‘Can you believe he said that?’ Ron Bracken recalls the top quotes from his time covering Penn State football

Editor’s note: With most sports on hold and TV networks left playing replays, Ron Bracken is taking a look back at some of the top teams, players, coaches and games he’s covered in his more than four decades at the Centre Daily Times.

Across the span of 41 years in the same job, conducting literally thousands of interviews, it’s inevitable that some stand out on the landscape.

At any rate, given the current state of affairs, can there be a better time to look back and remember a collection of war stories from a simpler time?

What follows are some quotes gathered from Penn State football players as well as coach Joe Paterno, some of which never made print for what are obvious reasons.

As the late Art Linkletter once said, “Kids say the darndest things.” So do athletes and coaches.

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During the Penn State-Notre Dame game in 1987, which the Lions won 21-20 in a thriller in Beaver Stadium, there was a minor dust-up out of bounds. And in the middle of it, not surprisingly, was Lion linebacker Trey Bauer, the same guy who hit Michael Irvin in the back of the head with a football during pregame warmups for the 1987 Fiesta Bowl.

In the postgame press conference, Bauer was asked about the skirmish. And as usual, he was his candid self.

“One of their assistant coaches kicked me,” he said. “I know who he is, and if I ever run across him I’m going to kick his ass.”

Today that wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow but in 1987 that quote would never have seen the light of day, at least not in the CDT.

In 1969 Colorado visited Penn State, led by a highly rated quarterback named Bob Anderson. He was throttled by what is probably the best defense the Lions ever had, anchored by defensive tackles Mike Reid and Steve Smear. Reid, an All-American, had no qualms speaking his mind while Smear was soft-spoken and, in today’s world, was politically correct.

At that time sportswriters were allowed in the locker room, so in the process of gathering quotes I stopped at Reid’s locker to get his view of the game.

“Look at my finger,” he said, holding out a dislocated digit. “They rendered it concave. They were the dirtiest bunch of p….s I’ve ever played against.”

Again, no way that made the CDT then and possibly would not even now.

The 1972 Cotton Bowl may be one of the most overlooked but important games in Penn State history.

Penn State was matched up against Texas in a game in which the Lions were held in low regard by the Texas fans, who didn’t believe Penn State, a team from what was called the “Effete East,” could stay on the field with the Longhorns. They pointed to State’s 31-11 loss to Tennessee in the final regular season game which spoiled what would have been their third unbeaten season in four years. What’s more, Texas ran the Wishbone, which was the latest fad in college football and was mostly unstoppable when run by the Longhorns and Oklahoma.

But the Lions stopped it, holding Texas to a pair of field goals, which was the first time in 80 games that the Longhorns did not score a touchdown.

When the game was over and the Lions were leaving the field, linebacker John Skorupan yelled toward the Texas fans, who were in disbelief in the stands, “What’s a Wishbone?”

The Longhorn fans didn’t have a monopoly on disrespecting their opponent. At least one Lion wasn’t all that impressed. And while placekicker Alberto Vitiello didn’t say it out loud, he wore a T-shirt that clearly expressed his feelings. It read: ”Bleep Texas,” although it didn’t say bleep.

In a lighter moment, at a press conference with Paterno and Texas’ Darrel Royal earlier in the week, Paterno had just finished praising Royal’s team when the personable Royal took the microphone and said, “Joe, I think you’re peeing on my leg and telling me it’s raining.”

One of the most memorable quotes I ever heard was after the 1970 Colorado game when the Buffalos stopped Penn State’s 31-game unbeaten streak with a 41-13 thumping.

After the game I was in the Colorado locker room talking to a couple of the players near the door when it opened and Joe Paterno stuck his head in and congratulated the Buffs, wishing them luck the rest of the season.

With that he was gone, leaving the two players dumbfounded.

“Can you believe he said that?” one player asked the other. “Yeah, I can. That’s why they win man, that’s why they win. That’s class.”

Naturally, Paterno was the source of many memorable quotes.

In the aftermath of the 14-10 win over Miami in the 1987 Fiesta Bowl, a game that came down to the final seconds before linebacker Pete Giftopoulos intercepted Vinnny Testaverde for the fifth time, Paterno admitted he felt helpless on the sideline.

‘There wasn’t much for me to do over there,” he said. “I’m not the kind of guy who likes to pray to the Good Lord to help us win a football game. He’s got other things to do.”

In 1982 the Lions had beaten Notre Dame 24-21 in Beaver Stadium when quarterback Todd Blackledge scored on a keeper around the left side behind the block of All-American guard Mike Munchak, who had pulled to lead the play.

I was in the process of interviewing Munchak when Paterno showed up and said, “Munchak, you’ll never throw a better block than that in your life.”

That was in direct contrast to a scene in the Lion locker room after they had beaten an underdog Iowa team 14-10, thanks to a touchdown catch by sophomore tight end Dan Natale. In those days Paterno wanted his sophomores seen but not heard.

So when he came into the locker room and saw a couple of writers interviewing Natale, he yelled, “Shut up, Natale. You’re just a sophomore. You don’t know anything.”

The 1976 season was a tough one for the Lions. They finished with a middling 7-5 record One of those losses was a one-sided 22-7 loss at Kentucky. In the course of the game they lost starting quarterback John Andress, who was replaced by Chuck Fusina, who went on to become an All-American and lead the Lions to an unbeaten season in 1978.

While Paterno was conducting his postgame press conference, equipment manager John Nolan interrupted him and asked what he wanted done with some of the equipment.

“You might as well pack it up,” Paterno said, “they’ve taken everything else from us.”

As you may have surmised, times have changed greatly from the days I heard those comments.

When I first started covering the team in the fall of 1968, the locker room was wide open. I went to practices on Thursday evenings to talk with Paterno for a preview of the upcoming game. I could walk into the locker room after practice, go up to any player and interview him.

But as the Lions got better and the media coverage grew Paterno tightened the access to his team. In 1983 a female reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer came on the beat and ask for equal access to the locker room.

Paterno’s response was to close the locker room entirely. Media members gave requests for players to the sports information staff and they brought the player to a media room.

That system was still in place when I covered my last game in 2007 and it still exists in some form today. It saddens me to hear that because the best interviews I ever had, the best quotes I ever got, came from those one-on-one moments with players.

This story was originally published April 26, 2020 at 7:00 AM.