September 17, 1960: Beaver Stadium Opens

A "White Out Game"

September 17, 1960: Beaver Stadium opens on the campus of the Pennsylvania State University in State College, 192 miles from Center City Philadelphia, 88 miles from the State Capitol in Harrisburg, and 137 miles from Downtown Pittsburgh. Ranked Number 19 in the nation at the time, Penn State beat Boston University, 20-0.

For anybody who grew up from the late 1960s into the early 21st Century, it's hard to imagine anybody but Joe Paterno coaching the Nittany Lions. But, at this point, he was still an assistant coach under Charles "Rip" Engle, who led them from 1950 to 1965, after which point Paterno coached them until the scandal that brought him down in 2011, followed by his death from cancer early in 2012.

From their debut in 1887 until 1891, Penn State played football on the lawn in front of their administration building, "Old Main." From 1892 to 1908, they played at Beaver Field, named for James A. Beaver, who was Governor of Pennsylvania from 1887 to 1891, and then president of the University's Board of Trustees. It stood between present-day Osmond and Frear Laboratories.

In 1909, New Beaver Field, seating 30,000, was built on the original site of the Nittany Lion Inn (the current version dates to 1931), where the current stadium's parking deck now stands. Penn State had some success there, but not like what was to come under Paterno.

They outgrew the stadium in the 1950s, and Beaver Stadium was built, with an initial capacity of 69,000. With a current official capacity of 106,572, it is the 2nd-largest stadium in North America, behind the University of Michigan's Michigan Stadium. Its record crowd is 110,889, on September 29, 2018, for what turned out to be a 27-26 loss to Ohio State. (UPDATE: That record was broken on November 2, 2024, with 111,030 coming to see another loss to Ohio State, 20-13.)

The stadium is known for its "S-Zone," where students are all given white and blue shirts, supplied by the Pennsylvania State University Lion Ambassadors, to create an "S" for "State"; and "White Out" games, where everybody wears white shirts.

Opening the same day as Beaver Stadium was University Stadium, on the campus of the University of New Mexico, in Albuquerque. UNM played the University of Mexico, known to Mexican soccer fans as "Pumas" for their wild feline mascot. The visitors did not adjust well to the American version of football, as the host Lobos beat them, 77-6.

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September 17, 1960 was a Saturday. Baseball pitcher John Franco was born. So was Kevin Clash, the puppeteer who originally operated Elmo on Sesame Street.

These other notable college football games were played:

* Number 1 Syracuse, the defending National Champions, opened their season the following week. So did Number 5 Illinois, Number 8 Michigan State, Number 9 Clemson, Number 10 Oklahoma, and unranked Notre Dame. So did New Jersey's teams, Rutgers and Princeton, against each other, in a 13-8 Rutgers win in Princeton.

* Number 2 Mississippi, a.k.a. Ole Miss, beat the University of Houston, 42-0 at Rice Stadium in Houston.

* Number 3 Washington beat the University of the Pacific, 55-6 at Husky Stadium in Seattle.

* Number 4 Texas were upset by Nebraska, 14-13 at Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas.

* The night before, Number 6 University of Southern California (USC) were upset by Oregon State, 14-0 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* Number 7 University of Pittsburgh were upset by the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), 8-7 at the L.A. Coliseum.

* Number 11 Texas Christian University (TCU) were upset by Kansas, 21-7 at Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, Kansas.

* Number 13 Georgia were upset by Alabama, 21-6 at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama.

* Among the service academies, Army beat the University of Buffalo, 37-0 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York; Navy beat Boston College, 22-7 at Alumni Stadium in the Boston suburb of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts; and Air Force opened their season the next week.

One game was played in the brand-new American Football League: The Boston Patriots beat the New York Titans, 28-24 at the Polo Grounds. Those teams would become known as the New England Patriots and the New York Jets, respectively.

These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-3 at Yankee Stadium. Bob Turley started, but Jim Coates ended up as the winning pitcher. Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra hit home runs. Roger Maris went 0-for-4. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Washington Senators, 2-1 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Ted Williams hit his 520th career home run. At the time, this was 3rd in baseball history behind Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx. He would hit 1 more. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-3 with a walk. At the time, he had 82 career home runs. He would hit 491 more.

