A Wonderful Holiday Tradition
When they bought tickets for the inaugural Eagle Bank Bowl at RFK Stadium back in 2008, Joe Haas and Gregory Twachtman, the pair of friends thought it would be a neat thing to attend the National Capital Region’s new college football bowl game.
“Maybe,” Haas said they joked with each other, “When we’re at the 25th Military Bowl, we’ll get profiled in The Washington Post.”
Well, it’s 17 years later, and the two have been at every Military Bowl played. They’ll continue the tradition this Saturday at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, watching Pitt play East Carolina in the 2025 Go Bowling Military Bowl.
“They’ve created a really good atmosphere for the game and the teams show up to play hard,” Twachtman said. “It’s a smaller stadium with a big game feel. The fans are courteous. It’s just become part of our annual tradition.”
“It’s a nice relaxing day after the hustle and bustle of Christmas,” Haas said.
There are several moments that each remembers over the years. Twachtman’s favorite game was in 2011, when Air Force scored a last-minute touchdown and went for the win, but Toledo stopped a two-point conversion and held on for a 42-41 win. The previous year, the 2010 Military Bowl drew the largest game in bowl history to see Maryland beat East Carolina, 51-20, in Coach Ralph Friedgen’s final game. It was cold that day, Haas remembered, and the pair and some friends left midway through the third quarter with the Terrapins comfortably in control.
But what most sticks in Twachtman’s head from that day had nothing to do with the game. One of their friends lived close to RFK Stadium, where the Bowl was played each year through 2012. And that friend organized a splendid tailgate, marinating steaks and bringing a grill. It all seemed wonderful until it came time to eat – and the group realized nobody had brought utensils. They had to canvas the parking lot asking for some forks and knives.
“The steaks were really good,” Twachtman said. “It was a chilly day but a really good environment.”
Since the game moved to Annapolis in 2013, Haas and Twachtman have developed a routine. They will arrive 1 to 1 ½ hours before kickoff and enjoy spending time at the Military Bowl Tailgate Festival, taking in the music, games and military displays. Then they’ll enter the stadium and walk around. Twachtman always buys a commemorative t-shirt or two. He’s already ordered a Pitt shirt this year – something Haas said he could never do. A Penn State graduate, Pitt is a natural rival, though he said he biggest rooting interest will be for a competitive game. Their favorite seats are in the north end zone, where they also enjoy people watching and keeping an eye on the fans on the hill and those “sledding” down the grass in the corners of the stadium.
They also enjoy all of the pageantry and military-themed in-game elements, such as the pregame flyover, the Team Fastrax parachute jump team with their oversized flags, the length of the field giant American flag and seeing new recruits take the Oath of Enlistment.
Haas and Twachtman agree – it is usually something different that makes each year’s Bowl special. Whether it is the pageantry, the football, the people watching or something else, they leave each year with new memories. The Bowl has come a long way since that first game in 2008, though that game — when Wake Forest beat Navy, 29-19 – remains Haas’s favorite.
“The first one stands out to me because it was my first bowl game and a good matchup and, like this year’s game, was played at 11 a.m.,” Haas said, remembering that the 2008 game was the first bowl game played that year. “I remember being on the Metro at 9:30 a.m. and wishing I was still in bed. But it was a great time. I didn’t know the game was going to last nearly 20 years.”