Sitting around the campfire with my tailgating friends. Replaying games from the past. What a great game! I’d love to see another PSU defense that hits like that!
Just watched the 1986 National Championship game
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Oh, we have the hitters. Not sure we have wrappers. We'll see.
They certainly didn't take any shit from anyone, did they?
They did not. Bob Gibson would have been right at home on that team.
One of the best days of my life. I was a Sr.at State, one sister was a So.at Wake and other was a Sr.in high school. My parents agreed to host a party primarily b/c my college sister was leaving to study abroad. They also were frequent attendees at PSU games so it was the perfect situation. The day of the game we had a massive snow storm in SEPA. My buddy and I slid all over the road on the keg/liquor run. By late afternoon skies were clear, roads were plowed. Signs of magic to come. Probably 150 at the party...including friends from all kids and parents. We didn't have cable yet...and people brought extra tv's so there was one in every room in the house. Great game, great party, great fun. The cherry on top was that I had sort of randomly invited a girl who was well above my stature at the time. Surprisingly she showed up even though she really didn't know anyone else and was not into sports. Yes...I got to kiss the girl to end the night. A great memory!
That’s a great story! I can only imagine what your house looked like with all those big monster TV spread out around the house with rabbit ears sprouting off. It had to be a great environment and I’m sure the house erupted on that final interception. Thanks for sharing!
I've watched that game probably four times. Never gets old for me. Easily my favorite sports moment and memory. (Well except maybe for the night my kid scored 30 points to include a last-second winning shot on Senior Night at his Maryland high school.)
Anyway, Bob Griese, early in his sportscasting career, was a treat to listen to. Vinnie is seeing linebackers where there aren't any. Great line that captured the night perfectly. What a defense. They came to play...and to hit that night.
Jan 2 1987. My 22nd birthday. It was the best Gift(o) I ever received! Thanks Joe.
I remember a newspaper article about Ray Isom entitled “The Hitman Cometh”
I loved when they interviewed Shane Conlan after the game and he said that the secondary hit their WRs so often and so hard that "they didn't want to catch the ball."
Awesome.
Awesome.
Shane Conlan, " Last year we knocked on the door, this year we're gonna kick it in ".
I believe it was Duffy Cobb who hit Michael Irvin HARD early in the game when Miami was backed up against their own goal line. Forced an incompletion. Shortly after, I think it was Isom who blasted Irvin and forced a fumble around midfield that Duffy Cobb recovered.
Those two hits, even though in the 1st quarter, set the tone for the rest of the night.
Those DBs were small, but man could they hit.
I see Michael Irvin is in the NFL Hall of Fame. I guess he learned to extend his arms when he realized Isom wasn't able to cover him anymore.
We actually dated a few times and then I called her when I came home from school in May. She invited me to her wedding ( which I declined). Fast forward 20 years. I'd been away from my hometown since June 1988. I'm coaching my daughters softball team and you know whose daughter is also on the team....at one point the 8 year old girls asked me in a very serious tone, in the dugout....during a game, if we had ever kissed. I replied with the truth. "Oooohhhhhhhhhh!" Small world sometimes. : )
They played nasty. Real mean and nasty. Through the whistle and every time a tackle was made they got an extra knee or elbow. Bauer and Isom were brutal. Tim johnson was an animal.
Actually I remember walking on in the spring of 83 and Penn State had an unreal punter who was far out distancing john bruno..he left that spring for sparty, or maybe john would not have had that amazing game in tempe
That would be Greg Montgomery from NJ. Went to high school down the Shore with my wife's former stepbrother. They were close friends. G.M. apparently got caught drinking and ended up in the JoePa doghouse. Superstar at MSU and longtime NFL player. Greg died in August in Michigan. There was a thread here about him. RIP
I was in middle school at the time and we had a basketball game the next day. All players were required to wear ties to school on game day. I wore my Penn State t-shirt to celebrate the win. Coach was pissed we he saw me in the t-shirt. Made me sit out the first half of the game. (I was the best player on the team.) I don't remember whether we won the basketball game or not, but it was worth sitting out half of it.
I was a junior living off campus, so a bunch of my friends and I drove from NJ to a NYE party in Harrisburg, and then drove up to State College the next day. I remember we all panicked about how we would get beer for the game due to the snow, and we even had a plan to use an aquarium stand (fish be damned) as a sled to bring the keg back in case we had to walk to Nittany Beverage. Didn’t need to do that as the roads were cleared, and the rest is history. Fun time in downtown State College that night.
Went down on the field post game and actually saw the copy of the offensive game plan with plays and it hit me that we basically beat Miami with about 20 plays.
