Blue White Illustrated

ing the Buckeyes with a 6-2 record. Since 1993, though, the Buckeyes have won 18 of 26 games to take a command- ing lead in the series. Meanwhile, in that same span, what was once a size- able 10-3 Michigan advantage from 1993 through 2007 – highlighted by nine consecutive victories from 1997 to 2007 – has narrowed to 13-8. One rea- son for the closer gap is the turmoil at both Penn State and Michigan in the past decade, including multiple changes in head coaches. Since the retirement of Lloyd Carr after the 2007 season, Michigan has not consistently been on the same elite level that the program occupied from the start of the Bo Schembechler era in 1969 till the end of Carr's tenure. Rich Ro- driguez (2008-10) and Brady Hoke (2011-14) struggled through a series of mediocre seasons, and Hoke's successor, Jim Harbaugh, has not yet taken the program to the Big Ten Championship Game. The Wolverines' three consecu- tive wins over Penn State from 2014 to 2016 can be traced primarily to the San- dusky scandal that decimated Nittany Lion football. Still, in 2013, the second and last year of Bill O'Brien's tenure, the Lions upset the Wolverines, 43-40, in an exciting quadruple-overtime game at Beaver Stadium that ranks as one of the most satisfying victories in Penn State history. One of the lingering effects of the NCAA sanctions was that the team was still very young and inexperienced at the start of the 2016 season, and that inex- perience was evident when Michigan thumped Penn State, 49-10, in the ap- propriately named Big House at Ann Arbor in the fourth game of the year. The next week, the Nittany Lions turned around their season and the battered football program with a come-from-be- hind 29-26 overtime win against Min- nesota. Two games later, Penn State's stunning 60-yard touchdown off a blocked field goal attempt late in the fourth quarter gave the much-maligned team a 24-21 win over 21-point favorite Ohio State, propelling the Lions to a Big Ten championship and their first top-10 ranking in seven years. The Motown sound In analyzing the Michigan series, I may upset some readers by dwelling on three specific disconsolate defeats rather than the eight victories, especially the 31-24 win at Ann Arbor in 1994 that made Penn State No. 1 in the polls at the time. My reasoning is that those three losses are more indicative of a hostile attitude toward Penn State that existed when the Nittany Lions became conference mem- bers in 1993 and continues today with P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> Michigan men had big part in PSU's development Two notable Michigan men had a major in=uence on the Penn State football program long before the Nit- tany Lions entered the Big Ten. Ernie McCoy came directly from a prominent athletic career at Michigan in 1953 to be Penn State's third o?cial director of athletics. Presumably on McCoy's recommendation, J.T. White joined Rip Engle's sta> in 1954 a@er being the center on Michigan's 1947 co-national champions and an assis- tant Wolverine football coach for six years. McCoy was born in Pittsburgh and raised in Detroit. In 1929, he became Michigan's third All-America basket- ball player, serving as captain on a team that won the Big Ten title. A@er gaining coaching and athletic director experi- ence in high schools and at the college level in Montclair, N.J., McCoy re- turned to Michigan in 1940 as an assis- tant coach in football and baseball. Fol- lowing service in World War II, he be- came an assistant athletic director for the 1946-47 academic year under his former basketball coach, Fritz Crisler. The next year, he was named head coach of the basketball team and four years later le@ for Penn State. McCoy is credited with modernizing the Penn State athletic department, including upgrading academics, <- nances, administration, facilities and the football schedule. In 1966, he was instrumental in promoting Joe Pa- terno to head coach. McCoy retired in 1970 but then served as athletic direc- tor at Miami on an unusual contin- gency basis for three years. Penn State's McCoy Natatorium is named in his honor. White is probably Penn State's most zany assistant football coach ever, known for his mischievous sense of humor. He called almost everyone "knucklehead," and his players soon realized it was a term of endearment – most of the time. J.T.'s coaching as- signments from 1954 through 1979 were concentrated primarily on the defensive line, but he also coached of- fensive ends in his early years. His pupils included Hall of Famer Dave Robinson and All-Americans Bob Mitinger, Bruce Bannon, Randy Sidler, Bruce Clark and Matt Millen. A year a@er his retirement, J.T. came up with the idea of creating a Penn State Foot- ball Letterman's Club, and today that is a thriving organization with its own Beaver Stadium suite. Perhaps his greatest claim to fame is his status as the only man to play for two di>erent major college national championship teams,

• Cover