'Battle of the Banners' brings Army, Navy rivalry to Tampa
TAMPA, Fla. - On one of the busiest streets in Tampa, a rivalry nearly 250 years in the making rages on.
"It's a tradition," said Warren Hahn.
Back in 2003, Hahn was moving his engineering firm into the building at 3060 South Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa.
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As a member of the Naval Academy graduating class of 1960, Hahn decided one November to hang a banner on his building displaying the words "GO NAVY BEAT ARMY" in anticipation of the annual football game between the two military academies.
"We have half of the MacDill Air Force Base folks, which include Army, Navy and Marine Corps, driving back and forth on Dale Mabry," Hahn said. "And I just wanted to let the Army folks know what we thought about them."
Unfortunately for Hahn, someone wanted to let him know what they thought of the sign, too.
"All we found was a broken-down ladder from the culprits who stole our banner," Hahn remembered.
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The banner was gone, and Hahn suspects the Army was the culprit.
"Detectives look for motive, right? And that's a charming motive," he said.
Though the culprit(s) never revealed themselves, Hahn replaced his banner the next football season, regardless. There, the banners remained facing his stretch of Dale Mabry unchallenged.
That all changed when a former West Point Cadet got an idea in 2014.
"I had to pass that sign at least two times [per day], going to work and coming home from work," said Fred Rock.
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Rock, a graduate of West Point from 1974, decided someone needed to even the odds and hang a banner of his own directly across the street from Hahn. Unfortunately, Rock did not own the building across the street.
The man who did own the building, a master jeweler from Germany named Gabriel Can, didn't think twice when the U.S. Army came asking for a favor.
"I said we were all for it, why not?" Can said. "So, we were going to make a difference."
After getting the green light from Can, Rock and his band of Black Knights got a banner made up reading "GO ARMY BEAT NAVY...AGAIN!" and promptly hung it directly across the street from Hahn Engineering.
"I had no idea that Fred was so devious," Hahn said.
The first shots in the Battle of the Banners had officially been fired.
"We're hanging the banners and people are driving by, slowing down and honking their horns [shouting] 'Go Army! Go Navy!'" Rock said. "They're having a blast with it."
Remembering the fate of his first banner, Hahn decided to return the favor and engage in his own brand of espionage.
"Two years ago, I asked one of the Navy Seals to do a midnight requisition of the two Army flags that hang on the side of the building," he said.
Those flags, however, would make their way back to Rock the very next day when both the local West Point and Naval Academy alumni societies met for their annual watch party during the Army/Navy football game.
"We're brothers for the 364 [days], but on that one day we are rivals," Rock said. "We will do whatever it takes to take you down."
While they may do whatever it takes to take each other down, both men now look forward to their banners going up each November as they have for the last decade as the Battle of the Banners continues for another year.