48 Fun Facts About Penn State Football

Before joining the Big Ten in 1993, Penn State football had spent a century as what?

An independent: Penn State answered to no conference for a hundred years, then needed only two seasons in its new league to win the title, going 12–0 in 1994.

Penn State sealed its 1986 national title by upsetting which top-ranked team in the Fiesta Bowl?

Miami: the Hurricanes outgained Penn State 445 yards to 162, but Heisman winner Vinny Testaverde threw five interceptions and the Lions won 14–10.

Penn State's first recorded game, in 1881, was against which school?

Bucknell: the 1881 match in Lewisburg was scored 9–0 in goals, not points, and Penn State then went five years without fielding a team at all.

George Hoskins, Penn State's first head coach, left in 1896 to coach which future arch-rival?

Pittsburgh: Hoskins took charge in 1892 after Penn State had played its first seasons with no coach at all, then crossed the state to lead its future rival for a year.

What were Penn State's original school colors before blue and white?

Pink and black: the story goes that sun and laundering bleached the pink to white, and in 1890 the Athletic Association switched to dark blue and white, which the students then approved.

Penn State's Nittany Lion mascot is what kind of big cat?

Mountain lion: the animals roamed central Pennsylvania until the 1880s, and in 1907 the student who dreamed up the mascot used a campus humour magazine to urge his classmates to take it up.

Student H. D. 'Joe' Mason invented the Nittany Lion in 1904 on a trip to which university?

Embarrassed that Penn State had no mascot, he made one up on the spot and declared it would easily beat the Princeton Bengal tiger.

Hugo Bezdek, who coached Penn State to a Rose Bowl, spent three summers managing which baseball team?

Pittsburgh Pirates: he ran the club from 1917 to 1919 between football seasons and lifted a losing team to fourth place, and years later he coached the NFL's Cleveland Rams too.

Rip Engle arrived in 1950 with his young assistant Joe Paterno from which Ivy League school?

Brown: Paterno had been Engle's quarterback there and meant to go on to law school, but he followed his coach to Penn State and never left.

Which 1950s Penn State halfback became a Hall of Fame star with the Baltimore Colts?

Lenny Moore: injuries cost him games in two straight seasons, but he came back in 1964 to score 20 touchdowns and be named the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year.

Which Penn State building is named for the Paternos?

The library: in 46 seasons as head coach he gave millions to Penn State's academic side, and when the university took down his statue in 2012 it kept the family name on the building.

Joe Paterno's 409th win in 2011 broke which coach's Division I record?

Eddie Robinson: the Grambling coach's 408 wins fell with a 10–7 home win in late October, and eleven days later Paterno was fired; the NCAA then struck 111 of his wins and restored them in 2015.

Joe Paterno won his first national title by beating Herschel Walker's top-ranked Georgia in which bowl?

Sugar Bowl: the 27–23 win in New Orleans finally gave Paterno a championship, after three of his unbeaten teams had been passed over for the title in the final polls.

Who became Penn State's interim head coach after Joe Paterno was fired in November 2011?

Tom Bradley: 'Scrap' had been on the staff since 1979, but after he went 1–3 as caretaker the university looked outside the program for its next coach.

Bill O'Brien came to Penn State in 2012 from which NFL job?

New England Patriots offensive coordinator: he walked into heavy NCAA sanctions, still went 8–4 and was named national coach of the year, then left for the NFL's Houston Texans after two seasons.

The NCAA's 2012 sanctions on Penn State included a $60 million fine and a four-year ban from what?

Bowl games: the NCAA lifted the ban after only two seasons, and in 2015 it also gave back the 14 years of wins it had struck from the record books.

James Franklin was hired from which school in January 2014?

Vanderbilt: in three seasons there he took a program that had never played in bowls two years running to three in a row, and won the last two.

Penn State's 2014 Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium was an overtime win over which team?

Boston College: the Eagles led by 14 in the third quarter and scored first in overtime, but missed the extra point, and Sam Ficken's kick won it 31–30.

Penn State's 2015 opener was a loss to which in-state team for the first time since 1941?

Temple: Penn State led 10–0 after a quarter and never scored again, as the Owls ran off 27 straight points to end a 74-year wait.

Whom did Penn State beat in the 2016 Big Ten Championship Game after trailing 28–14?

Wisconsin: the Badgers led 28–7 in the second quarter before Trace McSorley threw four touchdown passes and Penn State won 38–31.

How did Penn State score the winning touchdown in its 2016 upset of No. 2 Ohio State?

Blocked-kick return: Marcus Allen leapt to block a field goal try and Grant Haley ran it back 60 yards, lifting a team that had trailed 21–7 into the rankings for the first time since 2011.

Penn State ended the 2017 season by beating which team 35–28 in the Fiesta Bowl?

Washington: Saquon Barkley's 92-yard touchdown run put the Lions 28–7 up in the second quarter of his last college game, but the Huskies fought back and Penn State had to hold on to win by seven.

Who did Penn State beat 53–39 in the Cotton Bowl to finish the 2019 season 11–2?

Memphis: the Tigers kicked six field goals, a Cotton Bowl record, but Journey Brown ran for 202 yards and Penn State won what was then the highest-scoring Cotton Bowl ever played.

Penn State's first 0–5 start, in 2020, began with an overtime loss on a two-point conversion at which school?

Indiana: Michael Penix Jr. scored and ran in the tying two-point try with 22 seconds left, then ran in another in overtime to win 36–35, the first of five straight defeats.

In October 2021 Penn State lost an NCAA-record nine-overtime game 20–18 to whom?

