I thought we had a Cotton Bowl boycott from the 1948 Hotel incident
- Thread starter Lion-skier
- Start date
The 1971 team pounded Texas 30-6. Huge game for PSU respectability.
The 1974 team hammered Baylor 41-20. Jimmy Cefalo was MVP. There was a rare play in that game too. Baylor tried an onside kick at one point in the game and Joe Jackson caught it on the bounce and ran it in for the score.
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1971 pre game conference. Darrell Royal laughingly claimed Joe was “peeing down my leg”
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Retaliation:
President Richard Nixon presented a plaque to Texas coach Darrell Royal, naming the Longhorns the No. 1 college football team after their victory against No. 2 Arkansas on Dec. 6, 1969.
AP
“It was a perfect storm,”
Oh yeah. Jackson’s return of that onside kick was at the end of the game. Tom Donchez has a great game rushing, as well. But Cefalo was a star as a true freshman.
I’ve posted about these games before, since I was able to see them in person. It is still my humble opinion that the 1971 dismantling of the Texas Wishbone 30-6 was the most significant victory in establishing Penn State’s credibility as a football power.
A little trivia with a nod to one of the PSU players in that game:
Scott Skarzynski (sp) was the PSU wide receiver who caught the long TD pass from Hufnagle. He was from South River HS in central NJ. In the 60s and into the 70s, South River was a powerhouse in NJ HS football.
Skarzynski was a sophomore at South River when Drew Pearson (Tulsa, Dallas Cowboys) was a junior, and Joe Theisman was a senior. Wow.
Skarzynski became a NJ State Trooper, if I recall. And a great trivia answer in PSU football lore.
imho one of Penn State's most satisfying victories ever!
It certainly went a long way following the regular season ending disaster @ Tennessee. Everything that could have gone wrong in that game did.
That Tennessee game was such a disaster. I think the Vols scored on 3 different types of returns (going on memory here, but I think I'm right): punt, fumble, and interception.
Penn State had about 200 yards more of total offense, and Tennessee only other TD was on a short drive after another turnover. PSU seemed like it would drive the ball easily only to turn it over for a TN touchdown.
The mock and disrespect the Nittany Lions were getting here in Texas after that loss, following that political sideshow of 1969, rivals what PSU has gone through recently. It was brutal. If Penn State ever needed a win, it was in that Cotton Bowl.
Thank God my late wife and I were there to see it! Awesome!
Yes, Kenny and Roger Jackson. Kenny class of '80. Not sure if Roger was ahead of him or behind by a class or two.
They have some olden days(!), old-school football tradition there.
Joe Susan, the ex-head coach of Bucknell who retired at the end of the 2018 season, was South River class of '73. He played at Delaware and was a long-time asst coach under Schiano at Rutgers, besides other stops as HC at Davidson and other assistant roles at Princeton, among others.
That Tennessee game was such a disaster. I think the Vols scored on 3 different types of returns (going on memory here, but I think I'm right): punt, fumble, and interception.
Penn State had about 200 yards more of total offense, and Tennessee only other TD was on a short drive after another turnover. PSU seemed like it would drive the ball easily only to turn it over for a TN touchdown.
The mock and disrespect the Nittany Lions were getting here in Texas after that loss, following that political sideshow of 1969, rivals what PSU has gone through recently. It was brutal. If Penn State ever needed a win, it was in that Cotton Bowl.
Thank God my late wife and I were there to see it! Awesome!
Trivia -
1. Tennessee honored the Majors family before that '71 PSU game. Then Bobby Majors, a DB, had the game of his life, scoring two or maybe all three of those non-offensive TDs. They were pretty good, but not 3 TDs better than us. Tenn. was a very good program back in the late 60s and early 70s, but were overshadowed by other SEC teams (mainly Alabama and Auburn) in that era.
Then we returned to Tenn to open the '72 season, and lost 28-21, again our only regular-season loss until Oklahoma beat us in the Sugar Bowl.
2. PSU (and Tenn, I presume) had to petition to play that 1971 game, which was an 11th regular-season game for both. If I recall, it was not scheduled until late summer, maybe? Some other schools were already playing an 11th as of recent seasons, but it was not widespread yet.
Until 1971, PSU played just 10 regular-season games. We stayed with 11 regular season games after that (with a couple of exceptions where we played 12), until the NCAA permanent switch to 12 in the early 2000s.
