By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
October 20, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – There used to be a time when West Virginia athletic supporters used presidential administrations to measure the amount of time between victories against Penn State.
Of course the Mountaineer football program spanned the Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan administrations between Penn State triumphs, finally ending the ignominious streak in 1984.
Whenever the old timers needed to boost their spirits they simply dug out the old film canisters of the 1954 game at State College when West Virginia came from behind to beat the Lions 19-14.
That was the last time West Virginia won a football game there.
I recall attending a Penn State game at old Mountaineer Field as a wide-eyed 10-year-old in 1978 thinking that that was going to be the year we finally beat Penn State.
The Mountaineers took a quick 14-0 lead over the No. 2-ranked Lions as delirious and increasingly inebriated WVU students began making plans to tear down the aging stadium a couple of years early.
But naturally Penn State had other plans. A touchdown here and a touchdown there turned a 14-point West Virginia lead into a fairly routine 49-21 Lion victory. We couldn’t tackle Matt Suhey and we couldn’t catch Booker Moore, and Penn State actually had a quarterback that year in Chuck Fusina who didn’t wear a full-cage face mask and could throw a spiral. And defensive tackle Bruce Clark might as well have been in our huddle because he was in our backfield more than our running backs were.
It was yet one more trip to the woodshed for the Mountaineers.
Reciting the names of some of the Penn State football greats is like taking a walk down Elm Street at midnight: John Hufnagel, Fusina, Franco Harris, Suhey, Lydell Mitchell, Curt Warner, John Cappelletti, Kenny Jackson, Ted Kwalick and Steve Wisniewski on offense, and Walker Lee Ashley, Clark, Mike Hartenstine, Mike Reid, Matt Millen, Dave Robinson, Jack Ham, Shane Conlan, Lance Mehl, Mike Zordich and Pete Harris on defense.
Football managed nine wins against 48 losses and a pair of ties versus Penn State in an annual series that was finally euthanized in 1992.
West Virginia’s record against Penn State in other sports is equally depressing: baseball 41-62, women’s basketball 6-24, gymnastics 5-29, men’s soccer 5-19-1, women’s soccer 1-2, wrestling 7-24, women’s tennis 1-20 and volleyball 0-27.
In fact, men’s basketball (66-53) is the only West Virginia program to have a winning all-time record against the Blue and White.
Anyone that has a great Penn State memory would be dishonest if they also didn’t admit to having at least five bad Penn State memories to match it.
That’s why Mountain State baby boomers have harbored such an inferiority complex for what the late Jack Fleming used to call those “wine-sipping, hors d’oeuvre-chomping yuppies.”
| |
 |
| |
West Virginia's blowout win over Penn State in 1988 remains to this day one of the most satisfying victories in Mountaineer football history.
WVU Sports Communications photo |
|
Like many, my personal Penn State highlight was beating the Lions 117-0 in 1988. The score was actually a little closer (51-30) but no West Virginia fan remembers Penn State’s 23 second-half points anyway.
I can still recall as if it were yesterday pounding my fists on the counter when Undra Johnson took that draw play for a touchdown right before the end of the half to give West Virginia a 41-7 lead. It was the one time Mountaineer fans actually put away the Don Nehlen Up-The-Middle-Meter.
I was a student assistant working as a press box PA spotter for that game and I happened to be sitting right next to veteran Penn State sports information director L. Budd Thalman, considered one of the best ever in the business.
Thalman, eyes bulging and nostrils flaring, looked at me as if I was the village idiot – and I was but it didn’t matter – we were taking out a generation worth of frustration on his football team. I got great pleasure watching Joe Paterno run a 4.5 forty off the field at halftime.
The 1984 victory over Penn State was terrific but the outcome was in doubt right up to the end. The 1988 game was the Penn State smack-down that we had all been waiting for.
Today, the two schools are members of different conferences. Penn State competes in the Big Ten while West Virginia is a member of the Big East. The schools play sporadically in some sports and more frequently in others, though usually in State College.
