Penn State Sports Magazine
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V S . W A S H I N G T O N ing No. 4 Pitt on Thanksgiving Day. A disappointing 14-9 loss to the Panthers didn't tarnish Penn State's stature for its Dec. 26 encounter against Ohio State in what bowl officials said was the best matchup in the Fiesta's 10-year history. Another record crowd of 66,738 turned out to see the Lions overwhelm the 1- point favorite Buckeyes, 31-19. The Penn State-Fiesta Bowl love affair was heating up. In 1981, the Sugar Bowl announced it was switching its traditional Jan. 1 kickoff time from the afternoon to the evening. The Fiesta Bowl quickly moved into the vacated afternoon TV time slot, chal- lenging the Cotton Bowl. When the bowl pairings were arranged in mid-November of '81, Penn State's 8-2 record before its annual game against Pitt wasn't good enough for the four traditional New Year's Day games but suited the Fiesta Bowl. After the Nittany Lions upset the then-No.1 and Sugar Bowl-bound Pan- thers, 48-14, in that historical game at Pitt Stadium, Fiesta Bowl officials knew they had a red hot matchup with South- ern Cal and its Heisman Trophy winner, Marcus Allen, as the opponent. This time it was standing room only for the record crowd of 71,053, as Penn State turned a 17-7 halftime lead into a solid 26-10 win with a dominating defense that made Allen inconsequential to the outcome. The love affair was now booming, but the best was yet to come. Everything fell into place in the 1986 season to raise the Fiesta Bowl's profile and prestige to the New Year's Day mountaintop. Played before another record crowd (73,098), this was the now- famous national championship game in which 6½-point underdog Penn State upset Miami, 14-10, in an exciting game that went down to almost the last play. With all the elite bowls locked into con- ference affiliations, the Fiesta Bowl had been able to match the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country because they were both independents. The magnitude of the matchup empowered the Fiesta Bowl's TV partner, NBC, to move the game to Jan. 2 in prime time, where it wouldn't compete against any other bowls. Thirty years later, it remains the most widely viewed collegiate football game in history, as it was seen in 21.9 mil- lion homes, and the pregame high jinks of the Hurricanes are as well-known as the game itself. The Fiesta Bowl was now big time thanks to Penn State, and the ro- mance was at its peak. After that game, the criteria for teams to be invited to the Fiesta Bowl went up the scale, and it was another five years before Penn State was back in Phoenix, this time on New Year's Day. The sixth-ranked Nit- tany Lions did not disappoint, but they seemed to be flat against the dominating No. 10 Tennessee until late in the third quarter, by which time they had spotted the 4-point underdog Volunteers a 17-7 lead. In a four-minute span that bridged the third and fourth quarters, Penn State turned the game into a rout with 28 points. The Lions went on to win, 42-17, and finished No. 3 in the rankings behind co-national champs Miami and Wash- ington. Love is grand. Before Penn State returned to the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 1, 1997, the selection process For Penn State, one of the perks of playing in the Fiesta Bowl has been the opportunity to face a series of oppo- nents that it has rarely encountered over the years. Its first-ever appearance in the game was in 1977 against Arizona State, a team it had never played before (and hasn't played since). When it faced Southern California in 1982, the teams had met only once previously – in the 1923 Rose Bowl. The Nittany Lions also met a Tennessee team they had only faced two times previously and a Texas team they had played only four times. This year's game against Washington continues that trend. The Nittany Lions and Huskies have met only twice during the 128 years in which their schools have both fielded teams, with Penn State winning both games. Here's a recap of those matchups: DEC. 3, 1921 In their first game west of Ohio State, the 7-0-2 Nittany Lions traveled by train to play 3-3-1 Washing- ton, then nicknamed the Sundodgers. Penn State's Hugo Bezdek, who had coached Oregon to a Rose Bowl victory in 1916, set up the game through his West Coast connections. A standing- room crowd of 35,00 watched at Wash- ington's one-year-old stadium as Penn State gave the Sundodgers a lesson in Eastern football with a dominating 21-7 win behind the passing and running of Glenn Killinger, who was later selected to Walter Camp's prestigious first-team All-America squad. All-East selection Stan McCollum caught 11 of Killinger's 12 passes to set a single-game school record that stood for 70 years but never showed up in the official record books. DEC. 26, 1983 An invitation to the one- year-old Aloha Bowl and a Christmas holiday in Honolulu were well-deserved rewards for the persistent Nittany Lions in a rebuilding year following the team's first national championship. After three embarrassing losses to open the season, Penn State went on a tear, winning its last seven games and tying Pitt. An upset in their last regular-season game kept the 8-3 Huskies out of the Rose Bowl. Trailing 10-3 into the fourth quar- ter in sunny 80 degree weather, the Lions scored on Nick Gancitano's 49- yard field goal and a 2-yard touchdown run by D.J. Dozier, finishing off time- consuming drives from midfield for the 13-10 victory. George Reynolds, whose 47.7-yard average on seven punts was considered the key to the win, was se- lected the bowl's outstanding defensive player. –L.P. Penn State's history with Huskies is short and sweet