"To the delight of Navy football players, the blizzard of 1996 had blanketed their campus in Annapolis, Md., with 2 feet of snow.

Everything shut down — except Phil Emery. In case Emery, then Navy's inexorable strength and conditioning coach, decided against canceling a regularly scheduled 5 a.m. workout, team captain Clint Bruce volunteered for an early "reconnaissance mission" to see if teammates were safe sleeping in."