Tickets are still available at www.NavySports.com or by calling 1-800-US4-NAVY. Tickets will be available on game day at the Navy Ticket Booth located in the North end zone.

Pregame festivities will begin at 1:15 p.m. with the Navy Football Team Walk. Originating at the Blue Angel display in the southwest corner of the stadium, the team will make its way down the sidewalk through NavyFest before walking up the drive to the stadium. The march-on of the Brigade will start at 3:11 p.m.

The 1959 Navy Football team will be honored at halftime as part of the 50th Anniversary Cele-bration at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. That squad played the first game at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium 50 years to the day of Saturday's game against Western Kentucky.

Navy will be wearing replica 1959 uniforms.

The first 5,000 fans will get a commemorative poster cele-brating the 50th Anniversary of the stadium.

Navy unveiled the $3 million dollar Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium before 25,000 spectators by beating William & Mary, 29-2, on Sept. 26, 1959.

Plans to construct a new stadium actually began more than two decades before and in 1939, the Naval Academy Athletic Association bought a 106-acre tract of farmland in West Annapolis.

By 1941, architects had completed preliminary plans and specifications, so rough grading of the former Davis-Smith site began.

However, World War II intervened and delayed con-struction of the stadium until 1956, when a survey showed the available athletic space for the Naval Academy intramural program to be inadequate. Dem-olishing Thompson Stadium, home to Navy football since 1912, freed up five acres of valuable on-campus space for outdoor exercise activities.

A drive to raise private funds generated contributions that more than covered the cost of constructing the stadium. As a result, Navy was able to build a stadium that was worthy of its great football tradition.