Penn State Football Eyes Its 300th Win in Beaver Stadium

If – honestly, most likely when – Penn State beats Ball State in its 2021 home opener on Saturday, it will be the Nittany Lions’ 300th win in Beaver Stadium. It’s an added twist to the return of fans to the stadium after a 651 day hiatus.

No. 300 has been 62 years, five head coaches and 376 games in the making.

In 1960, a good chunk of the 30,000-seat Beaver Field was dismantled from its spot on the west end of campus by Rec Hall and moved a mile east to the far outskirts of campus, then re-assembled as the new 46,284-seat Beaver Stadium.

And like that, an immediate homefield advantage was built. And born.

In their first four seasons in Beaver Stadium under head coach Rip Engle, the Nittany Lions won 16 games and lost just three – to No. 19 Missouri and twice to Army (by a combined 7 points).

In the decades since, it has been transformed into the second-largest stadium in the country (Michigan’s Big House, which boasts record crowd of 115,109, has skinnier seats, Joe Paterno used to always bitch) and, says Kirk Herbstreit, provides the “best stadium atmosphere” for a college football game.

Kirk Herbstreit Still Loves The White Out

As Penn State prepares to welcome Ball State, the Nittany Lions own a 299-76 record in Beaver Stadium, just shy of winning eight out of every 10 games they have played there (.7973 winning percentage).

Penn State won its very first game in Beaver Stadium, defeating Boston 20-0 on Sept. 17, 1960. That contest drew 22,559 fans – about equal to the number of student season tickets sold in 2021 and one-fifth of the largest crowd to ever see a game in Beaver Stadium. That record crowd came on Sept. 29, 2018, a 27-26 come-from-ahead loss to Ohio State that generated James Franklin’s iconic “good, great, elite” rant.

The Ball State contest is the first of four-game homestand where the Nittany Lions will play four games in 22 days. That includes a Whiteout next Saturday night against Auburn, followed by games against Villanova — it last played Penn State in football in 1951, losing 20-14 in a contest played at Allentown High School Stadium – and Indiana.

As Franklin begins its eighth home season at Penn State – the last regular season game, at Michigan State will be his 100th as PSU’s head coach – now seems like a fine time to look at some of the brightest spots in Beaver Stadium history. We’ll save the list of Top 11 games in the stadium for last.

RECORD IN BEAVER STADIUM

Joe Paterno — 231-53 (.8134)

James Franklin — 37-10 (.7872)

Rip Engle — 21-8 (.7241)

Bill O’Brien — 10-4 (.7143)

Tom Bradley — 0-1 (.000)

If Penn State runs the table at home in 2021, Franklin will nudge out Paterno for best winning percentage by a Penn State head coach at home in Beaver Stadium, with his potential 44-10 record translating to an .8148 winning percentage.

INCREASE IN HOME GAMES

1960 — four games (3-1)

1961 — five games (4-1)

1973 — six games (6-0)

1977 — seven games (6-1)

2009 — eight games (7-1)

BEST HOME RECORD, 5 CONSECUTIVE SEASONS

Paterno — 33-3 (2005-09: 7-0, 6-1, 6-1, 7-0, 7-1)

Franklin — 32-3 (2015-19: 6-1, 7-0, 7-0, 5-2, 7-0)

Engle — 18-6 (1960-65: 3-1, 4-1, 5-0, 4-1, 2-3)

7-0 HOME RECORD

1978, 1982, 1986, 2016, 2017, 2019

LONGEST GAME

Penn State 43, Michigan 40 (4 overtimes; 4 hours and 11 minutes), Oct. 12, 2013

MOST POINTS

One team: Penn State 81, Cincinnati 0, Sept. 7, 1991

Combined (100): Penn State 56, Nebraska 44, Nov. 18, 2017

TOP 11 GAMES IN BEAVER STADIUM HISTORY

I originally compiled such a list in 2013, in the days after Penn State’s epic four-overtime victory over Michigan. The late, great Fran Fisher and the walking Penn State football encyclopedia, Lou Prato, helped create that first list.

