Ron Bracken looks back on the most memorable Penn State football seasons in his 41-year CDT career
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.
Naturally enough, in the course of conversation with either an individual or a group, someone will ask which was my favorite team, game, coach or athlete encountered over the course of my career.
It’s a tough question to answer because there are so many from which to chose. It’s an incredible mosaic, as you would expect from 40-plus years of material.
Today I’ll sort through the Penn State football seasons from 1968-2007 and pick 10 seasons that still stand out in the scrapbook of my mind. A couple of them might surprise you.
For example, the 1977 season is memorable for what might have been. The Lions went 11-1 that year, capping the season with a win over the Fiesta Bowl on Christmas Day.
But it’s that 1 that shaped that season because it prevented Penn State from possibly playing for a national championship.
It was Oct. 1, a dreary Saturday, when Kentucky rolled into Beaver Stadium. The Wildcats were on the rise under Fran Curci with tailback Sonny Collins as the tip of their spear.
The Lions had a powerful offense with Chuck Fusina at quarterback, Matt Suhey, Bob Torrey and Mike Guman in the backfield, Mickey Shuler at tight end and Jimmy Cefalo and Scott Fitzkee as the wide receivers. That would be one of the top five offenses Joe Paterno ever had.
In the second half the Lions were driving when Fusina threw a flat pass to Torrey, who bobbled the ball. A Kentucky defensive back picked it out of mid-air and the Wildcats went on to a 24-21 win.
State went on to win a squeaker at Pitt, 15-13, and then beat Arizona State in the Fiesta Bowl, 42-30. The Kentucky loss kept them from playing a national title.
The 1981 team had an offense that was at least the equal of the 1994 juggernaut. It had five first-round draft picks — quarterback Todd Blackledge, tailback Curt Warner, wideout Kenny Jackson and guards Sean Farell and Mike Munchak — center Jim Romano was a second-round choice.
It was a rainy weekend in Miami when the No. 1 Nittany Lions showed up to meet the Hurricanes, who were just emerging as a power. Hurricane fans hadn’t really bought into Howard Schnellenberger’s team, so in an effort to beef up attendance, Miami staged a free concert Friday night in the Orange Bowl featuring the Beach Boys and the Commodores. I can still recall standing on the roof of the press box listening to the music.
The next day the weather was terrible with rain squalls blowing in sporadically. To the Penn State fans it seemed as though every time placekicker Brian Franco lined up for a field goal, the wind kicked up and blew rain in his face. After missing only one field goal up to that point, he missed four and the Lions fell, 17-14. Two weeks later they lost to Alabama in Bear Bryant’s only visit to Beaver Stadium. They followed that with the memorable 48-14 win over Pitt and then went to the Fiesta Bowl and beat USC and Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Allen to close at 11-1.
The 1973 season is most remembered as the year John Cappelletti won the Heisman Trophy and gave a tear-jerking acceptance speech.
No opponent came close to Penn State that fall. Air Force came the closest at 19-9.
In the Orange Bowl, Penn State topped LSU, 16-9, and went on to finish 12-0. That was the best record in the country and the Lions shockingly finished fifth in the polls.
I can’t really separate the 1968 and 1969 teams because both were built on a defense that was almost immovable.
In 1968, Penn State burst on the national scene by going 10-0 in the regular season and then beating Kansas 15-14 in the Orange Bowl to finish second in the polls. Midway through the season the Lions were entertaining Army, when the Cadets tried an on-sides kick. The ball squirted out of a pile of players at midfield, and Sate tight end Ted Kwalick scooped up the ball and returned it 53 yards for the deciding score in a 28-21 win.
In the Orange Bowl a bizarre series of plays in the game’s final two minutes allowed Penn State to win, 15-14. State had tried to go for two points after a Chuck Burkhart score, but the pass was batted down. But officials caught Kansas with 12 men on the field and the Lions scored the two-point conversion on a sweep by Bob Campbell around the left side behind sophomore guard Chuck Zapiec. Penn State finished 11-0 and second in the polls.
The next year they were back in the Orange Bowl against another Big Eight team, Missouri, which had an explosive offense. In a scene reminiscent of a game 19 years later, the Lion defense led by Mike Reid, Steve Smear, Dennis Onklotz, John Ebersole and Jack Ham, intercepted Missouri seven times. In the postgame locker room Onkotz was asked how long he thought the Lions could have held the Tigers. His memorable quote was “Forever.”
Another game decided by an outstanding Penn State defense was the 1987 Fiesta Bowl win over Miami. The Lions defense gave up over 400 yards in the 14-10 win but intercepted Miami Heisman Trophy winner Vinny Testaverde five times, the last by linebacker Pete Giftopoulos with :13 to go in the zone.
Penn State’s defensive backs led by Ray Isom, Duffy Cobbs and Eddie Johnson, were not big by Div. 1 standards, and the Hurricanes had little respect for them. But a series of thunderous hits by “The Smurfs, as they called themselves, soon had Miami receivers short-arming the ball.
“They hadn’t been hit like that. Our little guys rocked ‘em,” Lion All-American linebacker Shane Conlan said after the game.
The win gave Penn State its second national title and is still the most-watched college football game. The Lions finished 12-0.
State’s first national title came in the Sugar Bowl when it shut down another Heisman Trophy winner, Georgia’s Herschel Walker, thanks to defensive end Walker Lee Ashley, linebacker Scott Radecic, who was one of the architects of the last Beaver Stadium renovation, and safety Mark Robinson.
But the most memorable play was a TD pass from Blackledge to Gregg Garrity Sr., who made a diving catch in the end zone. That photo made the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Penn State wound up 11-1, overcoming a mid-season loss to Alabama.
And speaking of memorable moments, the 1994 season had a couple of them, not the least of which was an early-season blowout of Ohio State. The Lions were holding a 14-0 lead well into into the second quarter when their offense exploded as Kerry Collins threw touchdowns passes to Bobby Engram and Mike Archie, and tailback Ki-Jana Carter broke a 36-yard scoring run, leaving the Buckeyes stunned as they went to the locker room trialing 35-0. They wound up losing 63-14.
Only the 1981 offense had as much star power as that team with Collins, Carter and tight end Kyle Brady being among the first 10 picks in the draft.
This story was originally published May 3, 2020 at 7:00 AM.