What are the top ten Penn State games you have attended? Mine, in chronological order:

[NITTANYJGK]

My top 4: (no order...all equal)

1972 - 30-6 Cotton Bowl win over Texas. We finally gained some national respect. Most important victory . It shocked those smug SW conference hay seeds.

1981 - 48-14 destruction of Pitt and their national championship hopes.

1986 - 14-10 over Miami for national championship and a team of Miami superstars.

1982 - 27-23 over Georgia for our first national championship.

 

[Jerademan74]

1967 North Carolina State: 13-8
1969 Kansas in the Orange Bowl: 15-14
1972 Texas in the Cotton Bowl: 30-6
1981 @ Pitt: 48-14
1983 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl: 27-23
1986 @ Alabama: 23-3
1987 Miami in the Fiesta Bowl: 14-10
1994 @ Illinois: 35-31
2005 Ohio State: 17-10
2016 Ohio State: 24-20

I wasn't at either NC game, but my favorite earliest games I was at were all the home games as a student when John Cappeletti ran over the competition on his way to winning the Heisman Trophy during the 1973 season.I have many other games with great memories since then, but watching Cappy when I was a student was a thrill and an honor!

 

[cavic]

I'm sure I'd have some different answers if I sat and thought it through. Going off the cuff (in something resembling order ...)

-- '82 Nebraska

-- '05 OSU

-- '16 OSU

-- '13 Michigan

-- '02 Nebraska

-- '01 OSU

-- '12 Wisky

-- '07 ND

-- '89 Pitt, at the old stadium atop cardiac hill. This last one wasn't a great game, but it makes the list b/c it's the one where Sherrod Rainge gut suckered on the Pitt sideline after catching the game-cinching INT. The ensuing brawl is when JVP yelled to the assembled the Pitt sideline that they were a disgrace to college football. Plus ca change.

 

[PSUinMICH]

1979 Sugar Bowl, not my favorite game but the one I can't forget. Corrected, can't believe I posted 1982.

 

[THEECOACH]

Top 3 are easy for me.

1.) 1982 Nebraska (Nothing can ever top that).
2.) 2005 Ohio State (Easy second)
3.) 2002 Nebraska (Easy third).

The next 7 I have no idea. There were just too many good ones

I always crack up when some clueless reporter asks a player or a coach if the most recent White Out is the loudest it's ever been or the most meaningful win in our history. The simple answer is "No". They are all loud. And we have usually had FAR more meaningful games in the past than the game they are talking about.

People forget we used to run on to the field a lot more in the 70s. Lots of those games were awesome. The huge difference between now and then is the Stadium configuration. There's just something about 107,000 or 110,000 people in a stadium configured like the current Beav that gives you goose bumps, as compared to the 50, 60, 70, or 80 thousand like we used to have with no decks to keep the noise in.

I have always wondered what the 82 Nebraska game would have been like if it would have been played in today's configured stadium. Even in front of just 85 or so thousand, with no decks to keep the noise in, it was beyond absolute chaos.

 

[fairfaxlion2]

1) Ohio State 2005
2) Nebraska 2002
3) Purdue 2000
4) Ohio State 2001
5) Michigan State 1996
6) Arizona 1999
7) Ohio State 1999
8) Notre Dame 2007
9) Wisconsin 2005
10) Minnesota 1993

 

[THEECOACH]

These are games I saw in person:

• Nebraska 82 No Brainer Goal Posts carried through town
• 1982 Sugar Bowl 1st Championship and we shut down Walker and and Warner was unreal
• 1986 Fiesta Bowl Seeing the canes partying all night in Scottsdale and buses pick up our team at 11:30 PM at the clubs Great game!!!
• Hate to say it 79 Sugar Bowl great game - yeh we lost to the Bear with a better team
• 2005 White out Tambi Hali Zombie Nation beat OSU
• 2016 White Out vs OSU
• 2002 beating MSU with LJ
• 1994 Illinois game , this could go anywhere one of the best comebacks Imever saw
• 1994 Rose Bowl just for historic reasons and that team
• 1992 Fiesta Bowl vs Tennessee Blew them out after slow start
• Orange Nowl with 4 OT's in 2006
• Alamo Bowl vs Texas A& M great game great town Riverwalk was the bomb!

So many more! But these come to mind

 

[Thorndike2012]

#1: the night that Larry Jonhson topped 2000 yards against MSU. Oh, what a night!
#2: 1978: ranked No. 1, Penn State trails late in the fourth quarter at home before Mike Guman scores on fourth down, and the Nittany Lions go on to a 17-10 win.

 

[olelion]

1969 against a lousy Syracuse team. Down 14-0 in the 4th. Late rally for the win and kept unbeaten streak alive. Lose that game and PSU is but a football power wannabe from the northeast. Franco Harris won this game almost singlehandedly

 

[Mean Street]

-- '89 Pitt, at the old stadium atop cardiac hill. This last one wasn't a great game, but it makes the list b/c it's the one where Sherrod Rainge gut suckered on the Pitt sideline after catching the game-cinching INT. The ensuing brawl is when JVP yelled to the assembled the Pitt sideline that they were a disgrace to college football.

You would be mistaken. That happened in '86 in State College when Brian Chismar ran Teryl Austin 5 yards out of bounds. Scrum ensued with 5 PSU players on 1 Pitt player. I'll leave it up to you to decide who Paterno considered a disgrace to the game.

The evidence:

 

[throw2oj]

94 Citrus Bowl would probably be pretty high on my list. Lovely preview of Heath Shuler's pro career (or lack thereof), as well as how good the 94 team would be.

 

[aferrelli]

I remember taking one of my buddies down to that 1994 game against USC. He was (and still is) a HUGE Bills fan. It was his first Penn State Game. The Bills were coming off of their fourth Super Bowl appearance in a row.

Of course we absolutely dominated the Trojans. He was absolutely amazed how good we were. It was like after every play, he would say "The Bills HAVE to draft THAT guy". Then he would say stuff like "Where did these guys come from????".

The whole way home, he kept raving that Penn State was good enough to beat the Bills.

Then a few years later when the Bills got Rob Johnson, he was all excited. That's until I reminded him that Johnson was the same QB we sacked 6 times in the first half of the Penn State game with Tony Boselli blocking his blind side. He said "Oh. That's the same guy? He sucked!".

He was right. Rob Johnson did end up sucking.

Thanks for the story. I too was a big Buffalo fan in the early 90's. But unfortunately was not following PSU back in 1994. I understand that 94' was an unbelievable season for Penn State. That was when Kijana Carter was their RB, correct?

 

[cavic]

You would be mistaken. That happened in '86 in State College when Brian Chismar ran Teryl Austin 5 yards out of bounds. Scrum ensued with 5 PSU players on 1 Pitt player. I'll leave it up to you to decide who Paterno considered a disgrace to the game.

The evidence:

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