Penn State has played 348 games in Beaver Stadium since 1960.
Twice in that 56-year history, the Nittany Lions have knocked off a No. 2 team under the lights.
First, there was eighth-ranked Penn State’s improbable 27-24 victory over second-ranked Nebraska on Sept. 25, 1982, played in Beaver Stadium.
Then there was the unranked Nittany Lions’ 24-21 WhiteOut win over second-ranked Ohio State on Saturday night. And how.
Neither Beaver Stadium classic surpasses the national championship game victories over Georgia in 1982 and Miami (Fla.) in 1986 as the biggest wins in Penn State’s 130-year, 1,286-game history.
Together, though, they rank 1-2 as the biggest wins in stadium history. But in what order?
THE CASE FOR NEBRASKA
We tried to answer this question three years ago, the day after Penn State defeated Michigan in four overtimes, 43-40. To do so back then, I tapped into the collective wisdom of the late and great broadcaster Fran Fisher, and Penn State football historian Lou Prato (who was in the press box on Saturday night).
And without a doubt, all three of us picked that Nebraska game as No. 1. Read that story here.
Why was Nebraska, the 124th game in stadium history, No. 1?
Well, it had a massive amount of dramatic elements and lots of contextual history. It included an epic 65-yard drive with 1:18 left that featured The Catch by Mike McCloskey (in bounds all the way?) and the low grab of the winning TD by Kirk Bowman. A fourth-quarter comeback. A highly-respected opponent.
It was the first game ever played under the lights at Beaver Stadium (portable ones, from Musco), with a 3:45 p.m. kick and a crowd that never stopped screaming. Without that victory, Penn State likely would not have won its first national championship that season, as it lost 42-17 the next week at Alabama. The win over the Cornhuskers was one of a strong handful of intersectional victories Penn State needed to solidify its place as a national power and validate a 31-5 stretch from 1980-82 that culminated with the Nittany Lions’ 27-23 national title-winning victory over Georgia in the 1983 Sugar Bowl.
Without that national title, would have Penn State still been No. 1 in 1986? I’ll say yes; maybe fueled by the promises of 1981-82 unfilled, perhaps the initial No. 1 (also?) would have come in 1985. We’ll never know.
THE CASE FOR OHIO STATE
We do know this about Penn State’s victory over Ohio State on Saturday night. It was bigger than football. (Hence, Exhibit A that Penn State does, indeed, have a football culture.)
Head coach James Franklin, alternately laughing and in tears and all chocked up after the game, shared why:
“This is for everybody,” Franklin said. “This community has been through so much in the last five years, and this is a big step in the right direction in terms of healing. I said this very, very early on — that for us to get where we wanted to be, we need this entire community to be together. And a win like tonight, I know I’m biased, but I believe that football has the ability to bring a community together like nothing else, so I want to thank everybody.”
Context is everything. And that’s why the victory over Ohio State on Saturday was very likely the biggest win in Beaver Stadium history. (Despite Prato’s call to me Sunday morning, in which his first words were, after my hello, “It’s still Nebraska.” Typical Lou, who is a Penn State treasure.)
There was so much more than just the game. Granted (Haley), though, Saturday’s contest was a great game to watch: From a scoreless first-quarter punching match – the only quarter in 2016 that the Buckeyes failed to score until Penn State blanked them again in the fourth quarter – to a riveting and epic 14-point fourth-quarter comeback (capped by Haley’s 60-yard scoop-and-score after a blocked field goal), it had everything:
There was a safety; a muffed punt; two blocked field goals and a missed extra point,; a TD dash that was so desperately and McSorely wanted by Penn State’s quarterback; the return and shared 31 tackles of linebackers Brandon Bell and Jason Cabinda; and a fourth-quarter, 90-yard five-play, 80-second Penn State drive that pulled Penn State back from a 21-7 abyss and reignited a Penn State crowd of 107,280.
It was David vs. Goliath. The Nittany Lions entered as a massive 20.5-point underdog. Ohio State had the ball for over 37 minutes, Penn State barely 22. Under Urban Meyer, the Buckeye had won 20 consecutive true road games and had beaten Penn State four straight times. Before Saturday, Ohio State had won 78 straight games when leading by 14 in the fourth quarter.
There was revenge. The win was payback against Meyer and his 63-14 thrashing in 2013 and the Buckeyes’ disputed 31-24 OT win at The Beav in 2014. Someone I know who knows someone in Columbus who knows Urban said the Buckeye coach had visions this past summer of “hanging a basketball number on Penn State.”
There was history. It was Penn State’s first win against a Top 2 team since a 1990 24-21 road victory at Notre Dame; its first victory against a Top 5 team since beating Arizona 41-7 at home in the 1999 season-opener; and its first win against a ranked opponent since knocking off No. 14 Wisconsin, 31-24, in 2013. (A great win in its own regard, far beyond football.)
But for all the drama, for all the numbers, for every one of the #107k who was there Saturday night, there was more.
There was redemption.
WIN ONE FOR THE…
The win was for the Penn State players – the Mautis and Zordichs and McGloins – who held the team together. And the ones like bold and spiritual leaders Miles Dieffenbach and Nyeem Wartman-White and Andrew Nelson, who suffered major injuries along the way. And the quarterback named Christian Hackenberg, who took a pounding in so many ways.
It was for Franklin, of course, who has endured criticism and a hot seat to earn his Signature Win. His backflips and optimism and hashtags now have new meaning.
But, most of all, it was for the Penn State and State College communities…students who came despite scandal, alumni who stayed loyal, locals who are still impacted in so many ways, on the surface and in their psyches, so many years and tears later…who have endured so much over the past 1,813 days, dating back to Nov. 5, 2011.
That the victory came at the end of the first week of Mike McQueary’s trial vs. Penn State and just two weeks shy of the five-year anniversary of the initial Sandusky charges gives this victory a depth of meaning that the Nittany Lions’ 1982 win over Nebraska never can.
One could say that the 1982 thrilling defeat of Nebraska was key in firmly and forever establishing the football culture at Penn State, in so many good ways. (Todd Blackledge, the quarterback who led the winning drive, was a Phi Beta Kappa, an Academic All-American, the leader of the squad’s Monday night Bible fellowship group and an NCAA Silver Award winner for his post-graduate success.)
MOUNT NITTANY HIGH
But the 2016 victory was even more important. Energized by thousands of white T-shirt-wearers and screaming white knucklers, fueled by social media, powered by a team of young men who literally never quit, Nittany Nation felt whole and as one again.
On the field, the 1982 game may have meant more in pure football terms. However, for its impact on The Pennsylvania State University, the upset of Ohio State meant much more.
Let’s not downplay the role of social media in all of this. Twitter and Instagram and Facebook and group texts connected Penn Staters around the world on Saturday in a positive way – all for one all at one time – like nothing ever has. Football did that. Beating Ohio State did that.
Penn State may have hit rock bottom. And now, to be Franklin with you, it’s on its way back up.
Saturday night’s Mount Nittany high was so big because its not-so-Happy Valley lows were so deep.