* The Kansas City Athletics beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-5 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Ken Hamlin's home run was the 1st of 3 runs the A's scored in the top of the 10th inning.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-4 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. The ballpark was renamed Tiger Stadium the next season. Al Kaline went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Don Cardwell was the winning pitcher. The Cubs scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 8th, 2 off Sandy Koufax, 3 off Larry Sherry. Earlier, Ernie Banks hit a home run off Koufax. The next year, in Spring Training, Sherry would tell Koufax to stop trying to strike everybody out. It was among the greatest advice in baseball history.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Milwaukee Braves, 5-2 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Tony Curry hit a bases-loaded double in the top of the 10th inning. Hank Aaron went 2-for-4. Eddie Mathews went 1-for-5 with an RBI.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants, 4-1 at the 1st Busch Stadium (formerly the last Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Stan Musial did not play. Willie Mays went 0-for-4, but had an RBI on a groundout. Willie McCovey appeared as a pinch-hitter, but did not reach base.

* With some irony, the major league team the closest to Penn State, the Pittsburgh Pirates, were rained out of their game with the Cincinnati Reds, although it was at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. It was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day. The Pirates swept, 5-3 and 1-0.

Vernon Law won his 20th game of the season in the opener, on his way to the Cy Young Award, then given to the best pitcher in both Leagues. Dick Stuart and Don Hoak hit home runs. In the nightcap, Wilmer "Vinegar Bend" Mizell pitched a 3-hit shutout, outpitching Bob Purkey. The only run came in the top of the 7th inning, when Dick Schofield doubled Hoak home. Over the 2 games, Roberto Clemente went 1-for-8 with a walk.

And in English soccer, Arsenal defeated North-East team Newcastle United, 5-0 at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury, in North London. David Herd scored 3 goals.

August 30, 2003: Katie Hnida Makes Her Point(s)

August 30, 2003: The University of New Mexico football team beat Texas State, 72-8 at University Stadium in Albuquerque. Katie Hnida kicked 2 extra points, both in the 4th quarter with the game far out of doubt, becoming the 1st woman to score any points in an NCAA Division I-A (now Bowl Championship Series) game, and only the 3rd to do so in any NCAA-sanctioned game.

Katharine Anne Hnida (NIGH-da) was born on May 17, 1981 in Denver, and grew up in the nearby suburb of Littleton, Colorado. She became the placekicker for the football team at Chatfield High School, going 3-for-3 on field goals and 27-for-28 on extra point attempts. Rick Reilly wrote about her in Sports Illustrated. She was going to the University of Colorado, not just her home-State team but, at the time, one of the top college football programs. Things were going great.

Hnida became only the 2nd woman ever to suit up for NCAA Division I football games, the 1st in a Division I-A game, and the 1st in a bowl game, the 1999 Insight.com Bowl in Tucson, Arizona. But head coach Gary Barnett, who had revived the program at Northwestern University, never put her into a game. She left the program in 2000, after illness curtailed her ability to compete for a roster spot.

Barnett inherited her from previous head coach Rick Neuheisel, so it began to look like a classic case of a new coach thinking, "He wasn't my recruit, I don't believe in him, and I'm not playing him." If that had been the extent of it, that would have been bad enough.

That wasn't the extent of it. In 2004, knowing that Reilly lived in Littleton and had a friendly ear, Hnida went to him, and delivered the awful truth: There was a culture of toxic masculinity where women were terrorized. She was raped by a teammate, and gave Reilly several other instances of sexual harassment. Reilly dug deeper, and found several other women who reported being assaulted by members or recruits of the Colorado football team during this time.

Barnett denied the accusations. But other journalists dug, and found other improprieties in the Colorado program. At the end of the 2005 season, Barnett was forced to resign. In 2007, Colorado was put on probation. Barnett has never coached again. He runs a foundation, and has gone into broadcasting.

Hnida transferred to the University of New Mexico, and made their football team as a walk-on placekicker. With the Lobos losing the 2002 Las Vegas Bowl to UCLA, 27-13, head coach Rocky Long put her into the game to attempt an extra point. It was blocked.