Illinois: under a rule new that season the teams traded two-point tries from the third overtime on, and both failed five times running before the Illini finally won it in the ninth.

Penn State capped its 11–2 2022 season by beating which Pac-12 champion in the Rose Bowl?

Utah: an 87-yard run by Nicholas Singleton and an 88-yard catch by KeAndre Lambert-Smith, then the longest scoring pass in Rose Bowl history, gave Penn State its first win there in 28 years.

Whom did Penn State beat at Beaver Stadium in its first College Football Playoff game, in December 2024?

SMU: sixth-seeded Penn State returned two interceptions for touchdowns inside the first 17 minutes and won 38–10, giving James Franklin his 100th victory at the school.

Which team ended Penn State's 2024 Playoff run with a late interception in the Orange Bowl?

Notre Dame: with the score 24–24 Drew Allar tried to throw the ball away and was intercepted with 33 seconds left, and the Irish kicked the winning field goal with seven seconds to play.

James Franklin was fired in October 2025 the day after a one-point home loss to which team?

Northwestern: the 22–21 defeat came a week after a loss at previously winless UCLA, and Franklin was dismissed the next day with a 104–45 record at Penn State.

Which head coach did Penn State hire in December 2025 to replace James Franklin?

Matt Campbell: he left Iowa State as its winningest coach, taking over a team that interim Terry Smith had pulled from 3–6 to bowl eligibility by winning its last three regular-season games.

Penn State and Michigan State play for which prize?

Land Grant Trophy: both universities were founded in 1855 as pioneers of the land-grant college system, and the prize was created when Penn State joined the Big Ten in 1993.

The Governor's Victory Bell commemorates Penn State's first Big Ten game against which school?

Minnesota: the two states' governors created the bell for that 1993 debut, and in 2019 an unbeaten Gophers team won it back by intercepting Penn State in the end zone with a minute left.

Where did Penn State play its home football games before its first permanent field opened in 1893?

On the Old Main lawn: the team played in front of the college's main building until a 500-seat ground opened with a 32–0 win, a game put back two days by bad weather and played on a Monday.

In 2014 Maryland's captains refused to do what before beating Penn State 20–19?

Shake hands at the coin toss: the snub cost Maryland a 15-yard penalty before the kick-off, and its coach began his remarks after the 20–19 win by apologising to Penn State.

Which one-word slogan did Penn State trademark in 2015 as a boast about its football program?

Unrivaled: the slogan arrived with coach James Franklin and makes a virtue of a sore point, that Penn State has no agreed arch-rival in the Big Ten.

What was the student camp-out renamed Nittanyville in 2012 originally called?

Paternoville: a student coined the name in 2005 for the tents outside Gate A, and in July 2012 the students who run the camp voted to drop it.

The 2005 upset of No. 6 Ohio State was sealed when Tamba Hali forced a fumble from which quarterback?

Troy Smith: Scott Paxson fell on the ball near midfield to seal a 17–10 win, and the quarterback Penn State rattled that night won the Heisman Trophy a year later.

What song blasts through Beaver Stadium after a big play, setting off the 'We Are' chant?

Kernkraft 400: the Zombie Nation track was played nine times during the 2005 Ohio State game, and the stands bounced so hard that officials cut back on how often it ran.

Beaver Stadium is named after James A. Beaver, who held which office?

Governor of Pennsylvania: Beaver lost a leg as a Civil War general in 1864 and was not expected to live, yet he survived to run the state and to serve Penn State as trustee and acting president.

What happened to Penn State's 30,000-seat New Beaver Field after the 1959 season?

Dismantled and moved across campus: the stands came apart in 700 pieces, were bolted back together on the east side with 16,000 extra seats, and reopened in 1960 as Beaver Stadium.

How were more than 16,000 seats added to Beaver Stadium in 1978?

Stands raised on hydraulic jacks: the stadium was cut into sections and lifted eight feet so that new concrete rows could be slid in underneath, where a running track had circled the field.

The 2001 south upper deck at Beaver Stadium controversially blocked the view of what?

The project raised capacity to 107,282, making it the nation's second-largest stadium behind Michigan's.

Who was the first Penn State player to win the Heisman Trophy?

John Cappelletti: with the Vice President beside him at the 1973 Heisman dinner, he dedicated the trophy to his younger brother, who was dying of leukaemia, in one of the most moving speeches the ceremony has heard.

Which Penn State fullback caught the NFL's 'Immaculate Reception' for the Steelers in 1972?

Franco Harris: he began at Penn State mostly as a blocker, yet he ran for 1,000 yards as an NFL rookie and was named MVP of the Steelers' first Super Bowl win.

The 1977 TV movie about Penn State's 1973 Heisman winner and his brother was called what?

Something for Joey: it features the Heisman dinner speech in which the running back dedicated his trophy to his young brother, who had leukaemia and died in April 1976.

Which Penn State linebacker finished as the program's all-time leading tackler with 419?

Dan Connor: in November 2007 he passed Paul Posluszny, the two-time Bednarik Award winner who had been his teammate a season earlier, to go top of the list.

Which NFL team drafted Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons 12th overall in 2021?

Dallas Cowboys: he had not played a game in over a year after sitting out 2020, yet he was the NFL's Defensive Rookie of the Year and a Pro Bowler in all four seasons he spent in Dallas.

Which NFL team drafted Saquon Barkley second overall in 2018?

New York Giants: he arrived with 43 rushing touchdowns, then a Penn State record, and six years later crossed to the rival Eagles and won a Super Bowl in his first season with them.