Blue White Illustrated

TROPHY GAME grant institutions founded in 1855 was not a very compelling basis for a rivalry. Or, more likely, it was because the stakes were rarely high. The game was played annually during Penn State's first 18 years in the Big Ten, and only three times did both teams go into it ranked in the Top 25. On five occasions, neither team was nationally ranked going in. When the Big Ten split into the Leaders and Legends divisions in 2011, Penn State and Michigan State went their separate ways. They haven't played since 2010, and while they will face each other on the final weekend of the 2014, '15 and '16 seasons, there are no plans to turn the battle for the LGT into a season-ending institution. In 2017, '18 and '19, the game will take place in October. Kevin Haplea turns upfield vs. Michigan State in a 2010 game. The Spartans won, 28-22, and have owned the Land Grant Trophy ever since. THE RIVALRY THING In the meantime, the Nittany Lions are approaching their schedule as if it features nothing but rivalry games. They won't be going to a bowl in December or January, and the postseason ban that has remained in place even as the NCAA's scholarship penalties have been rolled back has made every regular-season game a crescendo in itself. "Every single game this year is big for us," Urschel said. "With no bowl game, no postseason, every single game is like a bowl game. You could say it's like we have 12 one-game seasons. " And yet, there's something about certain opponents that quickens the pulse of everyone at Penn State in a way that others do not. Every year, for instance, the Ohio State game generates TV ratings and online flame wars, and the intensity of the fan community can't help but heighten the drama on the field. Fans and media can debate whether it's a true rivalry or not, but there's no denying that Penn State and Ohio State have some chemistry together, in part because of their relative proximity. Ohio State is 340 miles from University Park and will continue to be the closest Big Ten school to Annemarie Mountz Penn State geographically until Maryland and Rutgers join the conference next year. They also have some history together. The two schools first faced each other in 1912 in front of 3,500 spectators at Ohio Field. It was a brutal game, even by the standards of the era. Some players suffered facial lacerations, others lost teeth. Penn State's Al Wilson was knocked out cold when he was hit from behind, but he went back into the game after regaining consciousness. Penn State was leading 37-0 in the fourth quarter when Ohio State coach John Richards pulled his team off the field following a kickoff return during which one of his players was knocked 10 feet backward on an illegal block. To claim their forfeit, Penn State players were required by the rules of the day to remain on the field for five minutes. As they did, they were pelted with trash, and one of their coaches punched a fan who tried to attack the team. Said Prato, "The ending was so bitter that right after they won, they went straight to the train station. They didn't even take a shower. They just changed their clothes somewhere and got out of Columbus. " Under different circumstances, that contentious game might have set the stage for a fierce rivalry, but instead it had the opposite effect. It was so ugly that the teams didn't play each other again until 1956. "And that was because the star captain of the 1912 team, Pete Mauthe, became

• Cover