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Then he brought them to the main campus for two more weeks of instruction by Engle and the staff. By that time, Engle had hired a new quarterback coach: Joe Paterno, his own quarterback on Brown's 1948 and '49 teams. Paterno arrived on campus the evening of Friday, May 26, and the next day the two-week session for the freshmen began. What happened in those two weeks with the quarterback situation is vague, but the freshman team's single-wing quarterback, 5-10, 210-pound Joe Gratson of Lisenring, Pa. (near Connellsville), was added to the list of varsity quarterbacks. Paterno did not meet the other competing quarterbacks until they and the centers reported for preseason practice on Aug. 16, a week before the rest of the squad. He certainly received an assessment of the individuals from Engle, Patrick, Bruce and the other coaches. Undoubtedly, Paterno also looked at game film from 1949, but he never saw the quarterbacks working out in the T-formation until mid-August. Three weeks later, the Collegian's Krasnansky reported the quarterback competition had been narrowed down to O'Bara, Shephard and Koerber. "O'Bara, a tailback in the single-wing and a right-handed passer, is the leading candidate," Krasnansky wrote, "followed by Shephard, a converted fullback who showed latent passing ability in spring drills, and Koerber, now sidelined with a banged-up knee." However, the cocky, 24-year-old Paterno was not impressed with at least one of the candidates. In their 1971 book "Joe Paterno: Football My Way," authors Merv Hyman and Gordon White wrote: "When Engle asked [Paterno] which one of the three competing quarterbacks was the best, he replied, 'I'll tell you one thing. Vince O'Bara will never be a starting quarterback.' " Two and one half weeks before the season-opening game against Georgetown at Beaver Field, Penn State played a scrimmage game against Bucknell, and Engle was impressed with O'Bara despite a steady rain. The Lions technically won the marathon three-hour scrimmage, seven touchdowns to three, and Engle singled out O'Bara, fullback Herb Kurtz and running back George Jacob for praise. "[Engle] noted that Vince O'Bara, who worked the first four quarters at quarterback, was coming along 'better than expected,' " wrote Krasnansky in the Sept. 15 edition of The Daily Collegian. "O'Bara – the retreaded halfback-madequarterback – passed for two of the Lions' seven scores and would have had a 36-yard touchdown to credit were it not for a penalty." Since he also was the best place-kicker on the varsity squad, O'Bara also did most of the punting, too. The Nittany Lions played two more intense scrimmage games in the next few days, losing to Colgate seven touchdowns to three in a nine-quarter game on Sept. 16 at Beaver Field and apparently holding Cornell to a draw in a sixquarter game at Ithaca on Sept. 19. Engle continued to be happy about the progress of O'Bara, who threw touchdown passes of 65 and 14 yards against Colgate and passed well at Cornell, too, although he emerged from that rugged game with a noticeable black eye. Koerber also was back after a twoweek layoff because of his injury. He was now playing catch up but was "making O'Bara hustle." And with the continued progress of sophomore Joe Gratson, Shephard was moved back to fullback. Despite his earlier misgivings, whatever Paterno was doing with O'Bara behind the scenes was obviously working. On the eve of the Georgetown game, Engle named his starting lineup: O'Bara at quarterback, veteran Tony Orsini at halfback, captain Owen Dougherty at wingback and either senior Herb Kurtz or sophomore Ted Shattuck at fullback. The first quarterback controversy was officially over, but there was one more little hitch. Shortly after 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 30, O'Bara led the Nittany Lion offense onto the turf at Beaver Field. Orsini had just returned Georgetown's opening kickoff to the Penn State 44yard line, and O'Bara moved under G OMIN ST C GU N AU I The Remarkable Journey of the 2012 Nittany Lions By Lou Prato Author of the Penn State Football Encyclopedia and four other Nittany Lion football books SEE QUARTERBACKS PAGE 60

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