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P enn State has produced some out- standing wide receivers over the decades, but the incomparable Bobby Engram is the greatest one of all. Twenty years after graduating in the winter of 1995 with a degree in exercise and sport science and going on to a 14- year career in the NFL, Engram is still the most prolific record-holder among Penn State's dozens of wide receivers. His 3,026 receiving yards and 31 touchdowns still stand as the highest totals in school history, as do the 16 games in which he gained 100 yards or more. He also has the record for touchdowns in a single season, with 13 in 1993 when he became the first winner of the Biletnikoff Award. One can also find Engram's name near the top of such other records as season receiving yardage (third, fourth and 11th), season receptions (fifth, 11th and 13th) and game receiving yardage (third, fourth, seventh, 11th, 12th and 20th). Keep in mind, all these records were set during a different era, when college of- fenses were more run-oriented, low- scoring entities compared to the up-tempo, high-scoring machines of this past decade. It makes perfect sense that Engram is now in his third year as the wide receivers coach for the Baltimore Ravens, after one year as an assistant with the San Fran- cisco 49ers and two years in charge of the wideouts at Pitt. Engram was not thinking about coach- ing during his Penn State playing days, but his interest began to grow as his long NFL playing tenure was winding down. That's when he sought the advice of a man he reveres, his Penn State coach, Joe Paterno. "I actually called Joe a couple times and spoke to him about it just to get his opin- ion, his input," Engram recalled in 2011 while speaking at the annual banquet of the Central Pennsylvania chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame. "Obviously, [Joe's] talked to every coach, and coaches are probably calling him to find out about players. So I just called him to get his input and he gave me some great, sound advice that I was able to follow." After being cut in the 2010 preseason by Cleveland, coaching in the NFL began to crystalize in Engram's mind and he started making phone calls. Bill Nayes, a former special assistant to Engram's head coach in Seattle, Mike Holmgren, hooked up Engram with the San Francisco 49ers' new head coach, Jim Harbaugh. Yes, the same Jim Harbaugh who is the brother of Engram's Ravens boss, John Harbaugh, and who is now the head coach at Michi- gan, scene of one of Engram's most mo- mentous Penn State games. "I met with Jim and several people for a couple of days and they offered me a job to help coach the receivers," Engram re- called. "The timing was perfect." After serving as an assistant receivers coach on the 2011 49ers team that won the NFC West title but lost in the confer- ence championship game, Engram joined Penn State's oldest rival, the University of Pittsburgh, as wide receivers coach. That made it easier to be home with his family. Although Engram was born and raised in Camden, S.C., he has lived in the Pitts- burgh suburb of Murrysville most of his adult life. It's the hometown of his wife, Deanna, whom he met at Penn State when they were undergraduates in 1993. They have four children, including son Dean, who is now being recruited by the Nittany Lions. Engram coached at Pitt for two years before being hired by the Ravens in 2014. "Engram guided a talented Ravens re- ceiving corps that boasted a 1,000-yard receiver in [Steve] Smith Sr.," states his biography on the Ravens' official website. The bio also notes that in 2015, the Ravens set a franchise record by averaging 266.9 passing yards per game. Coaching in the NFL is a natural fit for Engram. He was a second-round choice of the Chicago Bears in the 1996 draft and spent five years with the team before moving on to Seattle for eight years and | BEST OF THE BEST H I S T O R Y Bobby Engram stands as one of the true giants in Penn State football lore Very few pure wide receivers in the history of the NFL, possibly as few as 35, have played as long as Engram. And most of those "ironmen" have been bigger and taller than the 5-10, 188-pound Penn Stater.

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