Where I Come From: My All-Time Favorite Penn State Team

I concur, if only because I attended this game.

The first year on campus for me, it was my introduction to PSU football. I’ll always love that team. Hunt, Poz, Tamba, Zemaitis, MRob, Shaw, even Lowry’s horrible, awful, gut-wrenching fair catches/fumbles.

2008 is a close second, my senior year, and the senior year for so many players who helped pull PSU up from the depths in 2005.

I know it’s odd, but it’s the only time I needed football—to take my mind off the mental trauma of that fall. That October and November were pretty magical.

The bowl game outcome really ruins it, but 2008 is still it. 2008’s season I loved to most: I loved Clark before the season started, I knew we’d be excellent that year, we cast off the UM curse, we beat OSU on the road for the first time in ages, we had our first decent OOC opponent, and I loved seeing the seniors who were responsible for the revitalization crush MSU during their last home game in the freezing cold. 2008 was the season for me, but that loss to USC was miserable and will always leave a bitter taste in my mouth.

michael irvin still doesn’t know what hit him.

2005 is a close second. that season was just magic.

05 Was my freshmen year, and all the jazz that people mentioned above.

86 because, while I was only born mid-season and was a mere 2 months old during the MNC game, I watched the VHS of that game thousands of times (literally) as a kid. Nearly every day at some points. I could recite that game chapter and verse from a very young age.

That was my junior year and my fears of never seeing a great season of football while at PSU were assuaged that year. Of course, I was 2 in 1986 and was oblivious to PSU or even college football in 1994, so that limits the field a bit. The character of that team was astounding, but that PSU-OSU game just kinds of seals it for me. The excitement before that game was palpable and you could tell something special was going to happen.

Every year feels good compared to 04, and 05 was immediately following.

I honestly think the 08 team was better, but the 05 team will always be in my heart.

That was my first season after graduating from Penn State. So yeah, the years I was on campus were pretty rough. I was still a die-hard fan, attending just about every game as a student. I was there for 6-4 (ugh). I was there for the home loss to Northwestern. I was there for the missed last-second FG against Ohio state. But, my last home game as a student was the 2004 win against Michigan State—a game which filled me with as much hope and joy as I can remember. Going home for Christmas, I remember my Uncle (a big college football fan, with a paid subscription to rivals.com) giving me the news that Derrick Williams had picked Penn State.

I was a first-year law student in Philly when the season finally started. Like every 1L out there, I studied my ass off 6 days a week. But Saturday was football day. I’d roll out of bed at 9:30 or so, throw on my game day gear, run out to grab some breakfast, and be on the couch in time for College Gameday. There I would stay until after midnight some days. Friends would stop over with food and beer, so I never even had to pick up the phone to order takeout. Good times.

I only have vague memories of those early non-conference games. I just remember being in awe of how strong the team looked. Robinson could throw! Williams and this new guy Butler could catch! King could burn defenses even if they knew the reverse was coming! “It was like watching us play against a high school team,” I remember one friend saying after attending the Central Michigan game. After watching five years of struggles, these were new, foreign feelings.

With the conference season starting, Penn State football now occupied my mind whenever it wasn’t occupied with law. I read the Collegian’s coverage of the team every day. I waited anxiously for Joe’s press conferences to come out every Tuesday. I gobbled up every article on ESPN.com. There were no Penn State blogs—and really, no worthwhile college football blogs—out there yet, and that’s a good thing; I might not be a lawyer today if I’d had even MORE PSU coverage to read.

The Northwestern game nearly gave me a heart attack, but that Derrick Williams catch will remained seared in my brain forever. But things really got rolling for me after the Minnesota game. We’d just CRUSHED a ranked Minnesota team. Kids were camping outside the stadium. ESPN was on campus! At this point, I couldn’t take it any more. Screw the books for one weekend. I was going to the Ohio State game.

