting a battle and you're indoctrinated with that."
After he recovered and the war ended, Gillooly made a choice to become a Naval Aviator.
"I said to hell with being down there," Gillooly said. "I had decided if I was going to stay in this Navy, I didn't want to be down there getting bombed. I was going to be up there doing the bombing, so I put in for flight training."
He served in the Vietnam and Korean Wars and had a close encounter with a Russian submarine during the Cuban missile crisis. Gillooly retired from the Navy in 1974 with the rank of captain after serving 30 years and eventually commanding the USS Wasp. He earned a purple heart, two bronze stars (including one with the combat V signifying valor), a Navy commendation medal with one star, and the Legion of Merit.
Now at 104-years-young, what keeps him going?
"I want to say, clean living," Gillooly said. "I'm lucky to have the constitution I had. We all get ailments as we get older, but I escaped most of the terrible things, and was just able to stay healthy."
That's before his son, John, interjects and reveals that the old football player still hits the weightroom at his local gym in East Tennessee twice a week to get a lift in.
What's in a 104-year old's workout regimen?
According to his son John:
- 15 minutes on a recumbent stepper at medium resistance
- 10 minutes of dynamic stretching mainly for torso, shoulders, back
- Leg press machine - Two sets of eight reps at 235 pounds, third set at 210 with emphasis at breaking 90 degrees, idea being if you get out of a chair your rear is below your knees.
- Leg curls - 2x8
- Leg lifts - 2x8
- Core machine - 2x8 (lighter weights)
- Back machine - 2x8
- Sitting bench press machine - 2x8
- Low station cable pull - 2x8
- Platform sit and stand - One set of eight reps, body weight. "Analog for him is reminding him a defensive lineman's first move is forward and not up if he's got a quickness advantage"
John says they approach these workouts with pace under supervision to make his life better with strength and increased mobility.
"You gotta have a purpose in life," Jack said. "I want to stay in shape. That's the best feeling you can have is to have a workout and be in shape."
What's Jack's secret? This video shared by his family shows his twice weekly workouts that prove at 104 he's more active than some who are a 1/4 of his age. pic.twitter.com/7ufjo02Vi9
— Richard🇬🇾Johnson (@RJ_cfb) December 12, 2024
Gillooly says Army-Navy remains unpredictable, but if the Midshipmen are healthy it'll be quite the battle. He still remembers fondly what he calls the tremendous spirit he experienced for the first time over 80 years ago at the Naval Academy, and it's still in him. His final words before hanging up there phone were a pair he's said countless times over the years.
"Beat Army."
