What defines a rivalry?
Is it simply a long-standing competition? Is it measured by the greatness of two opposing teams? Is it defined by geography? Can a rivalry be manufactured or are they naturally born? Are rivals driven by hatred? Or by a begrudging respect?
The Pittsburgh/Penn State rivalry, although dormant since 2000, is considered one of the best in college football. The series began in State College in 1893. Penn State won the first six contests, but Pittsburgh would dominate the pre-1950’s era. The Panthers held the series lead until a coach named Joe Paterno took over in 1966. The 1970’s was the decade where the rivalry reach new levels of intensity. The key ingredients? A vicious win streak by Penn State and mutual greatness for the two programs.
While Penn State boasted of three undefeated seasons during their ten-game win streak over Pitt, the Panthers found a way to claw their way back—a strong coach (Johnny Majors) and a stud running back (Tony Dorsett). With their own national championship in 1976, Pittsburgh of the late-seventies was every bit the equal of Penn State, making their season finale game a pivotal game every time around.
The 1981 game would prove to be the turning point in the rivalry, as Pittsburgh aimed for their second national title while Joe Paterno had yet to earn his first. But if there’s one thing that rivals love to do, it’s spoil each other’s dreams.
The Opponent
Prior to 1966, Pittsburgh had the upper hand in their rivalry with Penn State. Legends like 1938 Heisman runner-up running back Marshall Goldberg and fifties linebackers Joe Schmidt and Mike Ditka led the Panther’s charge. But concurrent with Paterno’s rise at PSU came a downturn for Pitt. Hapless one-win teams ruled the sixties, and not until Johnny Majors was hired from Iowa State in 1973 did things turn around. Majors hit the recruiting trail hard, with his biggest coup being securing the pledge of Tony Dorsett.
Dorsett, a rare freshman All-American, paved the way for other blue-chip players to Pittsburgh, and although they still couldn’t stop the losing streak to PSU, they made it to bowls in Dorsett and Majors’ first three seasons. Dorsett’s senior season would be a culmination of Majors’ achievements. At a jam-packed Three Rivers Stadium, Dorsett—who would later win the Heisman and every other major award—blew open a 7-7 halftime tie against Penn State to cap an undefeated regular season and end the ten-game losing streak. Pitt then throttled Georgia in the Sugar Bowl to earn a consensus national title.
Majors left for his alma mater Tennessee after the championship, but assistant coach Jackie Sherrill kept Pitt’s winning ways going (although they lost to Penn State in Sherrill’s first two years). The 1979 team beat Penn State and then overmatched Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl to finish 11-1 and #7 in the AP poll.
In 1980, sophomore Dan Marino and Pitt played a tougher schedule than previous Panther teams (destroying former coach Majors at Tennessee and squeaking past #5 Penn State 14-9 at Pitt Stadium while losing just once at top-10 Florida State early in the season), but even a dismantling of unranked South Carolina couldn’t change the minds of voters. Georgia and their freshman workhouse Herschel Walker beat #7 Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl, and the uber-talented Pitt squad finished #2.
An astounding twelve draft picks came off of the 1980 team. Names like Russ Grimm (4-time Pro-Bowler at guard and 4-time Super Bowl champ), Mark May (13-year career at tackle and now an ESPN analyst), Hugh Green (a rare 2nd place Heisman finish for a defender and College Football Hall of Famer), Rickey Jackson (6-time Pro-Bowl linebacker and NFL Hall of Famer), and Randy McMillan (two-time All-American and 12th pick overall in the NFL draft) all starred for the second place Panthers, in addition to the future legends that would fill the 1981 roster (mentioned later in “The Rest of the Story”). Sherrill’s Pitt teams were loaded with talent, to say the least.
Sherrill expected 1981 to be somewhat of a rebuilding year, but the team exceeded expectations. Quarterback Dan Marino, receiver Julius Dawkins, and linebacker Sal Sunseri wound up with All-American honors, and the #1-ranked team headed into the home contest against Penn State with a Sugar Bowl battle with Georgia already secure. The undefeated Panthers had won seventeen straight, fifteen in a row at home, and 31 of their past 32 games. But a win over Penn State—a win that could even the all-time series at 39-39-3—would be of supreme importance. Sherrill, celebrating his 38th birthday on this November 28th game day, hoped his boys would give him a present for the ages.
The Game
With snow flurries falling and near-freezing temperatures, junior quarterback Dan Marino said in the pre-game that this was the “most important game in most of our lives,” and he came out playing like it. He electrified the sell-out crowd (3,000 extra seats were brought in to Pitt Stadium) with two long TD passes to Dwight Collins in the first quarter and started the game 10 for 11 passing. The Pitt defense held Penn State to two 3-and-outs to start the game held the Lions to minus 1 yard of total yardage in the opening quarter.
