Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1547107
N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 6 6 1 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M something of a side hustle at first. He was still managing the Pittsburgh Pirates when he accepted the post, and that was just one of the impediments he had to overcome. The start of the 1918 season was de- layed by the influenza pandemic and manpower shortages that many schools were facing in the waning days of World War I. The Lions didn't open until Nov. 2, when they settled for a 6-6 tie with visiting Wissahickon Barracks, a New Jersey-based team made up of college players performing their military service. A 26-3 loss to visiting Rutgers followed in the first-ever meeting between the future Big Ten foes, leaving Penn State at 0-1-1 heading into a Nov. 16 visit to Lehigh. That's where Bezdek broke through. Penn State was trailing by 6 points early in the game before Red Henry scooped up a blocked punt and returned it for a touchdown. Future College Football Hall of Famer Glenn Killinger drop-kicked the PAT through the uprights, giving Penn State what would turn out to be the decisive point in a 7-6 victory. The win over Lehigh was the first of 65 that Bezdek compiled in 12 seasons as the Lions' head coach. He gave up the post after going 6-3 in 1929, accepting an offer to oversee the new School of Physi- cal Education and Athletics, essentially becoming Penn State's first full-time athletics director. Bezdek was succeeded by Higgins, a former Penn State All-American who had been a captain on the 1919 team that went 7-1. Higgins' first squad finished 3-4-2, defeating Niagara, Lebanon Valley and Marshall at Beaver Field to open the season before going winless the rest of the way. The poor finish was largely the result of administrative decisions that hindered Penn State's varsity athletics programs throughout the 1930s. Higgins had the misfortune of tak- ing over the football program at a time when Penn State was attempting to de-emphasize sports. The school had imposed a ban on athletic scholarships starting with the freshman class of 1928, and it had also prohibited coaches from scouting upcoming opponents, one of many cost-cutting measures that were enacted. In the face of those restrictions, Higgins didn't field a winning team until his eighth season, when he led the 1937 squad to a 5-3 record. By the latter years of his tenure, friends of the program had devised workarounds for the school's neglect. They would help players afford their tuition by finding them jobs and lodg- ing. Higgins' four postwar seasons were among his best, with the Lions going 27-6-2 from 1945-48. Showing Promise Penn State rescinded its scholarship ban in 1949, a crucial step in the develop- ment of the program we know today. Another big step came on April 22, 1950, when PSU announced that it had hired Engle away from Brown. Of the five coaches whose first seasons are detailed here, he had the most immediate success. The Somerset County native went 5-3-1 in his return to his home state, defeat- ing Eastern rivals Boston College, West Virginia, Rutgers and Pitt in succession to end the campaign. Penn State didn't clinch its winning record until holding off the Panthers in a game that was delayed a week when a snowstorm dumped nearly 2 feet of snow on Western Pennsylvania in late Novem- ber. The schools considered canceling it altogether but eventually agreed to play on Dec. 2 at Forbes Field, which was be- ing cleared anyway for a Steelers game the "After that first dismal season of winning five and losing five, I said to myself, 'Start counting your days in this job.'" J O E P A T E R N O , R E C O U N T I N G H I S F I R S T S E A S O N I N H I S A U T O B I O G R A P H Y , " P A T E R N O B Y T H E B O O K " James Franklin led Penn State to back-to-back 7-6 finishes in his first two seasons before winning a Big Ten title in Year 3. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL