932-409-42.
That’s Penn State’s all-time record as of this week.
But not every one of those games is worth just one win – or just one loss – or hell just one tie. Some of them, to borrow a phrase from the SEC’s marketing department, just mean more.
Games like the Orange Bowl after the 2005 season, 24-point underdog at Wisconsin and even Minnesota 1999 come immediately to mind. But those games don’t rank as high as these ones.
In my opinion, these are the essential games that tell the Penn State football story.
The 1948 Cotton Bowl – Jan. 1, 1948
Penn State had turned the program around under Bob Higgins in the 1947 season, completing its first unbeaten season in more than 20 years and securing a berth in the Cotton Bowl.
But Cotton Bowl officials tried to force Penn State to play without its two Black players, Wally Triplett and Dennie Hoggard, due to segregation laws in Texas. This was not the first time these players faced a moment like this as Penn State, a year prior, had canceled a game with Miami due Florida’s segregation laws.
Officials tried to sway the team from playing Triplett and Hoggard – two of its stars – with a meeting. But as the purported story goes, Penn State team captain Steve Suhey said “ We are Penn State. There will be no meetings.”
Triplett and Hoggard played in the Cotton Bowl with Triplett scoring the game’s final touchdown.
The game’s lasting impact helped create one of the biggest brands in college athletics with a cheer that still echoes throughout Beaver Stadium to this day and moreover, served as major moment for Black college athletes.
Tricky Dick’s Pick – Dec. 6, 1969
Penn State did not play in this game but this game is essential to Penn State’s history.
Following Penn State’s undefeated 1969 season – its second in as many years under then a young Joe Paterno, many thought the Nittany Lions would earn the right to be claimed national champion should they beat Missouri in a pending Orange Bowl.
However, President Richard Nixon had other ideas. He announced prior to the Texas-Arkansas game – played weeks before any New Year’s Day bowl – that the winner between the Longhorns and Razorbacks would be that year’s national champion despite having no real power to do so. Voters agreed with Nixon, who presented Texas with a plaque celebrating the win, and handed the Longhorns the national title before Penn State could even have a chance to claim the spot.
Paterno would later decry the decision in a graduation speech saying, “I’d like to know how could the president know so little about Watergate in 1973 and so much about college football in 1969?”
It is considered one of the two times where Penn State teams in the non-championship game era could have claimed a title but didn’t.
Steve explores a game that led to the second time in 1994 here.
6-4 – Oct. 23, 2004
All you have to say is “6-4” and it tells the whole story.
No game describes the lows of the Dark Years better than “6-4.”
Penn State’s first safety came from a snap that went over Iowa punter David Bradley’s head early in the first quarter. But with a pitiful offense throughout the day, Penn State failed to generate much. With inept offense on both sides (or strong defenses on both sides depending on who is telling the story), Kirk Ferentz had Bradley run out of the back of the end zone midway through the fourth quarter, fearing another botch snap. The gamble paid off as Penn State’s Michael Robinson threw an interception on the ensuing drive and Iowa was able to milk the clock.
It’s the ugliest loss in more ways than one for Penn State but it still lives on. Those there that day wear it like a badge of honor the way a veteran tells a story of war. And it has in some ways become a meme that still lives to this day too, offering just enough trauma on both sides to be recounted every year that Iowa and Penn State play.
4OTs – Oct. 12, 2013
After the NCAA handed crippling sanctions to Bill O’Brien’s team the year prior due to the Jerry Sandusky case, many thought Penn State would never compete nationally again.
But after a 8-4 season in 2012, O’Brien’s team took then No. 18 Michigan to the ropes in 2013. Trailing by seven with less than a minute to play, Christian Hackenberg led Penn State’s offense down the field, complete with one of the most iconic catches in Penn State’s history thanks to Allen Robinson.
It then took four overtimes, including missed kicks, before Bill Belton walked into the north endzone for the win.
It is the signature win under O’Brien and signified a return for Penn State. It sentimentally the signature game for me as a student. I still have that pom-pom that I anxiously ripped to shreds somewhere.
“Grant Haley…Will Score” – Oct. 22, 2016
After starting the season 3-2 including a virtual must-win over Minnesota for James Franklin to keep his job, unranked Penn State faced a daunting task against No. 2 Ohio State, led by Urban Meyer.
With a tighter than expected game, Meyer rushed his kicking team onto the field with a little more than four minutes remaining. Kicker Tyler Durbin “super reliable from inside 40” attempted a 45-yarder. It was blocked by Marcus Allen, Grant Haley would score and Penn State would beat Ohio State for the first – and still only – time under Franklin.
Of course, that Penn State team would go on to win the Big Ten title as well.
The win over Ohio State – and that play – remains the signature (positive) moment under Franklin.
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