Penn State Sports Magazine
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F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 5 6 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M State has had seven full-time head coaches. Michigan has had nine. Ala- bama has had 12. Notre Dame has had 13 — 14 if you count George O'Leary, who was fired less than a week into his tenure in South Bend after it was dis- covered that he had embellished his ré- sumé. Rip Engle's 100th Neither Engle nor Paterno celebrated his 100th win on a grand stage like the one that played host to Franklin's mile- stone. Engle's 100th came near the end of his coaching tenure. Concerned about the increasing pressure to deliver win- ning records and bowl appearances, he had decided before the 1965 season be- gan that it was going to be his last. The Lions opened their campaign with consecutive home losses to Michi- gan State and UCLA and were looking to turn their season around when they traveled to Boston College on Oct. 9. They ended up throwing 4 intercep- tions and losing a fumble, but the Ea- gles couldn't do anything with those giveaways, and Penn State scored a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to es- cape with a 17-0 victory. The crowd of 24,300 saw Penn State players carry Engle off the field on their shoulders. The Lions continued to struggle dur- ing the '65 season but won three of their last four, finishing with a 19-7 victory at Maryland. The following February, Penn State held a news conference to announce that Engle was stepping down and that Paterno would be his successor. Paterno had played quarterback for Engle at Brown and had been part of his Penn State staff from the very begin- ning. His appointment as head coach had been virtually preordained, but Engle couldn't help but gush at the of- ficial announcement of the longtime assistant's promotion. "They couldn't have picked a better man anywhere in the country," he said. Joe Paterno's 100th Paterno's first decade as head coach proved that Engle's confidence had been well-founded. By 1976, he was in his 11th season and was on the verge of equaling his mentor's win total at PSU. The '76 campaign had gotten off to a rough start, though. Early in the year, the Lions suffered through their first three-game losing streak under Pa- terno, falling to Ohio State, Iowa and Kentucky. PSU managed only 19 points in those three games, leaving Paterno feeling demoralized. "I'm not going to panic," he said, "but I can't tell you what I'm going to do right now because I just don't know." When the Lions welcomed Army the following week, there were seven new starters in the lineup, including future All-America defensive linemen Matt Millen and Bruce Clark. The changes had the desired effect, with Penn State rolling to a 38-16 win. By the time it welcomed NC State to Beaver Stadium on Nov. 6, Penn State had won four in a row, including a tense 31-30 victory over Temple at Veterans Stadium. The game against the Owls had given Paterno his 99th win, but it was only assured after the hosts had missed a two-point conversion attempt with no time remaining. The matchup with NC State figured to be another tough one; Penn State had lost to the Wolfpack the previous two seasons. This game was different, though. Steve Geise rushed for 145 yards, while Mike Guman had 102. Penn State to- taled 530 yards as a team and forced 6 NC State turnovers en route to a 41-20 win. "I think playing a tough team right after that close game last week helped a lot," Paterno said. "We seemed inspired, and it led to probably our finest game, certainly on offense. We have two more chances to show that we've maintained our intensity." Those chances were against Miami at the Orange Bowl on Nov. 13 and Pitt at Three Rivers Stadium two weeks later. Following the win over the Wolfpack, which improved Penn State's record to 6-3, Paterno demurred when asked about the team's postseason prospects. "The only bowl that I'm concerned with is the Orange Bowl [against Miami] this Saturday," he said. He demurred again when someone brought up the possibility of getting his 101st or 102nd win against a Pan- thers team that was likely to be ranked No. 1 in the polls. Said the coach, "I'm just going to enjoy the first 100 a little more." ■ PENN STATE'S 10 WINNINGEST COACHES Coach Years PSU Record Pct. Career Record Pct. Joe Paterno 1966-2011 409-136-3 .749 Same .749 Rip Engle 1950-65 104-48-4 .679 132-68-8 .654 James Franklin 2014-present 101-42-0 .706 125-57-0 .687 Bob Higgins 1930-48 91-57-11 .607 123-83-16 .590 Hugo Bezdek 1918-29 65-30-11 .665 127-58-16 .672 Tom Fennell 1904-08 33-17-1 .657 42-18-2 .694 Bill Hollenback 1909, 1911-14 28-9-4 .732 46-19-8 .685 Dick Harlow 1915-17 20-8-0 .714 149-69-17 .670 George Hoskins 1892-95 17-4-4 .760 59-48-9 .547 Pop Golden 1900-02 16-12-1 .569 Same .569 Rip Engle was the first Penn State football coach to win 100 games. He reached that plateau in 1965, the last of his 16 seasons with the Nittany Lions. PHOTO COURTESY PENN STATE ATHLETICS