Penn State has played Pitt 96 times in football.
You have to figure that’s over 10,000 plays.
The most memorable? The biggest, most exciting? (At least as far as Penn State is concerned.)
I don’t have to tell you. You already know:
Kenny Jackson’s Catch.
The one that Penn State’s first All-American wide receiver made early in the second half of the teams’ historic 1981 game.
The one that came in front of a national television audience and 60,260 fans on Nov. 28 in since-demolished Pitt Stadium, two days after Thanksgiving.
The one where Pitt entered the game 10-0 and ranked No. 1 the country. Penn State, No. 1 earlier in the season until falling 17-14 to Miami in a hurricane on Halloween Eve in the Orange Bowl, was 8-2 following a 31-16 loss to Alabama.
The one that came at the tail end of a pass from Penn State quarterback Todd Blackledge — after which Jackson stopped in his tracks inches from the sideline, intentionally did a 180-degree spin then raced the final 11 yards to the end zone to give Penn State a 42-yard touchdown, a 21-14 lead, a massive come-from-behind victory and a lifetime hold over Pitt that it has never relinquished.
Watch it here. Again and again, in all of its seven seconds of glory.
BLAME IT IN JOE
It was a catch, Jackson told me earlier this week, that he made in part to shut up head coach Joe Paterno, who had been riding Jackson the entire week of practice – already made miserable since the campus was empty and Jackson had no chance to make it home to New Jersey for the holidays.
“That catch was for Joe,” Jackson said. “He was on my butt. He knew he had to get me mad, to get me stoked up. I had to shut Joe up. I was on the sideline the entire game, telling Joe to give me the ball.”
As it was, Jackson made five catches that day for 158 yards, with touchdown receptions of 42 and 45 yards, plus a 52-yard non-scoring bomb from Blackledge — who passed for 262 yards on 12 completions – for good measure.
“I’ve never seen anything like it, before or since,” Jackson said. “I was in a-whole-nother world. Like Stephen Curry in basketball, I was in a zone. The whole game was like in slow motion for me.
“On that play, I went across in motion, then out and up. It was against (Pitt cornerback) Tim Lewis. I coached him when I was with the Steelers. A Pennsylvania boy. I’d always tease him about it. When the ball came, I’m already thinking I’m going to grab it, stop and do a spin on him. I knew I wasn’t going to step out of bounds. I’m thinking, ‘I’m going for a touchdown.’”
And he did. “When I came to the sideline, Joe had that smirk,” he said. “A bit of a smile. He knew exactly how to get me going.”
Penn State led for the first time, 21-14, and never looked back. But it almost wasn’t so.
BLAME IT ON ROGER
Pitt, paced by a pair of touchdown passes from quarterback Dan Marino to Dwight Collins, had led 14-0 after the first quarter. Only an interception in the end zone by Kenny’s older brother, Roger, on the first play of the second quarter, kept the Panthers from going ahead 21-0. Kenny contends that the real hero of the day was actually Roger, who had one pick, set up another for Mark Robinson with a jarring hit of Julius Dawkins and also sent the Pitt punter to the sidelines with a broken leg.
“Roger saw how Joe was on me, so he figured this game really meant something,” said Kenny. “Without that interception of Marino, and the ball popped out of Dawkins’ hands after Roger hit him, Pitt would have led 21-0. That probably would have meant the game. Dan was that good. He was something special.”
Even though the Jacksons were from New Jersey, the game was personal. Kenny seriously contemplated going to Pitt; the host for his official visit there was Marino himself. Pitt head coach Jackie Sherrill, envisioning what Marino could do with the speedy Jackson on his side, had put on the full-court press.
“I almost went to Pitt. Jackie said not to go to Penn State, that Joe doesn’t throw the ball,” laughed Jackson. “But it was one of the best decisions I ever made. Joe was like a second father to me. The trust he had in me was amazing.”
Jackson followed The Catch with a 45-yard TD grab to give Penn State a 28-14 lead. Penn State kept piling it on. Brian Franco added field goals of 39 and 38 yards, and All-American guard Sean Farrell pounced on a Curt Warner fumble in the end zone for another TD. Then Robinson grabbed his second interception of the day – Marino threw four picks and Pitt lost three fumbles – and raced 91 yards for a touchdown. And he went the distance without, famously, one shoe.
Penn State had scored 48 straight points to crush its in-state rival.
Even at that, Jackson didn’t really grasp the significance of the victory – and the rivalry – until he returned to Penn State a dozen years later as an assistant coach. By then, he had graduated from Penn State with 27 school records, gone to the NFL as the No. 4 overall pick in the 1984 Draft and played eight seasons in the pros, seven with the Eagles and one with Houston.
“Until I came back to be an assistant under Joe” from 1993-2000, Jackson said, “I didn’t get what a big game it really was. And what it meant to Penn State and to Joe and all the guys on the staff. So many of them – Fran Ganter, Dick Anderson, Tommy Bradley – had played in those games and coached in those games against Pitt. It’s deep.”
THE PITTSBURGH ANGLE
Like his catch, Jackson’s vantage point of the Penn State-Pitt series is almost uniformly unique, matched perhaps only by current Nittany Lion assistant Terry Smith, who was a longtime high school coach in the Pittsburgh area, and Bradley, who’s had a lifetime of ties to the Steel City and Happy Valley.
Jackson was the Pittsburgh Steelers’ wide receivers coach from 2001-2003, and his very first season coached both Plaxico Burress and Hines Ward to 1,000-yard seasons, the first time two receivers cracked that barrier in team history.
“A ticket to Penn State-Pitt is more valuable than the Steelers vs. New England,” Jackson said. “I love the Rooneys. I loved my time in Pittsburgh. But…”
But there’s a catch.
“But,” Jackson said earlier this week, knowing he was on the Penn State sidelines the last time this rivalry game was played. “I love Penn State more than anything.”
