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Photo courtesy of the Paterno Pattee Library Archives up and down the bus asking guys what positions they can play, Ganter said. "We " never really put the team together until Thursday and decided who was going to play. Because of that, many guys had to play both offense and defense." Ganter vividly remembers the first road trip of his initial team. The frosh had easily defeated Milford Academy and Delaware at Beaver Stadium, and on Thursday, Oct. 24, they were traveling to Annapolis for an afternoon game the next day against the Plebes. "In those days, we carried cash because there were no credit cards," Ganter said, "and I got a cash advance of $600 or $700 in an envelope, which was to pay for our meals, hotel and incidentals. So we get to Ed's Steakhouse in Bedford for lunch. After our lunch, I gave the envelope to the manager who was with me and told him to pay the bill and I'll get the guys on the bus. "We're more than halfway to Navy, and I asked the manager for the envelope so I can pay the hotel and then I'd give him back the envelope. And he said, 'I gave the envelope to the guy at the restaurant. I thought that was the money for the dinner. There were no cellphones, so I couldn't ' call the restaurant. So we're pulling into the hotel and I have no money and no credit card and I've got 35 or 40 guys on the bus who have been riding for four hours. "All this was going through my head and I was going to go for a pay phone, and here's a guy following us for the last 40 minutes. The guy walked up and said, 'I think you tipped our waiter too much money. The players have never let me live that down." Ganter also laughs at another off-field incident when he was assisting Chuckran in 1971. "We were at West Virginia, and Chuckran gave me the bed check assignment, Ganter " said. "I go to Greg Murphy's room and he's not there. I ask, 'Where's Murph?' He says, 'I don't know.' Murph is from Brooklyn and I know he's a man of the world, so I'm getting nervous. I walk over to the hotel and I'm passing the bar and he's sitting at the bar having a drink. Now, remember, in New York the drinking age was 18. "I walked in and said, 'What the hell are you doing?' And he's going, 'This is OK. I'm old enough. I'm 18. I didn't know ' what to do. He's such a loveable guy. I was the GA and I didn't want to get him in trouble, a player at 10 o'clock sitting at the bar when he's supposed to be in his room. I got him out of there and didn't report it. " More than 40 years later, when he was in State College as part of the 40th reunion of the undefeated 1973 football team, the one-time outstanding defensive end recalled that night at the bar with a hearty laugh. "I was surprised when Frannie walked in and started chewing me out," Murphy said. "I figured the drinking age [in West Virginia] was the same as back home. Frannie may not remember, but I finished the drink before we left." The beginning of the end of the freshman teams actually was in 1972, Chuckran's last year as the coach, when the NCAA lifted the restriction on freshman eligibility. By 1977, so many freshmen were playing on the varsity, some becoming starters, that Paterno and his coaches decided to field a junior varsity team that included upperclassmen, primarily to help with recruiting. Although Penn State had junior varsity teams in 1941, '42, '47, '48 and '49, a JV team in the late '70s was a rarity. "Not many schools had JV teams, Gan" ter recalled. "I think it was Nebraska that had a big-time JV program, and we thought we should. I remember the discussion. We said if we have a JV program, then we can play teams like Nassau [Community College], Massanutten [Military Academy] and Milford [Academy] and we can recruit. We can see potential recruits as we play them. They're going to be coming to our campus and play live in front of us." That made sense, because in the early 1970s, Penn State had success in recruiting two players from Nassau: kicker Al Vitello in 1971 and wide receiver/kick returner Rich Mauti in 1975. In the first game played on an intramural field near the flower gardens, about where law school building is today, the JV team beat Fork Union Military Academy, 17-0, and then lost its only away game, at Nassau, by a similar score before defeating Milford, 35-3, and losing to Wesley (N.J.) Junior College, 10-6. "I don't remember the first game, but I do remember when we played at Nassau, " Curley recalled. "It was a downpour and we played in a mud bath and the players were having fun. It was a crazy day. The one player I remember from that team is Kip Vernaglia but he's the only one I remember. "The junior varsity was a great opportunity for some really good players who were behind some people because of depth at a position to get on the field at Beaver Stadium. It was an opportunity to have some fun, as opposed to just practicing all the time and not receiving a reward for all your hard work. Four years can be a long time if you don't get the opportunity to play." The JV teams may have gotten the opportunity to play, but they never received the media coverage the freshman teams did. The Daily Collegian occasionally carried stories about games but sometimes it was just the score and nothing more. Even the Penn State media guides rarely

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