If confession is good for the soul, this is as good a time as any for me to come clean. On Sept. 10, Penn State’s football team will play Pitt for the first time in 16 years, and the renewal of this rivalry reminds me of how much I used to hate Pitt.
Sure, I know the Nittany Lions are opening their season against Kent State. But I don’t play for Coach James Franklin, so I don’t have to take ‘em one at a time. I’m already focused on Penn State’s game in Pittsburgh.
Perhaps I should clarify the nature of my dislike for the Panthers. Of course, I didn’t hate the people at the University of Pittsburgh. In fact, I didn’t know any students from that school in the days when I detested all things Pitt-iful.
Rather, I hated Pitt as an athletic entity. Something about those blue and gold uniforms gave me an uncomfortable feeling. And the Panther mascot seemed like a villainous cat alternative to the fun-loving and gracious Nittany Lion.
My aversion to Pitt traces back to my Dad. I hate to pin it on him since Marty Horlacher was such a kind and gentle man. But he was less charitable when the topic of the Panthers came up, for two reasons. First, Pitt dominated PSU from 1937 through 1940 when Dad was a Penn State student. They were the big boys from the big city who looked down on Penn State’s country bumpkins. Winners of five national titles from 1929 to 1937, the Panthers outscored the Lions by a total of 74 to 24 during the four games in Dad’s era.
DITKA PLAYING BASKETBALL?
The second reason may surprise you. Dad frequently talked about the aggressiveness of Mike Ditka — on the basketball court. Yes, Ditka played football for Pitt from 1958-60, earning All-America honors and paving the way for an All-Pro career in the NFL. But it’s a little-known fact that he also played college basketball and baseball.
My Dad loved the speed and finesse of basketball, so he detested Ditka’s intimidating approach to a non-contact sport. Bob Timmons was Iron Mike’s coach in both football and basketball at Pitt, and he said this of Ditka: “He’ll hit the first guy he sees.” According to the journalist who published that quote, Timmons was talking about Ditka’s basketball as much as his football.
The University of Pittsburgh campus is dominated by a magnificent 42-story Gothic Revival skyscraper that is known as the “Cathedral of Learning.” But Dad had a funnier — and less respectful — name for the giant classroom building. He always called it “The Heights of Ignorance.”
FAVORITE TWO TEAMS
Of course, growing up in State College and graduating from Penn State did nothing to remove the bad Pitt feeling from the pit of my stomach. For many years, I would have said my favorite two teams were the Nittany Lions and whoever was playing the Panthers. Even today, I would list Penn State’s 1981 clash with Pitt as one of my all-time favorite football games. Pitt entered that game undefeated and ranked first in the nation. The Panthers scored the first 14 points that day, but the Lions roared back to a shocking 48-14 triumph.
Regardless of whether other Penn State people would say they “hate” the Panther football brand, almost all would put a big focus on the Pitt game — at least they did in the past when the schools played every year. Some examples:
-
Keith Maurer is a 1980 graduate of Penn State and he serves as my pastor at the State College Evangelical Free Church. He also believes in the concept that confession is good for the soul. “My wife and I were driving along an interstate highway in Western Pennsylvania many years ago,” says Keith, “and we were listening to the Pitt-Penn State game on the radio. It was pretty intense. Suddenly, I looked in my rear-view mirror and I saw the flashing blue lights. So I got pulled over. And the policeman comes up to the window and asks me if I had any idea of how fast I was going. I said, ‘To be honest, officer, I got engrossed in the Pitt-Penn State football game and I wasn’t paying attention.’ So he paused for a moment and then said, ‘Who’s winning the game?’ I told him it was Penn State. He let me off with a warning, and I was very thankful. I guess he was a Penn State fan.”
-
Mark Miller, a 1976 PSU grad, is a resident of Bellefonte who serves as the head of Frontier Natural Resources, an independent oil and natural gas producer. Mark is a diehard fan, and he proved it in the late 1970s. “We lived in Beckley, West Virginia, back then,” says Mark. “There wasn’t any ESPN in those days, and we couldn’t get the game on radio. So we found a place up beyond Elkins, West Virginia — up on a ridge — where we could get a Pennsylvania station with a scratchy signal. The very first time we did that was to hear the Penn State-Pitt game. We drove nearly four hours each way, but I told my wife, “I just have to hear it.”