On August 30, 2003, with New Mexico's win over Texas State established, Long put Hnida in to attempt 2 extra points. She successfully converted both of them, becoming the 1st woman to score in a Division I-A game. She got her degree in December 2004.

She has since made a living on the lecture tour, standing up for women in and out of sports. In 2010, she made a brief return to football, playing 3 games with the Fort Wayne FireHawks of the Continental Indoor Football League before a blood clot in her kicking leg forced her out.

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August 30, 2003 was a Saturday. Among the other college football games played that day were these:

* Number 1 Oklahoma beat North Texas, 37-3 at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman.

* In what looked at the time like a possible preview of the Rose Bowl, Number 2 Ohio State beat Number 17 Washington, 28-9 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus.

* Number 4 Michigan beat Central Michigan, 45-7 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.

* Number 6 Auburn was mildly upset by Number 8 Southern California, 23-0 at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Alabama.

* Number 7 Kansas State beat Troy University, 41-5 at KSU Stadium (now Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium) in Manhattan, Kansas.

* In a rivalry game, Number 23 Colorado State were upset by Colorado, 42-35 at Invesco Field at Mile High (now Empower Field at Mile High) in Denver.

* In another rivalry game, Missouri beat Illinois, 22-15 at the Edward Jones Dome (now The Dome at America's Center) in St. Louis.

* Among the service academies, Navy beat Virginia Military Institute, 37-10 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland; Air Force beat Wofford, 49-0 at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs; and Army opened their season the next week.

* Penn State beat Temple, 23-10 at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania.

* Rutgers beat the University of Buffalo, 24-10 at the new Rutgers Stadium (now SHI Stadium) in Piscataway, New Jersey.

Three teams in the Top 10 played on other days:

* The preceding Thursday, August 28, Number 3 Miami beat Louisiana Tech, 48-9 at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana.

* On the following Sunday, August 31, Number 5 Texas beat New Mexico State, 66-7 at Memorial Stadium in Austin.

* Also on Sunday, Number 9 Virginia Tech beat Central Florida, 49-28 at Lane Stadium in Blackburg, Virginia.

* There was also a notable rivalry game on Sunday, though neither team was ranked: Louisville beat Kentucky, 40-24 at Commonwealth Stadium (now Kroger Field) in Lexington.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 10-7 at Fenway Park in Boston. Andy Pettitte was the winning pitcher, while Pedro Martinez only lasted 4 innings. Jorge Posada hit 2 home runs, Nick Johnson went 4-for-5 with 4 RBIs, and Derek Jeter went 2-for-4.

* The New York Mets lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-2 at Shea Stadium. Randy Wolf outpitched Tom Glavine. Jason Phillips hit a home run for the Mets.

* The Florida Marlins beat the Montreal Expos, 4-3 at Pro Player Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 13-6 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Cleveland Indians, 9-3 at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-3 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-2 at Comerica Park in Detroit.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Chicago Cubs, 9-5 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Texas Rangers, 2-0 at The Ballpark (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Johan Santana pitched 6 innings of 5-hit shutout ball, and 3 relievers completed the 6-hit shutout.

* The Houston Astros beat the San Diego Padres, 11-6 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 2-1 at Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field) in Phoenix. Barry Bonds and Rich Aurilia hit home runs off Randy Johnson, who was outpitched by Jerome Williams.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies, 5-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Four Dodger pitchers combined on a 4-hit shutout: Kazuhisa Ishii allowed 3 over 5 innings, Guillermo Mota pitched a perfect 6th and 7th (allowing him to be named as the winning pitcher), Tom Martin allowed a hit in the 8th, and Paul Shuey pitched a perfect 9th.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 4-2 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the Network Associates Coliseum).

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Baltimore Orioles, 13-1 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle. The Mariners scored 10 runs in the 5th inning. Ichiro Suzuki went 0-for-3 with 2 walks.

* And the Kansas City Royals and the team then known as the Anaheim Angels were rained out at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. The game was rescheduled for September 6, as part of a doubleheader, but was moved to the Angels' home, then named Edison International Field of Anaheim (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). The Angels swept the doubleheader, 6-5 and 3-1.