Only a few days before the College Football Playoffs finally begin, ESPN Films will show a 30-minute documentary that Penn State fans should enjoy even if the story doesn’t work out for the Nittany Lions in the end.
A retelling of the 1969 football season, the film goes into the controversy that saw then-President Richard Nixon favoring top-ranked Texas over an undefeated Penn State team for the honor of National Champion.
The arbitrary and somewhat political process could be seen as the source of the eventual playoff which debuts this postseason. Penn State came up on the short end of the stick in 1969 despite putting together back-to-back undefeated seasons and doing so in perhaps more impressive fashion than Texas in 1969.
StateCollege.com was able to view an early screening of the film on Tuesday and the rarely seen footage of Joe Paterno, Penn State and President Nixon makes this a must-watch history lesson for all fans. The short documentary features old interviews with Paterno and Nixon as well as ESPN host Chris Fowler, former Nixon aide Pat Buchanan and “Horns, Hogs & Nixon Coming” author Terry Frei.
Even if fans don’t enjoy the story, the footage alone is worth the half hour it takes for the story to unfold. From Nixon sitting in the stands for the Texas/Arkansas game to Joe Paterno hanging up on him days later the story covers a lot of ground in a short amount of time. If nothing else it’s the first TV production in years that has managed to go any length of time without ever mentioning the Jerry Sandusky scandal.
The feature will premiere Sunday, Dec. 28 at 10:30 p.m. ET on ESPN. So Penn State fans will either be a day removed from a bowl victory or hoping to avoid reliving two unhappy memories in one weekend.
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