In a twist of fate, Navy's tailback Dan Pike lived but one street away from Army's All American HB Lynn Moore in El Reno, Oklahoma. As they neared their high school graduation, Moore wanted to attend Annapolis and Pike West Point but as the interest of the Academies did not match the desires of the boys, they essentially switched schools. No one could have predicted that on November 29, 1969 as the captains of their respective squads, they would stand facing each other for the coin toss of the Army-Navy game. Moore was the star of the game, carrying forty times and gaining 206 yards while scoring a touchdown in Army's decisive 27-0 victory. Navy surprised its supporters by coming onto the field in white helmets. While all of the Middies had three-inch numerals depicting the number "100" on each side of the helmet, some of the players had sunflower gold numbers that were outlined with a dark navy blue border. Others wore what appeared to be the same solid dark navy blue numerals that were worn all season on the gold helmets, leading to speculation that perhaps not enough of the distinctive sunflower gold with navy blue outlined numbers had been ordered for the game.  

Forzano began from scratch in 1970, starting nine sophs with QB Mike McNallen who again excelled, putting up 1342 passing yards and becoming the Academy's all-time passing leader ahead of Staubach. The inconsistent offense put up forty-eight points in the opener against Colgate and then did little scoring and did not win until the finale against Army, a thriller at 11-7 that featured four INT's by safety Mark Schickner. The 4-3 defense was keyed by MLB Chuck Voith, soph DT and wrestler Glen Nardi, and DE Tom O'Brien. O'Brien went into coaching after his stint as a Major in the Marine Corps, eventually becoming an assistant at the Academy to George Welsh, following him to Virginia, and then doing a great job as the head coach at Boston College. For the 2007 season, he accepted the head coaching position at North Carolina State.