November 26, 1982: Dan Marino's College Failure

November 26, 1982: Number 2 Penn State beat Number 5 University of Pittsburgh, 19-10 at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania. This was a big moment for Penn State, as it set them up to win their 1st National Championship, after controversial denials of such in the seasons of 1968, 1969, 1973, 1977 and 1978.

It was a bad moment for "Pitt," because it meant that the man often regarded as their greatest player ever, quarterback Dan Marino, would finish his career without a major championship. Both schools were then independents, and thus had no Conference Championship to win. It was possible for them to win the National Championship, but now, Dan Marino would not win one.

Under head coach Johnny Majors, with Heisman Trophy winner Tony Dorsett running the ball, Pitt went undefeated and won the National Championship in 1976. Then Majors took the job at his alma mater, the University of Tennessee, and was replaced by his defensive coordinator, Jackie Sherrill.

There are 2 games Pitt fans demand a win from every year, their 2 closest rivals: Penn State, 136 miles to the northeast; and West Virginia, 77 miles to the south. The Pitt-West Virginia rivalry is known as "The Backyard Brawl," and, while Western Pennsylvania can be very rural, Pitt fans view it as a city vs. country matchup.

In 1979, with Marino, from Pittsburgh's Central Catholic High School, as a freshman who became the starter midway through the season, Pitt went 11-1, losing only an early-season game away to North Carolina, 17-7. They beat West Virginia away, 24-17. Three weeks later, ranked Number 11, they beat Number 20 Penn State, 29-14. On Christmas Day, they beat Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl, and finished the season ranked Number 6. Had they beaten North Carolina, they would have been 11-0, and likely would have been paired up with undefeated and Number 1 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, for a National Championship decider. Instead, Alabama beat Arkansas to win it.

In 1980, Sports Illustrated made Pitt their preseason Number 1, putting defensive end Hugh Green on the cover. With Marino starting all the way as a sophomore, Pitt again went 11-1, their only defeat away to then-Number 11 Florida State, 36-22, as coach Bobby Bowden was rebuilding their long-moribund program. He had wanted to beat Pitt, because his previous job was at West Virginia. He remarked, "In Morgantown, the bumper stickers read, 'BEAT PITT.' In Tallahassee, they read, 'BEAT ANYBODY.'" The Seminoles were beginning to beat anybody.

The week after losing to Florida State, Pitt beat West Virginia at home, 42-14. The day after Thanksgiving, back up to Number 4, they went to Number 5 Penn State, and beat them, 14-9. They were invited to the Gator Bowl, and beat South Carolina. Had they beaten Florida State and remained undefeated, they likely would have been paired with Number 1 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl -- the same matchup that won them the title in 1976 -- for a National Championship game. Instead, Georgia beat Notre Dame to win it. Regardless, Marino was now 15-1 as a starter, and, in 2 years, Pitt were 22-2.

In 1981, with Marino a junior, and the most highly-regarded quarterback in the country, Pitt beat West Virginia in Morgantown, 17-0, and after beating Boston College away on Halloween, rose to Number 1. They went into the Penn State game undefeated, and had it at home, but were slaughtered, 48-14.

This time, they were invited to play Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, and beat them, 24-20, but finished 11-1, and ranked Number 4 in the AP writers' poll and Number 2 in the UPI coaches poll. Had they beaten Penn State, there might have been a split poll, as Clemson beat Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. Marino was now 26-2 as a starter, and, in 3 years, Pitt were 33-3. This was one of the best 3-year stretches in college football history, but they hadn't won the National Championship.

In 1982, with Marino as senior, and Sherrill having been lured away to Texas A&M and replaced by Serafino "Foge" Fazio, Pitt were the consensus preseason Number 1. Penn State started out Number 8. The 2 Keystone State teams were on a collision course.

Pitt began the season at the Steelers' Three Rivers Stadium, beating Number 5 North Carolina, 7-6 in a game nationally televised on CBS. They beat Florida State and Number 19 Illinois away, then West Virginia (16-13) and Temple at home, Syracuse away and the University of Louisville at home, the last of these by a whopping 63-14 score. They had now won 40 of their last 43 games.

But on November 6, Number 1 Pitt lost at home to Notre Dame, 31-16. They beat Army away and Rutgers at home, and up next was Penn State on the day after Thanksgiving, on ABC.