On the first play of 2nd quarter, Marino went for the jugular. Heaving a fifty-yard bomb towards the end zone, Marino overshot his receiver but CB Roger Jackson dragged a foot in the end zone as he hauled in an over-the-shoulder interception. The very next play PSU got their first 1st down of game, and eighty yards later, PSU was on the board with a two-yard TD run by Mike Meade. The momentum had swung, but no one realized then how wildly.
Pitt drove down to the Penn State 30, and on 3rd and long, Marino went for Dawkins in the end zone. Roger Jackson delivered a perfectly timed hit (one from which medical assistance would be needed to help Dawkins) that knocked the ball out of Dawkins’ hands and into Mark Robinson’s.
The Lions caught a break on Pitt’s next punt as they laid out the punter, with no penalty called. With less than five minutes remaining, PSU then passed their way down the field (including a perfect bomb to Kenny Jackson) and then let the QB run his way into the end zone on an 8-yard sneak.
The cold day and hard hitting made the ball hard to hang on to, as each team would lose a fumble once more before the half (4 turnovers for Pitt, 2 for PSU in the first). After Pitt dominated the first quarter, Penn State evened things up in the second quarter, 14-14. No one could have predicted that one team would utterly destroy the other in the second half.
If Roger Jackson’s interception touchback ignited PSU in the second quarter, brother Kenny’s 42-yard catch-and-run touchdown on Penn State’s opening drive of the second half may have been the match that sparked the second half inferno.
Blackledge dropped a perfect lob into Jackson’s arms at the 12-yard line. Pitt’s Ray Lao sprinted to make up ground, only to watch Jackson turn his back, plant his right foot an inch from the sideline, and pirouette towards the middle of the field. Pursuing defenders were unable to slow their momentum, and Jackson crossed the grain to the middle of the field for a touchdown.
A few minutes later, Jackson wouldn’t have to work so hard to help his team take a 28-14 lead. Blown coverage by Pitt gave Blackledge-to-Jackson another TD, this time a wide-open 45-yard reception. To close the 3rd quarter, Brian Franco nailed a field goal, which was set up by a 45-yard reception by TE Mike McCloskey. The Lions started the second half with another drive resulting in a Franco field goal to secure at 34-14 lead.
Penn State proceeded to run down the deflated Panthers’ throats. Curt Warner nearly crossed the goal line on a nine-yard rush, but he fumbled it forward. As the ball bounced around the end zone, PSU guard Sean Farrell finally fell on it to give PSU a 41-14 lead.
LB Matt Bradley (younger brother of PSU assistant Tom) also intercepted Marino and Mark Robinson would grab his second pick of the day, a 90-yard pick-6 return. Marino, after a flawless first quarter, seemed to come unglued after his first interception. Second-teamers would play the closing minutes of this shocking 48-14 Penn State upset.
The Rest of the Story
For Pittsburgh, Marino finished fourth in Heisman voting but got some revenge against Georgia for beating Pitt in the polls in 1980. Marino hit TE John Brown in final minute to beat #2 Georgia in Sugar Bowl, denying Georgia any chance at a back-to-back championship run and lessening the bitter taste of the Penn State loss.
Pitt had just three players drafted off 1981 team and seemed poised for a championship run in 1982. Penn State would play a role in denying that team as well, beating Pitt in State College 19-10. If Pitt had won, then their matchup with the Eric Dickerson and Craig James’ SMU team in the Cotton Bowl (which Pittsburgh ended up losing 7-3) would have been touted as the national title game rather than PSU’s Sugar Bowl game against Georgia.
Penn State, on the other hand, said goodbye to the heart of their offensive line in 1981. Mike Munchak, although just a second team All-American, was chosen 8th overall by the Houston Oilers, where he played for twelve seasons and went to a remarkable nine Pro-Bowls. Next to him on the PSU line, center Jim Romano went in the second round and played five seasons in the NFL, and the opposite guard, Sean Farrell, who was a two-time All-American and 17th overall draft pick, played eleven seasons in the NFL.
With such gaps on the offensive line, most teams would be apprehensive about the following season. However, Blackledge, Warner, and Jackson weren’t just any offensive trio, and the ’82 Lions were about to become a team of destiny.
The 22-part “The Games of Our Lives” series is featured each week on the Nittany Lions Den. Author Ryan J. Murphy will be releasing his third book Ring The Bell: The Twenty-two Greatest Penn State Football Victories of Our Lives– from which this story is an excerpt – in summer of 2012 (Father’s Press).
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