Tickets were hard to come by (obviously). I had a few friends on campus for the game, but we didn’t even bother trying to sit together. I paid over $100 for a ticket in the Freshman/Sophomore section. Despite arriving over an hour before kickoff, I still ended up towards the back of the section. Rather than disappointed, I was impressed at the dedication. This crowd had an energy I’d only experienced twice before—the 324 game in 2001, and the Nebraska game in 2002. The energy here surpassed even that. Everyone around me was going crazy, but no one was going crazier than I.

To describe the euphoria surrounding that game would be pointless—you’re all Penn State fans, you were all watching the game, you know how it felt. But yeah, it was good.

I was disappointed after the Michigan game, but not heartbroken like I was after Iowa 2008. I was still used to losing back then, I guess. But, even more than that, I remember bouncing back against Illinois. That’s the sort of game that never would have happened while I was a student. I just remember thinking “No one will F**k with us for the rest of the season.”

I made it back to the student section for senior day. Got a spot right next to the tunnel. Cheered my heart out for the seniors who I’d spent most of my college career watching. Enjoyed the dominance over a very respectable Wisconsin. Went back to Philly with a smile on my face.

It’s a good thing the season ended when it did, because I needed to STUDY.

With the semester finally over, I could thankfully watch the Orange Bowl in peace. I had converted everyone I knew into a Penn State fan over the course of the semester, so I had a big crowd at my place for the game—and of course, everyone stayed until the very late end.

Given all the anguish I had suffered as a student-fan from 2000-2004, and all the stress I was under as a first year law student, the experience of watching that 2005 team was one I don’t think will ever be matched. So yeah, they’re my all-time favorite team.

I will never forget the TD pass to D-Will and the ensuing manpile in the dorm hallway. And I ended up in the poster for the next year. It’s kinda sad that it was only my soph year though.

I have to go with 2005. In fact, it’s a little bittersweet because I already know I will never care as much about another team as much as I cared about that team.

I grew up a Penn State fan, living in the friendly confines of South Jersey. Then we moved to Upstate New York when I was 12 and into Syracuse country (which only exists when the team is doing better than (a) Notre Dame, or (b) Penn State). Needless to say, the dark years particularly stung. Being a Penn State fan was something that defined me in hostile territory, and the times were not kind.

I was a freshman in 2003 and by the 2004 season it was getting ridiculous. My godfather (an alumnus who, while joining me and my father for an official campus tour during my college search, said I could come here, to the center of the universe [State College] or I could go, “somewhere else”) told me that the one thing different about 2002 and 2003-2004 was that I was now attending PSU. He was joking, of course, but it made me question a lot. My source of identity had been a loser for years and it made each fall a little worse. I’ll never forget sitting in a dorm room after any number of games during the 2004 season and listening to the depressing music from “Friday Night Lights.”

Then 2005 came. We got Williams. I predicted to my friend that we would go undefeated in 2005, easily. “Who do you see beating us?” The confidence was already starting to build. Needless to say the Fall 2005 semester was one of my best. Weeks moved by at a rapid pace, and no one could wait until Friday night to preemptively celebrate the next win. The season was like a movie script. I traveled to East Lansing and then to Miami. It was magic. We knew we were winners again.

By the time 2006 came around, my senior year, I was already feeling sorry for the new team. It could never equal the previous year. If you watch the stadium video “Together” from that year, you can see how in love we all were with 2005. That next season almost didn’t matter, as long as we could cheer for the 2005 highlights on the video board and relive those memories.

The Penn State Football Story season-ending video highlights “Hamlet” piece summed up my feelings on 2005 perfectly. “The faithful remained, and their bond became permanent.”

I probably enjoyed 2005 slightly more than 2008 and perhaps it would be different had 2008 ended on a higher note.

But also, the 2005 season had sort of melancholy feeling for me because it was the first season after I graduated. Admittedly, I had not been a great fan in 2003 (skipped most of the games to focus on my core EE courses) and had practically given up on the team after the 2004 debacle.

That said, I vowed to watch every game in ‘05 start to finish although there was no promise that we’d be better. My dad thought I was crazy to think we’d be good (a non-alum who I brought to the 6-4 game…ugh) after we squeaked by NW. Weeks later, we watched the 2005 OSU game together and afterwords he said to me “Penn State can play with anybody”.