Penn State's 1st 4 games were at home. They beat Temple, Maryland, Rutgers, and, on a controversial play, then-Number 2 Nebraska. On October 9, they went to Birmingham, and were throttled by Number 4 Alabama, 42-21. They picked themselves up, and beat Syracuse at home, West Virginia and Boston College away, North Carolina State at home, and Number 13 Notre Dame away.

Both teams went into the big game 9-1, with at least a theoretical shot at the National Championship: Penn State were then Number 2, while Pitt were Number 5. A crowd of 85,722 filed into Beaver Stadium for a 12:30 PM kickoff on ABC. Pitt led 7-3 at the half, but Penn State scored a touchdown and a field goal in the 3rd quarter, and 2 more field goals to Pitt's 1 in the 4th quarter. Penn State won, 19-10, ending the National Championship dream of the University of Pittsburgh and quarterback Dan Marino.

In 4 seasons, Pitt ended up 42-6, with Marino going 35-5 as a starting college quarterback. Pitt has never been so good again, finishing Number 7 in 1989, Number 9 in 2003, and Number 8 in 2009. Sherrill won 3 Southwest Conference titles at Texas A&M, but never got higher in a final poll with them than Number 6.

Marino was drafted by the Miami Dolphins. In his 2nd season, 1984, he set several single-season passing records, and led the Dolphins to the AFC Championship. But they were embarrassed in Super Bowl XIX by the San Francisco 49ers. Marino played another 15 NFL seasons, but only reached 2 more AFC Championship Games, losing both. He is one of the greatest passers in the history of football, but, both in college and in the NFL, despite being surrounded by talented players, he failed to win a championship.

Penn State finally got that elusive National Championship by beating Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. They won another in 1986.

In 1991, Pitt joined the Big East Conference, as that league began playing football. In 1993, Penn State joined the Big Ten Conference. In 2013, with the Big East breaking up, Pitt joined Boston College, Syracuse and the University of Miami in moving to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Penn State won the Big 10 and the Rose Bowl in 1994, but, as in 1968, '69 and '73, they were denied the National Championship despite being undefeated. They won the Big 10 again in 2005 and 2008. Pitt tied for the Big East title in 2004, and won the ACC title in 2021.

Because of the conference shifts, Pitt and Penn State did not play each other from 1993 to 1996, did play each other from 1997 to 2000, did not from 2001 to 2015, and did from 2016 to 2019. As of November 26, 2022, they have not played since September 14, 2019; and Penn State leads the all-time series, 53-43-4.

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November 26, 1982 was a Friday: As I said, the day after Thanksgiving. Baseball was out of season. The NFL was in midweek. There was another college football game that day, also a major rivalry, and also a clash between highly-ranked teams: Number 3 Nebraska beat Number 11 Oklahoma at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Nebraska clinched the Big Eight Conference title. Penn State went to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, which became a de facto National Championship game, because they were playing the Southeastern Conference Champions, Number 1 Georgia. Nebraska went to the Orange Bowl in Miami, and played Number 13 Louisiana State University.

The games were being played at the same time, the Orange Bowl on NBC and the Sugar Bowl on ABC, and Nebraska's only hope of winning the National Championship was to blow LSU out, and hope that Penn State beat previously undefeated Georgia in a dull game. Instead, it was a very good game, although for those of us who don't like Penn State, it was a bad result: The Nittany Lions won, 27-23. And the Tigers held the Cornhuskers to another classic, with Nebraska winning, 21-20. So Penn State got the National Championship.

Pitt lost the Cotton Bowl to Southern Methodist University, 7-3, and finished Number 10. SMU, led by running back Eric Dickerson, had gone 11-0-1, and claimed the National Championship, but both the AP and UPI gave it to 11-1 Penn State.

There were 8 games in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Phoenix Suns, 110-99 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Utah Jazz, 137-103 at the Boston Garden.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 120-102 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 132-118 in overtime at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Indiana Pacers, 87-85 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Chicago Bulls, 122-120 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio. George Gervin led all scorers on the day with 44 points.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Diego Clippers, 117-115 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena). Magic Johnson scored 32 points.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Denver Nuggets, 127-106 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

And there were 6 games in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils and the Vancouver Canucks played to a tie, 4-4 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Hartford Whalers, 4-3 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).

* The Washington Capitals beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-3 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landcover, Maryland.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the St. Louis Blues, 8-6 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins and the Minnesota North Stars played to a tie, 6-6 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* And the Edmonton Oilers beat the Winnipeg Jets, 6-5 at the Winnipeg Arena. 

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.