Ironically, one Penn Stater who did not experience an unusual focus on the Pitt game was Jay Paterno, the son of Penn State’s legendary coach, Joe Paterno. I would have guessed that Jay grew up throwing darts at a stuffed panther, but that was not the case. “My Dad treated every game the same,” says Jay. “He never wanted to put too much emphasis on one game over all the others. For his career, Penn State tallied a 23-7-1 record against Pitt, so his approach obviously worked.”
NO LONGER A HATER
So, if I grew up with a bad Pitt feeling in the pit of my stomach, what led to a change? Well, in 1988 I met a former pastor, Ken Wagoner. Ken had recently joined an organization that serves international students, and that made us colleagues. We soon realized we had lots in common.
Not only were Ken and I both involved in Christian ministry, but both of us graduated from college in 1974. Ken and his wife, Rosie, were married in 1978, one year later than I married my wife, Kathy. Each couple has three children, sequenced at nearly the same ages. And both of us are big sports-lovers — Ken as a participant more than me. Ken, you see, played basketball for Pitt.
Of course, it didn’t take long for Ken and I to discover our conflicting loyalties, and the humorous put-downs began. In fact, some 28 years later, we still use some of the same disparaging jokes. A typical exchange is this one:
Ken– “There are more Penn State graduates in Allegheny County (where Pittsburgh is located) than any other county in the United States. That makes me think how easy it must be to earn a degree from Penn State. “
Me– “The other conclusion might be that Pittsburghers prefer a really outstanding institution even if they have to drive more than two hours to reach it.”
I soon realized that Ken’s Pitt allegiance ran as deep as my third-generation ties to Penn State. It all became clear when a close friend of his was moving to State College for his job. Sensing an opportunity to exalt his university, Ken offered to pay for the friend’s home to be painted, as long as the colors of blue and gold would be chosen and a large panther insignia placed on the side of the house. “It was a perfect place,” says Ken. “Right along Atherton Street where everyone would see it.” Not only was Ken dead serious about this wacky idea, but his fellow Panther was actually very excited about it. There was one problem. The friend’s wife is a Penn State graduate, and she put the kibosh on the idea.
Ken Wagoner is a former Pitt basketball player who enjoys his school’s rivalry with Penn State. Photo: Bill Horlacher
MORE IMPORTANT CONCERNS
For Ken and me, there was always time for a put-down or two. (His best one: “Penn State fans always remind us that they sell out almost every game; they can get 100,000 people to their stadium. But everybody from Pitt knows there’s nothing else to do up there.”) But over the years, other matters took precedence. Raising kids, doing the challenging work of ministry, and then there was a health crisis for Ken.
Back in 1996, Ken was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Suddenly, he was thrust into a process that included one surgery, four months of chemotherapy and 20 days of radiation treatment. Says Ken, “It was the grace of God — that He allowed me to move on with good doctors, a proper treatment, family support and good friends. I very rarely even think of myself as a cancer survivor today.”
As for me, I was one of hundreds who prayed for Ken and who were absolutely thrilled by his complete recovery. And let me tell you, there’s nothing to put perspective into the world of sports than to see your “rival” dealing with a life-threatening disease.
ROOTING FOR JAMES CONNER
So that’s how I found the grace to take on a new attitude toward the University of Pittsburgh. I will still yell like a fool in support of my Nittany Lions on Sept. 10, but to tell you the truth, I would be just fine with the Panthers winning all their other games. And I wouldn’t mind seeing Pitt running back James Conner go for more than 100 yards against Penn State—in a losing effort. As you probably know, Conner has made a remarkable recovery from Hodgkin’s.
Meanwhile, while he ministers to students at Pitt and Carnegie-Mellon, Ken is faithful to pray for his friends who are active in ministry at Penn State. And he is thrilled when good things happen on our campus. He’s an especially big fan of THON and the assistance it provides for kids who battle cancer. He also admits to cheering for the Penn State football team in certain situations — like the 1987 Fiesta Bowl win over Miami which gave the Lions their second national championship. (Of course, he’s quick to remind me that the Pitt football program has won nine national titles.)
It’s funny how things change over the years. West Virginia always seemed like a hated rival, but now I have dear friends who live in Morgantown. Syracuse football players were always bad guys to me, but now I have a Syracuse t-shirt in my closet. (Kathy and I are close friends of State College’s John and Colleen Rodgers, and their son, Sam, was a captain of the Syracuse team in 2014.)
How about Ohio State? Yes, we also have wonderful friends in Columbus, Ohio. But let’s just say that with respect to Ohio State, I still need more grace.
