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State: Powerhouse or Imposter – We Find Out This Afternoon." Tennessee would be the Lions' true test, everyone said. It was a test, all right, and the Lions flunked. Hufnagel and the special teams units had a horrible day, and the Lions lost, 31-11. "We played lousy," Paterno said. "This isn't the end of the world." It almost was. The Lions plunged to No. 10, and the naysayers crowed for weeks, predicting another embarrassment against Texas in the Cotton Bowl. Bill Conlin of the Philadelphia Daily News called Penn State the "Paper Lions." Getting his team ready for Texas was not easy for Paterno. A new NCAA rule for postseason games prohibited teams from returning home for Christmas if they had started practicing in the South beforehand. So, even without a field house, Paterno decided to practice in the freezing cold and snow of University Park. When the team arrived in Dallas on Dec. 26, they were still unsettled, and the boisterous confidence of Texas fans didn't help, with one prominent sign near the team's Fairmont hotel headquarters blaring "Kick The Hell Out of Penn State." The first couple of workouts in Dallas did not go well, and the team seemed listless and uninspired. Paterno displayed his concern openly. When Franco Harris showed up late for practice, Paterno reprimanded him in front of the entire team. The next day, Harris was three minutes late and Pa- terno publicly demoted him to the sec- ond team. It was a disciplinary action that seemed to anger some of the players rather than stimulate them. "Looking back, I think I handled that wrong," Pa- terno admitted later. As Paterno deject- edly talked more pessimistically during public appearances, the players just shook their heads. They didn't care for his psychology. Some of them got mad at him for implying they were not working hard and couldn't handle the Texas wish- Penn State's upcoming game against Memphis will mark its fourth appearance in the Cotton Bowl. In addition to the 1972 game recounted in these pages, the Lions played in the Cotton Bowl in 1948 and 1975. Here's a look at those games: Jan. 1, 1948 | PENN STATE 13, SOUTHERN METHODIST 13 More than just a game, this matchup was a milestone in the civil rights movement, as Penn State's Wally Triplett and Dennie Hoggard became the first African Americans to play in the 12-year-old Cotton Bowl. SMU was No. 3 and Penn State No. 4 in the final Associated Press poll taken before the bowl games. This marked the first time Penn State was ranked since the AP media poll started in 1936, long before the coaches poll began in 1950. Because of Dal- las's strict segregation rules, Penn State officials had agreed to have their players stay and practice at an isolated naval base 14 miles from the stadium. This caused dissen- sion within the team and affected the first half of the game. The Southwest Conference champions dominated that first half, jumping out to a 13-0 lead when star sophomore Doak Walker threw a 53-yard touchdown pass and followed it with a 3-yard TD run. Penn State made the score 13-7 in the closing minute of the second quarter on a 36-yard pass from Elwood Petchel to Larry Cooney. Less than five min- utes into the second half, Triplett scored a touchdown on a 4-yard pass from Petchel. Walker had missed his second extra point attempt, and as 43,000 shivering fans watched, Ed Czekaj's second PAT attempt sailed over the right goal post. It took a few seconds for the referee to signal no good. Both teams missed scoring opportunities after that, in- cluding a Petchel pass into the end zone on the last play of the game. Jan. 1, 1975 | PENN STATE 41, BAYLOR 20 Many sportswriters called this bowl matchup "The Christians vs. The Lions," with the world's largest Baptist university winning the Southwest Conference champi- onship for the first time in 50 years. Baylor had not had a winning season in 11 years and was the preseason pick for the league cellar. But the Bears had shocked everyone with a 6-1 conference record and 8-3 season. Some of their fans truly believed it was because they had God on their side. Baylor's third-year coach, Grant Teaff, was a lay minister and preached a rousing sermon from the pulpit three days before the game. Two days later, he had breakfast with the famous evangelist Billy Graham, who had flown in for the game. Graham gave a prayer in the Baylor locker room before the game, and for the first half, as well as much of the third quarter, it seemed like God was on their side. Seventh-ranked Penn State was a four-point favorite, but No.12 Baylor scored first and led, 14-10, midway through the third quarter after Penn State had a 64-yard touch- down by Tom Donchez on a screen pass nullified by an in- terference penalty. With 3 minutes, 35 seconds left in the third period, quarterback Tom Shuman hit freshman Jimmy Cefalo for a 49-yard touchdown pass, and that was the beginning of the end for Baylor. The Lions won handily, with the final touchdown coming when Joe Jackson picked up Baylor's onside kick attempt and ran 50 yards for the score. –L.P. Nittany Lions have made history in the Cotton Bowl P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >>

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