Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1547542
D E C 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 O n the first play it ever ran against Penn State, Rutgers fumbled. The year was 1918, and the two teams were meeting for the first time on an early-November afternoon at Beaver Field, part of a truncated season that had been delayed by World War I and the Spanish flu pandemic. The visitors received the opening kickoff, then lost the ball at their own 20-yard line on the first play from scrimmage, setting up a Penn State field goal. The setback didn't prove costly — unbeaten Rutgers handily defeated the shorthanded Nittany Lions 26-3 — but it did foreshadow what was to come in Penn State's relationship with its two most enduring Eastern rivals. Whether competing as independents, members of rival conferences or Big Ten breth- ren, the Lions have usually seen the ball bounce their way against Rutgers and Maryland. Penn State will close its 2026 season against those two foes later this month, with the Scarlet Knights set to visit Bea- ver Stadium on Nov. 21 before the scene shifts to College Park for a matchup with the Terrapins the following week. For a Nittany Lions team that began Big Ten play with four consecutive losses, those games offer a chance to end Matt Camp- bell's first regular season on an upbeat note. While Penn State's recent results make a strong case for guarded op- timism, the history of these rivalries overwhelmingly favors the Nittany Li- ons. They hold a 33-2 advantage over Rutgers and a 44-3-1 margin over Maryland. The Scarlet Knights have not beaten PSU since 1988, while the Terps have managed three wins in a series that's even older — by a year — than the Rutgers rivalry. A Breakthrough Upset The start of the Maryland rivalry was, if anything, even more prophetic than Rutgers' early miscue had been. The game had been scheduled at the behest of Maryland's president, Harry Patterson, a Penn State graduate. Played at Beaver Field on Nov. 17, 1917, it was a mismatch right from the start, with the Lions amassing 28 first downs and holding the visitors to 24 yards in a 57-0 shellacking. The two teams wouldn't play again for another 20 years, but even with Penn State having discontinued its scholar- ship support for football during a period when the school was attempting to de- emphasize athletics, it still had Mary- Linebacker Amare Campbell returned a fumble 61 yards for a touchdown last year to give Penn State a come-from- behind victory at Rutgers in the teams' regular-season finale. PHOTO BY MARK SELDERS/PENN STATE ATHLETICS H I S T O R Y FOLLOW THE BOUNCING BALL PSU prepares to end its regular season against a pair of longtime rivals who haven't had much luck versus the Nittany Lions M AT T H E R B | M AT T. H E R B @ O N 3 . C O M