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first national title despite three unde- feated seasons since Joe Paterno had be- come the head coach (1968, '69, '73). A heavyweight brawl Paterno changed everything. From 1966 through '75, Penn State won every game, including four at Pitt Stadium and two at Three Rivers Stadium, transform- ing Paterno into the most hated man in the Pitt realm. (That continues to this day.) The rivalry intensified when 35-year- old Jackie Sherrill became Pitt's head coach in 1978. Almost overnight, a public blood feud developed between Sherrill and Paterno, with Paterno calling out Sherrill as a disgrace to college football, and Sherrill beating Paterno's teams of 1979 and '80 in front of the disconsolate and dispirited Penn State home crowd at Beaver Stadium. After Pitt beat Penn State in 1979, 29- 14, Sherrill called it "the biggest day in my football life." In 1980 both teams were highly ranked, Pitt at No. 4 and Penn State at No. 5, and the outcome was in doubt until a last-minute Pitt intercep- tion inside its own 30-yard line stopped a Penn State drive. Even before the 1981 season began, the annual Pitt-Penn State game concluding the regular season loomed as another 15- round heavyweight brawl between two evenly matched powerhouse teams. Both were loaded with enough talent and ex- perience on offense, defense and special teams that they were ranked among the top 10 in the preseason polls, with the AP rating Penn State No. 7 and Pitt No. 8. No one could have envisioned that by the Fri- day after Thanksgiving that year, Penn State would have been No. 1 for two weeks near midseason before being supplanted by Pitt for the four weeks leading up to the nationally televised noon kickoff on ABC. "The level of talent that played in that game was phenomenal," Parlavecchio said. "There were so many future NFL players and Hall of Famers and all-time greats in that game. I don't care how many Pitt-Penn State games are played, it will never have the magnitude of that game." From the start of the regular season, both teams had moved up the rankings with convincing victories, and after a 41- 16 win by the No. 2 Lions at Syracuse on Oct. 17, combined with a 42-11 loss by No. 1 Texas, Penn State was at the top of the AP poll, with Pitt a scant six points be- hind. Then the roof caved in for Penn State, starting with a surprising 17-14 road loss to a Miami team led by a young quarterback whom Paterno had once tried to recruit as a linebacker, Jim Kelly. Two weeks later at Beaver Stadium, No. 6 Alabama stunned the No. 5 Lions, 31-16, dropping Penn State to No. 13 in the rank- ings. During the weekend before Thanks- giving, the postseason bowls officially locked in their games. That was stan- dard in that era, utilizing a specific weekend established by the NCAA be- fore the end of the regular season. With Pitt's 35-0 victory over Temple, the Sugar Bowl set up the Panthers against Southeastern Conference champion Georgia on New Year's Day in what was immediately hyped as the national championship game. Penn State's come-from-behind 24-21 victory over Notre Dame at Beaver Stadium allowed the 11-year-old Fiesta Bowl to switch its game to New Year's Day for the first time, and bowl organizers invited Penn State to play Southern Cal, the Pac-10 runner-up. Bulletin board material The week leading up to the Pitt-Penn State game is noted for its acrimony, es- pecially among the fans. The players usu- ally minimize their public statements so as not to incite their opponent, often with bland words about respect for a tough competitor. Not in 1981. Into that precar- ious atmosphere stepped Parlavecchio, a fiery and irascible street-fighting line- backer from New Jersey who was also a co-captain. Before the season, the NCAA had rated Penn State's schedule the second-tough- est in the country. The Lions and Pan- thers had five common opponents, and comparison scores weighed heavily in Penn State's favor. The Notre Dame game was barely over, and Parlavecchio had not even showered when he was asked about Pitt. "Who have they played? Thiel?" he snarled, referring to a small Division III college north of Pittsburgh. Later, Parlavecchio would expound on his dep- recating jibe, saying, "Our schedule was like going through a hurricane, and Pitt's was like going through a Bermuda shower. … This week they'll be playing a real football team." Then, on Stan Savran's Pittsburgh radio talk show, Parlavecchio said Penn State would win in a blowout. That was more than enough material to fill Pitt's locker room bulletin board, but there was more. Signs in the dressing room quoted Paterno as saying, "I would rather beat Pitt than go to any bowl game" and "We have better athletes with better character." The last one had to be taken out of context, for it was totally unlike Paterno to disparage the players of an- other team, publicly or privately, even Pitt. Another newspaper quote attributed to Paterno was in a similar vein: "I would rather have a tough schedule and lose a couple of games than have a patsy sched- ule and be rated No. 1." That a couple of the quotes were bogus was apparent in the reaction from Sher- rill, who had no negative comments about Paterno but said Parlavecchio did- n't have the class to play for Pitt. Sherrill and Parlavecchio also exchanged words on the field during the pregame drills, and their enmity continued into the game. "[Paterno] never confronted me about the things I said, and that was not the Penn State way," Parlavecchio recalled. "Normally, with the coach we always played the humble type. The coach would never say anything to inflate the confi- dence of the opponent or make them highly motivated. He believed in being quiet, shut your mouth and play. My group of players were different. They were Damon Runyon characters, street- tough, old-fashioned football players that might not have been the biggest or fastest

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