2005 solidified me as a diehard fan. I did not grow up in a tradition-rich, PSU household and I had not witnessed much success from ‘01-’04. However, seeing a great team and an embattled coach rise from the ashes to finish top 3 in the country was like reading the ending out of a Hollywood script. For me though, it was just the beginning.

I loved 05 and the two championship seasons but I loved the 1978 season. The loss to Alabama in the Sugar bowl was disappointing but the season was great. Watched all the home games from the row right above the tunnel and loved every second. I Mike Guman, Lance Mehl, Rich Milot, Chuck Fusina, Millen, Clark, Kuben, Tom Bradley was on that team. Fun regular season with an outstanding defense. The loss to Alabama was hearwrenching but still a fun year.

off the beaten path here with this one. 1982, ‘86, ’94, 2005, and maybe ’08 are all obvious choices. One of my favorites over the years was the 1990 team, even though they had 3 losses and didn’t win a championship or even their bowl game. I think part of my affection for this team stems from 1990 being the first season in which I was able to attend games at Beaver Stadium (Temple, Pitt). I think it’s also partly because this was my senior year of HS, and PSU’s season kind of paralleled my HS team’s season, in the way it started slow, got hot in the middle and ended with a close playoff (bowl) loss.

They were really a team of missed opportunity. Two close losses to start the year (19-14 at USC, a game in which Keith Gouganis dropped a sure-fire pick six late in the game, and a close home loss to Texas, who ended up going 10-2), followed by 9 straight wins, including an upset of #1 ranked ND in South Bend, and a 9-0 shutout win at Alabama. They then lost by a TD to 9-2 Florida State in the inaugural Blockbuster Bowl, a game in which both teams had exactly the same amount of total offense (I think it was 417 yards for each team). I always thought the ’90 team could have played with anyone in the country that year, and had they pulled out wins in those 2 early season games, they probably would have played Colorado (the co-national champ, along w/Ga. Tech) in the Orange Bowl for the MNC.

For what it’s worth, my all time favorite PSU team is 1994, and you obviously can’t put 1990 in the same league as ‘94 or any of the others we’ve been talking about here. But I’ll always remember it fondly for what might have been.

I remember about the ’91 Miami game:

1. Kevin Williams running through our punt coverage for a TD (yet another ST fail)

2. Tony Sacca’s behind the back flip/screen pass to Troy Drayton for a long gain

nothing beat that win against THE U in 86.

Though admittedly, I’ve only been seriously following the team since I applied to the school in 2005 (I don’t think I even watched a full game that year), so I don’t have a lot to choose from.

gimme 2005, leadership really shown threw that year from seniors that cared about football. That team really showed what Joe can do in 4 years of full football.
2008 close second only because the friggin’ Iowa game. We coulda shocked the world in the MNC game. But poor coaching by us screwed us.

You’ve all laid out great choices and I can’t see picking just one. I was in Happy Valley for the 81 thru 84 seasons and those first two years were unbelievable. We thought 83 and 84 were the dark years at the time, losing to Cinci and going 8-4-1 in 83 then 6-5 in 84 but we still lived for those games. I’ve enjoyed the ups like ‘86 and ’94, the tough losses like ’99, and my wife learned to tolerate the yelling and screaming during the 2000-2004 years. I have a couple of kids now and I spend most fall Saturday afternoons avoiding any news on the games until I can get home to my DVR but each year there’s always something good so I’m not picking a favorite.

I’m going to keep enjoying the ride.

It was my junior year. We were unbeatable. Even though I didn’t get to watch all of the games, it was a magical year. The spirit around campus, the joy of winning was just tremendous. For me, 2005 is a close second, but just had too much nail biting. That Orange Bowl liked to have killed me!

Of course, the ’82 & ’86 National championship teams are big in my heart. Watching Pete Giftopoulos intercept that last Testaverde pass and KNOWING we had beaten those smug, Miami blow-hards was too delicious for words. I think the Nittany Lion came up off his pedestal at the shrine and roared on his hind legs at that one.

