West Point professor cheers for Navy

By Sgt. Vincent FuscoDecember 5, 2008

Naval Academy player
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WEST POINT, N.Y. (Army News Service, Dec. 5, 2008) -- Lt. Col. Donald Outing, an instructor at West Point, said he will proudly wear Army green Saturday, but will be rooting for Navy when the two academy teams play.

Outing played football for the U.S. Naval Academy from 1979 to 1982. He was recruited by then-Navy football coach George Welsh and played as a defensive tackle until Welsh left in 1982.

Outing, a mathematics major, studied with the goal of becoming a Marine Corps officer. He left the academy shortly before graduation in 1983 and had a brief career as an enlisted sailor.

During that time, Outing sent the college credits he earned from the Naval Academy to the New York State Board of Regents. The board conferred his credits into a dual-degree of mathematics and military science from the State University of New York.

After working a few years in the corporate sector, he was inspired by a colleague to rejoin the military, this time as an Army officer. In 1988 he received a field artillery commission through Officer Candidate School, and later branch detailed into the military police corps in 1993.

When Outing first applied to teach at West Point, he was apprehensive that his status as an Annapolis student would not work in his favor. But during his interviews, it became a point of positive interest for his consideration.

"They actually liked that," Outing said. "They thought it was pretty interesting about my background. It brought some diversity into what I was bringing to the organization."

He attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1995 to obtain his masters in mathematics, then returned to West Point in 1997 to teach as a rotating instructor for four years.

Outing returned to RPI for graduate studies and earned his doctorate in 2004. Two years later, he was selected as a full-time mathematics professor.

"In the time I've been (at West Point), I've never been pigeon-holed into one category," Outing said. "I fit into a whole lot of different categories, not just one."

In instructing his cadets, Outing has heard outrageous questions about the midshipmen, which made him recall the propaganda about cadets he heard as a midshipman. He does his best to dispel these rumors while encouraging teamwork throughout the military.

"He always stressed that...every academy is the same," said Firstie Tony Dace, Army football running back and a former student of Outing's. "In the end, we're going to be officers, and when that time comes, it doesn't matter what branch you are because we all work together."

"I tell them, 'you're more alike than different,'" Outing said. "I think the urban legends about West Point and Navy are good because they fuel the intensity of the rivalry. It's just all part of the culture."

As a former Navy football player, he always has something to share on football. His advice to the Army team: stop the quarterback and fullback, and have the defense force Navy into turnovers the Black Knights can earn points from.

"I think Army's got a good defense, but if their defense is on the field too long, Navy's going to take advantage of it, pick it apart and they're going to score," Outing said. "I think (Army's) defense is going to make a difference if they can get Navy's offense off the field."

Dace recalls how Outing always talked about how athletics and how being part of a team was the closest thing cadets will feel to that type of camaraderie in the Army.

"He promotes Army-Navy athletics very professionally," Dace said. "The most important thing to him is good sportsmanship and for us to see the big picture of things."

One of the most memorable Army-Navy games Outing witnessed was in 1981, when in a time Navy was expected to score leaps and bounds over Army, the game ended 3-3 with what Outing called, "a moral victory for Army."

"I just remember a sea of gray storming the field on that tie because for (Navy), it was a loss," Outing said.

Outing has seen some of the Army football spirit wane and turn to cynicism since he first came to West Point. He and his friends -- even those in the Navy -- warn that cynicism is unhealthy for the team rivalry and affects overall academy morale.

"That's why I want to see Army win again," Outing said. "There's just something about (Army-Navy sports) that you have to get excited about."

Though he admits he will be pulling for Navy Saturday, Outing hopes to see more of the spirit from years past come back to spur on support for the team.

"I'd like them to believe, and believe in those guys that are out there playing," Outing said. "As a former player, I know it makes all the difference in the world."