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P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> the Southwest Conference championship in Austin on Dec. 6. A unique position Both undefeated Texas and Arkansas also had one game remaining on Thanks- giving Day, Nov. 27, but they were over- whelming favorites, with the Longhorns playing six-time loser Texas A&M in Austin, and Arkansas meeting four-time loser Texas Tech in Little Rock. Paterno later admitted that Texas coach Darrell Royal asked him to hold out for the Cot- ton Bowl. Actually, Penn State still had two games left, both on the road: a Nov. 22 visit to traditional rival Pitt, which was 4-5 at the time, and a Nov. 29 trip to North Carolina State, which was 3-4-1. Like Texas and Arkansas, the Lions were already heavy favorites in both games. The Orange Bowl was now looking at the Big Eight for its host team, with co- champion Missouri, then rated No. 8, as the representative, since the Tigers had beaten co-champion Nebraska in the reg- ular season. The Miami Herald had spec- ulated that the other team might be Notre Dame, which had just changed its policy on postseason games and would be going to its first bowl game since the 1925 Rose. Thus, when Penn State's players met on Sunday, they were in the unique position of controlling three 1970 New Year's Day football games. Only the Rose Bowl was missing. As I wrote in The Penn State Football Encyclopedia, "Often the bowl matches would backfire because teams would get upset and the pairings would lose their appeal. It now was a tricky situation and it was about to entrap the Lions." Radakovich, the Lions' first linebackers coach since 1960, remembered the at- mosphere in the meeting room in his au- tobiography, "Bad Rad, Football Nomad," which I helped him write: "There were two trains of thought making the rounds among the players before the vote. One was that Ohio State was going to end up being No. 1 anyway and why should we play Texas in the crummy Cotton Bowl for No. 2, when we could be in classy, sunny Miami Beach? Plus, the administration had let it be known that Penn State would have a much bigger payday – about twice as much – if we play in the Orange Bowl, instead of the Cotton. The other train of thought, which I supported, was that Ohio State had a good chance to lose to bitter rival Michigan. If that happened, we'd be playing Texas or Arkansas for No. 1. Voting to play Texas was our best chance to be No. 1." Few others believed Michigan would upset Ohio State. Paterno, in his book, specifically remarked on the opinion of Dan Jenkins of Sports Illustrated, then considered the foremost sportswriter of college football: "[Jenkins] got so starry- eyed he suggested the title game ought to be played between Woody Hayes' first of- The vote count by the players in 1969 to return to the Orange Bowl has never been disclosed until now. That is based on this writer's extensive re- search. If it was revealed in the past 50 years in some publication or a televi- sion or radio program, that fact has disappeared into the galaxy. In fact, even some of the players and staff who were in the meeting room Nov. 16 when Joe Paterno and the team discussed the three bowl invita- tions do not agree on how the vote was taken. Wayne Cunningham said he counted the votes. He was the assistant man- ager of the 1969 team and would be- come the head manager the next year. Wayne told me about the vote after he had read a previous BWI article I had written about the 1970 bowl game in December 2015. "Joe said he would let the team decide which offer we would take, unless there was not a clear vote," Wayne said. However, Wayne's memory is no different than others our age. The ex- periences we have as septuagenarians and octogenarians get mushed to- gether in our brains. Wayne was certain that head man- ager Russ Albert and other under- classman managers helped count the votes with him. They say they didn't. "I don't remember being in the room," Russ said. "I think I was busy with other things." Two underclassman assistant man- agers, Rick Nichols and Steve Coff- man, have no memory of the meeting at all. Assistant coach Dan Radakovich said he was sure it was a secret paper vote, but it wasn't. Quarterback Chuck Burkhart and offensive tackle Dave Joyner remem- ber raising their hands in an open vote. Charlie Pittman remembers Paterno asking for a show of hands at the start of the meeting, but Charlie said he in- terrupted his coach. "I said, 'I don't think we should do this by a show of hands because there are some people who won't vote their true feelings.' " Charlie does not remember a formal vote proceeding after his interruption, but it did. So, with the mixed bag of memories, here is the total vote count as tallied by Cunningham: "Freshmen weren't eligible at the time, and everyone didn't vote, so that's why the [final vote] number was only 49. The vote was 25 for the Orange Bowl – all the black players voted for the Orange Bowl – 18 for the Sugar Bowl and six for the Cotton Bowl." –L.P. Tallying up the results of PSU's famed Orange Bowl vote

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