Blue White Illustrated

N othing has ever disrupted Penn State football like the current COVID-19 pandemic, but tragic events have caused severe changes and similar anxiety in other seasons since the university's =rst o@cial team began play- ing in 1887. With the Big Ten resurrecting the 2020 season, this year's team can play at least one game on the revised schedule and avoid being the only Penn State football team in history to have a total wipeout of games. Even during World War I in the 1917 and '18 seasons and the emergence of the dev- astating Spanish >u pandemic that spread throughout the world from March 1918 into the spring of 1919, Penn State still played football games. World War II also couldn't stop the Nittany Lions from playing, despite the chaotic military at- mosphere on the nation's college cam- puses in the early 1940s. The horri=c events of Nov. 23, 1963 – the assassina- tion of President Kennedy – and Sept. 11, 2001 – the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. – led to the post- ponement of scheduled games, but those games were played later in the season. Some historians have described the Spanish >u as apocalyptic, which it seemed to be at the time. The total num- ber of deaths worldwide is still not known but has been estimated at 20 million to 50 million. Although World War I started in 1914, the United States o@cially remained neu- tral until April 1917 aAer spending several months building up an army. As the new men went through training, the Spanish >u hit. According to History.com, by March 1, 100 troops at one base in Kansas were hospitalized with the >u and 38 died of pneumonia. The men in the American Expeditionary Forces jammed together as they trained, traveled in ships overseas and entered the battle=elds, causing the >u virus to spread rapidly. Life was radi- cally di?erent in that era and the world population much smaller, but the conta- gious characteristic of the >u was similar to the coronavirus of 2020. Penn State was vastly different, too, with an enrollment of about 2,200 in the 1917-18 academic year. Because of the war, spring football practice was can- celed. Many players had volunteered or had been drafted by the Army, including the team's star end, junior Bob Higgins, a first-team All-American in 1915 and second-team choice in 1916. Yes, that is the same man who later was Penn State's head coach for 19 years, and the grand- father of the Suhey brothers – Larry, Paul and Matt – who played for Joe Pa- terno. Dick Harlow, a starting tackle on the Lions' standout 8-0-1 team of 1911, was then going into his third year as Penn State's head coach. However, the alumni- dominated Athletic Committee that was in charge of all the school's sports had not been happy with Harlow, despite his 7-2 and 8-2 records. In a political coup, they circumvented Harlow's authority by hiring Zen Scott of Cleveland as "=eld coach" and giving him control of the team while naming Harlow the "resident coach." When Scott and Harlow met the 1917 team on the =rst day of classes be- fore the start of preseason practice on Sept. 12, the student newspaper reported they were surprised that only three let- termen, all starters, had returned. The other candidates were a dozen or so sophomores up from the freshman team and nine incoming "scrubs." All the other experienced players were in the Army. Preseason practice was canceled, and the coaches turned their attention to the nine-game schedule that had been put together in the spring. Three schedule changes were needed quickly because Muhlenberg College can- celed the opening game on Sept. 29 in Al- lentown and Penn and Lafayette canceled their November home games, but neither the war nor the virus was the cause. The Penn State Collegian reported that Muh- lenberg had not had preseason practice before the start of its semester on Sept. 26 and "they could not get a team together in time to play State three days later." Ac- cording to Ridge Riley's book "Road to Number One," Penn cited "=nancial compensation," and Lafayette claimed the scheduled Penn State game was "too near its contest with Lehigh." Bezdek takes charge Allentown city officials still wanted a football game on Sept. 29, so they helped arrange a charity game with the U.S. Army Ambulance Corps based in Allen- town. The Army team was actually an all-star squad comprised of erstwhile college players, including two starters and another letterman from Penn State's 1916 team. A crowd of more than 1,000 watched Penn State win the game, 10-0, with the proceeds going to the Red Cross. The 1917 team easily won the next two games against Gettysburg, 80-0, and St. Bonaventure, 99-0, and then lost four of its last six. The Athletic Committee must have =gured their extraordinary dual coaching system was not working. On the >> WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY H I S T O R Y This isn't the first year in which world events have played havoc with a football season |

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