Blue White Illustrated

September 2022

Penn State Sports Magazine

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S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 2 6 1 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M ceived first-team honors from a press agency that was recognized by the NCAA. "I've said this time and time again, Lenny Moore was the best all-around football player Penn State ever had," said PSU historian Lou Prato, who was one of the 30,321 fans on hand at Beaver Field when Moore and Brown put on their show. "He played defense, he played offense, but he never made first-team All-American. Penn State was not as well respected back then. Pitt, Navy and Army were still the big teams in the East. So, Lenny is not eligible to be a hall of famer, unless they change the rules." 'The Best I've Ever Coached' There are three other Penn Staters who have been enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame but aren't in the college hall: Franco Harris, August "Mike" Michalske and Mike Munchak. Harris ended up being a vastly more produc- tive running back during the Pittsburgh Steelers' dynastic 1970s era than he had been at Penn State, when he was splitting carries with another future NFL star, Lydell Mitchell. His most productive college season was his sophomore year when he finished with 832 yards of total offense. Harris never received All-America honors, nor did Michalske, an offensive lineman and fullback for the Nittany Lions in the mid-1920s. Michalske played as a two-way lineman for the Green Bay Packers and in 1964 became the first Penn Stater to be enshrined in Canton. Munchak was a nine-time Pro Bowl guard for the Houston Oilers and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2001. Like Moore, though, he was a second-team All- American, and therefore ineligible for induction into the college hall. Some halls of fame have veterans committees that go back and reassess the resumes of players who may have been overlooked for one reason or another but who have the credentials to merit consideration. If the College Football Hall of Fame had such a com- mittee, players like Moore would seemingly warrant a second look. His failure to meet the hall's criteria was largely a reflection of the biases against Eastern football that were prevalent in the 1950s, and even with those biases taken into account, he did in fact win first-team All-America honors — just not from an NCAA-approved press agency. Moore's exclusion on those grounds may sound unfair, but as Prato wryly noted, "Life is unfair." It certainly hasn't done anything to affect his legacy at Penn State. Toward the end of his long career — a career in which he coached three running backs who did make the Col- lege Football Hall of Fame in Cappelletti, Mitchell and Curt Warner — Paterno had special praise for the Read- ing Rambler. "Lenny Moore," he said, "was probably the best foot- ball player I've ever coached, all-around." ■ Lenny Moore rushed for 2,380 yards in his three-year varsity career at Penn State. He isn't eligible for the College Football Hall of Fame, but after an All-Pro career with the Baltimore Colts in the 1950s and '60s, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, in 1975. PHOTO COURTESY PENN STATE ATHLETICS

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