Both of them urged me to place the 1982 27-24 thriller over Nebraska as the No. 1 game in Beaver Stadium history (it is the only one of the 11 that I did not cover in person). I capitulated and put the 2013 PSU-Michigan game as No. 2. Since then, of course, we’ve experienced the Grant Haley scoop-and-score of a Marcus Allen blocked field goal that gave the Nittany Lions a miraculous 24-21 victory over Ohio State.

In the following list — which I appropriated from my original Top 10 list in 2013 (you can read it by clicking here) — I still have that Penn State-Nebraska game as No. 1. It was a night contest with portable lights, when that sort of thing was special, and helped lead Penn State to its first national title. But the 2016 Ohio State game is No. 2.

The updated list follows (a Whiteout win over Auburn could find its way onto lists of this sort in the future). I like that the first three slots are games coached by three different Penn State head coaches:

1. Penn State 27, Nebraska 24; Sept. 25, 1982 – The Drive, The Catch (by McCloskey), PSU was ranked No. 8, Nebraska No. 2. Without this win, Penn State would have never won its first national championship, since it then had to absorb a loss to Alabama the very next week and hold on for a 10-1 regular season record.

2. Penn State 24, Ohio State 21; Oct. 22, 2016 – Ohio State entered the game ranked No. 2 in the nation, and Penn State was a shaky 4-2 after getting trounced in Michigan and barely beating Minnesota in overtime. But this was the first year of OC Joe Moorhead, and as much as anything, JoeMo injected a feeling of potential and possibility inro the team. I remember at a luncheon that week Haley and Saquon Barkley and Mike Gesicki all saying they thought they could beat OSU. Haley’s TD turned out to be one of the biggest in Penn State history.

3. Penn State 43, Michigan 40; Oct. 12, 2013 – A record four-overtime OT win, Homecoming, a 23-second drive, A-Rob’s amazing catch, the best sustained stadium crowd ever, a limited squad size.

4. Penn State 17, Ohio State 10; Oct. 8, 2005 – A raucous Whiteout and a huge win over the sixth-ranked Buckeyes by the No. 16 Nittany Lions. It signaled Penn State’s return to glory.

5. Penn State 29, Ohio State 27; Oct. 27, 2001 – Paterno’s win No. 324, moving him ahead of Alabama’s Bear Bryant as the winningest coach in major college football history. Penn State’s 18-point comeback, triggered by quarterback Zack Mills in relief with 280 passing and 138 rushing yards, was at the time the biggest at home for a Paterno-coached squad. Mills’ 69-yard TD run, where he hurdled a teammate and watched the scoreboard to check for approaching OSU tacklers, is a Penn State classic.

6. Penn State 24, Wisconsin 21; Nov. 24, 2012 – Penn State ended the 2012 season with a win in overtime for an emotional senior day for a group that held the program together. Injured Michael Mauti’s No. 42 was placed on the side of every Penn State player’s helmet. 

7. Penn State 10, Illinois 7; Oct. 29, 2011 – The victory in miserable weather, thanks in large part to a last-minute missed Illini field goal, gave Paterno win No. 409 – making him the winningest coach in Division I college football. At the time, no one knew it would be his last game or what would transpire just a week later.

8. Penn State 35, Northwestern 21; Nov. 6, 2010 — PSU roared back from a 21-point first-half deficit and scored 35 consecutive points to give Paterno 400 victories as Matt McGloin threw for four touchdowns, the first that culminated a 91-yard drive that took just 47 seconds to end the first half.

9. Penn State 63, Ohio State 14; Oct. 29, 1994 – Homecoming, and No. 1 Penn State beat No. 21 Ohio State in a shock-and-awe performance that showed the sheer power and glory of the 1994 Nittany Lions.

10. Penn State 19, Pitt 10; Nov. 26, 1982 – A classic Penn State-Pitt battle that, at the time, was one of college football’s greatest rivalries. No. 2 PSU beat No. 5 Pitt, with Dan Marino, to earn a spot in the 1983 Sugar Bowl to play No. 1 Georgia. We all know how that turned out.

11. Penn State 39, Northwestern 28; Oct. 6, 2012 – Homecoming and the second 2012 game on the list, tying the 1982 season for top spots. Led by McGloin’s two TD passes (in his second Top 11 appearance) and a 5-yard scoring run to go with his 282 passing yards, PSU scored 22 points in the fourth quarter and came from 11 points down to win.