Blue White Illustrated

>> T hese days, transfer athletes are in the news in college football as much as prized high school re- cruits. But while players at the college game's highest level are increasingly mo- bile thanks to rule changes that have made it easier to transfer from one Foot- ball Bowl Subdivision school to another, there is a separate transfer process – the move from junior college to the FBS – that has been going on largely unchanged for decades. And since the early 1970s, that process has played a part in shaping Penn State's football program. Albert Vitello made history at Penn State in 1971 when he became the first junior college player to transfer to the university. The newest generation of Nit- tany Lion fans probably have no idea who he is. You might call him Penn State's first designated place kicker. After he gradu- ated in 1973, Vitello held seven of the Lions' 11 place-kicking records and shared another – three field goals in a game – with four other players. How Vitello wound up at Penn State is an intriguing tale. It involves a one-time graduate assistant who became pals with assistant coach Dan Radakovich, the true founding father of Linebacker U, and later with Radakovich's best friend, former Penn State player Joe Moore, famous now as one of the greatest offensive line coaches in college football history. The catalyst for the junior college mi- gration is Jim Weinman. He was the foot- ball coach at Nassau Community College on Long Island, N.Y., who instigated the transfer of Vitello to Penn State in '71 and wide receiver-kickoff returner Rich Mauti three years later. It all started in 1960 after Weinman earned a physical education degree via the G.I. Bill of Rights at Cortland, one of New York's state universities. Penn State gave him a fellowship for a master's de- gree in physical education that included teaching. When spring practice began, Weinman walked over to the field, intro- duced himself to the coaches and volun- teered to help. Head coach Rip Engle decided to make him a graduate assistant. "The coaches were all very friendly," Weinman recalled in a recent telephone interview. "I got to work with Earl Bruce, who was in charge of all the freshmen, and with Dan Radakovich, and I got to know Radakovich very well. At the end of the spring program, Rip asked me if I would be interested in going back up to New York and coaching high school football." Engle steered him to Richfield Springs near Cooperstown. Moore had won two state championships there but was mov- ing on to Towanda High School near Bradford, Pa. Weinman took over as head coach and won two state titles, too. Three more high school head coaching jobs fol- lowed until Nassau Community College called in 1968 and asked him to start a football program. It turned out to be the start of a long and fruitful relationship. Consistent winners It's not always easy to understand the ways in which junior colleges and commu- nity colleges differ from each other, and from four-year schools. Sometimes, two- year junior colleges become four-year schools. For example, Lackawanna Junior College, which opened in Scranton in 1957, dropped the "Junior" from its name in 2001, and in 2017 it implemented a four- year curriculum with bachelor's degrees. Nassau and Lackawanna are among the 46 football-playing members of the Na- tional Junior College Athletic Associa- tion. Of those 46 football teams, 36 are split into five conferences, while the other 10 compete as independents. Mark Duda is the Lackawanna head coach. When school officials decided in 1992 to start a football team, Duda signed on as defensive coordinator. He spent that year helping to recruit players for the team's first season in 1993. Before the start of the next season, he became the head coach, and he never left. Duda is a Luzerne County native, born and raised in Plymouth, which is just across the Susquehanna River from Wilkes-Barre. Duda's teams have been consistent winners, with five undefeated seasons and 11 junior college bowl games. His 2019 squad finally reached the junior col- lege national championship game, losing to four-time champion Mississippi Gulf Coast, 24-13. Duda traces Lackawanna's success to stability and longevity. "We've been here for such a long period of time that college coaches know what they'll get from a Lackawanna player," he said in a telephone conversation. He pointed to Jaquan Brisker, who in 2019 became Penn State's second Lackawanna transfer. Brisker, a boundary safety, played high school football at Gateway in suburban Pittsburgh. "The coaches know what they'll get in a player like Jaquan, who went to class, was in the weight room and never let up in practice or a game," Duda said. "He came to us as a corner- back, and by the time he left here he was the best safety in junior college. He could have gone to any college in the country." Brisker played in all 13 Penn State games in his first year. In the nine-game 2020 season, he became a starter and finished third in tackling with 57 stops, three back of the team leader, Ellis Brooks. "Jaquan | JUNIOR PARTNERS PSU's football program has a history of plucking key players from the junior college ranks

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