Blue White Illustrated

but this time both men were cordial and conciliatory. Engle went to the Syracuse dressing room and offered his congratu- lations, and Schwartzwalder told reporters this Penn State squad "was the greatest team I've ever come up against." No one summed up the game better than Engle. "Two points," he told reporters as he held up two fingers. "They kicked points and we didn't." The Orange deserved to win, but that Saturday they also were lucky because the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in both polls, LSU and Northwestern, were beaten, and Texas, No. 3 in the AP poll, was unim- pressive in defeating Baylor, 13-12. Syracuse was now the No. 1 team in the nation, and Penn State was still in the top 10 at No. 9 (UPI) and No. 10 (AP). Although formal bowl invitations were not permitted until the games of Nov. 14 had been completed, the bowls were scrambling. With the Rose and Sugar bowls off the grid, the Orange and Cotton bowls wanted Syracuse, while the Cotton, Gator and Liberty bowls were reportedly con- sidering Penn State. Actually, the new Liberty Bowl desper- ately wanted Penn State to be its host team for the new mid-December game in Philadelphia. For months, Bud Dudley, the bowl's creator and impresario, had been working with politicians, including the governor and legislators, to try and force Penn State to participate in the game. The Liberty Bowl's formal invitation came following Penn State's 46-0 victory over Holy Cross in the last game ever at New Beaver Field. Athletics director Ernie McCoy, who curiously was a member of the Liberty Bowl's Executive Council, said the school would wait until after the final game of the season at Pitt to decide. However, in a secret meeting Wednesday night, the players voted to play in the Lib- erty Bowl after they were told they had no other choices. It was a major disappoint- ment to the team. Not only did the players feel cheated because of what they had ac- complished, but they were also upset at all the backroom Liberty Bowl shenanigans, and their mood carried over into the final game of the season at Pitt. Although they had only a 5-4 record and had been shel- lacked by Syracuse, 35-0, the Panthers upset the distracted Nittany Lions, 22-8. Penn State formally accepted the Liberty Bowl invitation after the Pitt game. By the time the game was played on Dec. 19, the players realized they had the oppor- tunity to redeem themselves. The oppo- nent was Alabama, a 7-1-2 team ranked two slots ahead of them in the AP poll at No. 10 and coached by Bear Bryant. This was the first time an Alabama foot- ball team played a team with black players, but the historical milestone was hardly noticed by the media and the public at the time. Two black players were on the roster, senior starting tackle Charlie Janerette and sophomore reserve defensive end Dave Robinson, but Robinson did not dress for the game. Penn State won, 7-0, on a cold and blustery day inside the now defunct RFK Stadium, with Stellatella throwing a block on the fake field goal and then kicking the extra point. Two weeks later in the Cotton Bowl, Syracuse beat No. 4 Texas, 23-14, to clinch the national championship. However, there was one last bit of bad and good luck for the 1959 Liberty Bowl team. Because the final polls were taken in early December, the team remained at No. 12 in the AP rankings despite the win over Alabama. However, the UPI poll had placed the Lions at No. 10 and Alabama at No. 13 before the Liberty Bowl. So when the members of the 1959 Liberty Bowl team get together at Homecoming, they can brag about being one of only three Penn State teams not coached by Joe Paterno to finish in the top 10 since the AP rankings began in 1936. "We not only won the game but we beat the great Bear Bryant," said Stellatella, who went on to a career in high school teaching and coaching. "No other Penn State team can say that except the 1959 Liberty Bowl team." ■

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