The years have softened my feelings toward the Lions but I must admit, seeing the men’s and women’s soccer teams beat Penn State earlier this year was naturally pleasing. The women won for the first time ever against the Lady Lions and the men beat Penn State for the first time since 1973 (that covers Nixon, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton and Bush 43 – yes, old habits are hard to break).
And Thursday, Sergio Lopez’s men’s swimming team knocked off the Lions 137-104 at the WVU Natatorium.
Way to go Mountaineers!
It’s always nice beating Penn State.
Briefly:
Speaking of our friends to the northeast, I had a nice conversation recently with former men’s soccer coach John C. McGrath, in town to watch the Notre Dame victory on Wednesday night.
McGrath, now retired and living in Waynesburg, Pa., recalled a West Virginia loss to the Nittany Lions that actually cost the Penn State soccer coach his job.
The year prior West Virginia beat Penn State without its star player Chris Bahr, also a standout kicker for the football team. The soccer coach bitterly complained to his athletic director and demanded that Bahr be allowed to play both sports.
Bahr got to play soccer the next season and Penn State beat West Virginia, but Joe Paterno eventually got the last laugh. Bahr was back to kicking field goals for the football team the following year and Penn State had a new men’s soccer coach.
I got a note passed along to me by Sports Information Director Shelly Poe from former Mountaineer running back Eugene Napoleon, who recently published a book called Dream Real.
Napoleon, CEO/President of Nap Sports and Nap Records, LLC., is also a sports agent whose client list includes Sheryl Swoopes and Ruth Riley of the WNBA. His book deals with his personal experiences growing up in the projects and becoming a top college football recruit, and then later a sports agent.
Mountaineer fans can learn more about the book at http://www.napsbook.com.
I had an enjoyable visit with several former Mountaineer football players at last weekend’s homecoming game against Syracuse. Among those I got a chance to talk to were linebacker Tim Brown, defensive backs Kwame Smith and Harold Kidd, safety Darrell Whitmore, defensive end Mike Booth, and wide receiver Michael Baker. All of them looked like they could still play a few snaps.
I hope Jerry Porter doesn’t become the modern day version of Duane Thomas. The former Mountaineer standout has not been active for a game this year after coming off a 76-catch, 942-yard season in 2005. He is currently serving a team-imposed four-game suspension.
According to news accounts, Porter got off to a bad start with new Raiders coach Art Shell last spring during mini-camp, and dug himself a deeper hole by using Al Davis’ parking spot.
I remember Jerry being a great team player at WVU, unselfishly moving to safety in 1998 after coming off a two-touchdown performance as a receiver in the 1997 Carquest Bowl.
Hopefully his situation can be resolved soon because he is a tremendous talent who is in the prime of his career.
All of you getting hopped up about Colin Cowherd need to keep in mind that he’s just jacking West Virginia to get people to listen to his radio show. Don’t take the bait.
Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis was asked during his UCLA pre-game news conference earlier this week about both West Virginia and Louisville. Weis was very complimentary of both teams and I won’t go into detail about what he said – you can read all about it in the Charleston Daily Mail – but what was so surprising to me was the depth of his knowledge of both teams.
He was reciting – very accurately I might add – Patrick White’s stats from last week’s Syracuse game. He was also in the ballpark with Brian Brohm’s stats against Cincinnati. Neither West Virginia nor Louisville is on Notre Dame’s football schedule this year.
Weis is either a genius or he needs to get away from the TV set on open dates.
Football, men’s soccer and women’s soccer are presently ranked in the Top 10, and wrestling is ranked No. 23 in the most recent W.I.N. Magazine poll. The next Mountaineer team poised to crack the national ratings is men’s swimming, which defeated Penn State Thursday afternoon. West Virginia got 41 votes in yesterday’s College Swimming Coaches Association Dual Meet rankings placing it one spot shy of the Top 25. That was before sinking the Lions.
Have a great weekend!