The Greg Garrity 41 yd. TD reception in the "82 Sugar Bowl is another moment etched in stone in my happy memories. The 2005 team was a major moment of redemption for JoePa and PSU, although the Michigan game broke my heart. But beating Florida State in the Orange Bowl made up for it.

JoePa lived down the street from our house in Park Forest Village in 1966, and my Dad worked at PSU in the Dept. of General Services. So we were a blue and white family in the blood. My Dad took me and my two brothers to see the ’64 Navy game when Roger Staubach took us apart. We sat right in front of the Midshipman in the east stands at Beaver Stadium, and my Dad told us later the Midshipmen wanted to kill all of us we cheered so loud for “Dear, Old State.”

In 1990, I went to see PSU play Texas in Austin and was seated in the amazingly high “nose-bleed” section behind the corner of the south end-zone at Darryl K. Royal Memorial Stadium. Andrea Collins block a Bobby Lilljedahl punt into the Texas end zone and one of our guys fell on it, giving PSU a 16-12 victory. I was amazed as I stood yelling my head-off for the score, and then looking in amazement at the THOUSANDS of people dressed in blue and white in a stadium far away from Happy Valley. And then going under the stadium afterward to cheer our boys as they came out of the locker room after the game. An amazingly good moment.

I especially enjoyed being at the Alamo Bowl in 2007 when Evan Royster burst through the Texas A&M defense in the 3rd qtr. and scored the go-ahead 38 yd. TD that gave us the victory. Once again, on 4th and goal to go, the PSU defense stopped the Aggies cold and prevented them from getting the win. When PSU was losing 14-0 in the 1st qtr., I was sitting behind the Penn State bench and could hear JoePa chewing out Mike McQueery on the sidelines. Then Mc Queery came running to the back row of benches near where we were sitting and gave the offense a good ass-chewing. We totally dominated the 2nd qtr. and led at halftime, 17-14.

My proudest moments where when PSU stopped Heisman trophy winners like Vinny Testaverde, or Herschel Walker, or Marcus Allen, and made them ineffective. Perhaps my best memory was my whole family watching PSU’s first Orange Bowl in ’68 against Kansas in the basement rec-room in our house in Park Forest Village. PSU drove down the field and scored to make the score 14-13 with just seconds left in the game. We could kick the extra point and tie or go for two for the win. We tried the 2 point conversion and failed.

My whole family sat in stunned silence as the Kansas fans rushed out onto the field. But all of a sudden, a ref came out of the back of the end-zone holding up a penalty flag. Kansas had 12 men on the field, and PSU got a second chance for the win. When the Penn State player blasted into the end-zone, all 7 of us launched ourselves off the couch and hit the ceiling! We were all screaming as we watched Penn State win their first Orange Bowl and begin JoePa’s winningest bowl game legacy. And we could hear our neighbors all yelling, too. We got in the family station wagon and drove down to College Ave., where a spontaneous celebration was going on. Since it was holiday break, there weren’t many students in town. But the jubilation was as if we’d just won our first national championship. I found out years later that for the last 3 or 4 plays in that winning scoring drive, Kansas had 12 men on the field! And PSU STILL drove the field and won. Fight On, State, indeed!

Of course, the 1994 team that dominated Oregon in our 1st Rose Bowl since 1923 made me very proud. I’ll never forget Ki-Jana Carter blasting through Oregon’s defense on Penn State’s 1st offensive play of the game and going 69 yards for the TD. Speaking of the 1923 Rose Bowl, I’m also very proud that Penn State played against USC in the inaugural game of the brand new Rose Bowl stadium.

I also remember the celebration after PSU beat UCLA at the LA Coliseum in ’68. I think that game propelled the team toward the first of the 2 back-to-back undefeated seasons in ’68 and ’69 and back-to-back Orange Bowl wins. Just two years after becoming head coach in ’66, JoePa and PSU had muscled their way into the national championship picture.