Jovenitti: The 10 greatest Pitt games of The Pitt News’ 100 years (Parts 1 & 2)

Editor’s Note: This is the first part of a special two-part Tony’s Top 10 celebrating… The Pitt News is celebrating its centennial this week. So I will join the festivities by celebrating both The Pitt News and Pitt football.

For this week’s top 10, I give you the best Pitt football games in the history of The Pitt News.

In addition to a summary of the game, I’ve also provided a brief paragraph or two that ran in The Pitt News after that game. Pitt football certainly has a lot of history, but it is also interesting to see how the newspaper’s language evolved over the years.

So, in chronological order, here are the 10 greatest Pitt football games of the last 100 years.

10. Pitt 11 – Penn State 0. Nov. 24, 1910, Forbes Field.

The first-ever edition of The Pitt News — then known as The Pitt Weekly — appropriately had football as its lead story on the front page. Not only was 1910 a historic year for TPN, it was also an incredible year for Pitt football. Defeating Penn State on Thanksgiving Day, the Panthers finished the season 9-0 and outscored their opponents 282-0. That’s right. Pitt didn’t allow a single point all season.

The Pitt Weekly, Wed., Nov. 30, 1910: By defeating Penn State on Thanksgiving Day, 1910, the Pitt Varsity under “Joe” Thompson and “Tex” Richards, piled up a record that stamps it as the greatest team that ever defended the Gold and Blue. During the whole season not an opponent was able to cross their goal line. And what a great finish it was to beat Penn State by eleven points!

9. Pitt 32 – Georgia Tech 0. Nov. 23, 1918, Forbes Field.

Thanks to World War I, many schools didn’t field teams in 1918. And thanks to the Spanish Flu pandemic — ­ ­­­which took the life of Pitt’s 1910-season star Tex Richards — five of Pitt’s nine games were canceled. The University scheduled a game against Georgia Tech to benefit war charities. At the time, Georgia Tech was coached by none other than John Heisman.

The coaching battle between Heisman and Pitt’s Pop Warner was equivalent to Bobby Bowden vs. Joe Paterno. Georgia Tech was undefeated and had yet to allow a point, but the Panthers won the contest 32-0.

The Pitt Weekly, Wed., Nov. 27, 1918: The Panther again showed that he is the master of the gridiron when he crushed the much-heralded Golden Tornado in the championship game Saturday 36-0. Twenty-eight thousand people saw the luster of the Southern champions fade before the great “Warner” machine. Pitt is now undisputed collegiate champion of America.

8. Pitt 21 – West Virginia 13. Oct. 8, 1921, Forbes Field.

The 1921 season wasn’t a very big deal for the Panthers, but on Oct. 8, Pitt made history — not by beating West Virginia in a tight contest, but because the game was broadcast on KDKA radio. It was the first-ever live radio broadcast of a college football game.

So the next time you walk over Forbes Field’s home plate in Posvar Hall, don’t just think about Bill Mazeroski’s historic home run. Think about how college football was changed there forever, 30 years earlier.

The Pitt Weekly, Wed., Oct. 12, 1921: Pitt defeated West Virginia last Saturday in one of the prettiest and most exciting battles seen at Forbes Field in a long time. The Mountaineers had a strong, fast, well-coached team and forced the Panthers to exhibit some of their best football to win. Unfortunately the game was played on a wet field with rain falling in spells. However this did not slow up the game as much as might have been expected, for the game was full of thrills at every stage.

7. Pitt 21 – Washington 0. Jan. 1, 1937, Rose Bowl.

Prior to 1937, Pitt had been invited to three bowl games, all losses. In all three, the Panthers were coached by Jock Sutherland. After going 7-0-1 during the regular season, Pitt was again invited to the Rose Bowl to play Washington.

But the Panthers almost didn’t make the trip. The journey to Los Angeles by train took a few days, and the football team needed some pocket money. The University administration didn’t have enough cash , so Sutherland paid for the trip out of his own pocket. And the Panthers returned to Pittsburgh as national champions. Pitt would repeat the following year.

The Pitt News didn’t publish during Winter Break, so the only story TPN has is from several days later announcing the parade.

The Pitt News, Wed., Jan. 6, 1937: Pitt’s “Rose Bowl Special” steams into the Pennsylvania Station at 1 o’clock tomorrow afternoon. And when Pitt’s trip-worn, but victorious football men step off that train, Pitt’s student body, faculty, band, cheerleaders and all will be right there to greet them.

6. Pitt 25 – UCLA 21. Oct. 3, 1959, Pitt Stadium.

With six minutes left in the game, Pitt trailed UCLA 21-6. Panthers quarterback Ivan Toncic exploded and threw three touchdown passes, one each to Fred Cox, Mike Ditka and Steve Jastrzembski. The toss to Jastrzembski won the game with 31 seconds left.

TPN, Mon. Oct. 5, 1959: With 30 minutes left in the ball game, Coach Johnny Michelosen’s Panthers decided it was about time that they developed an offensive, and what an offense it was as the Blue and Gold scored three times in the fourth period to give them a 25-21 victory over the Bruins of UCLA.

5. Pitt 24 – Penn State 7. Nov. 26, 1976, Three Rivers Stadium.

The 1976 season was obviously a special one for the Panthers. It was a season full of highs, such as when Pitt defeated No. 2 Navy at home and the public-address announcer informed the crowd that No. 1 Michigan had just lost to Purdue. Panther fans erupted, chanting “We’re No. 1.”

But perhaps the biggest win of the 1976 regular season was the 24-7 trouncing of Penn State at Three Rivers Stadium. Tony Dorsett finished with 224 yards and two touchdowns, and the Panthers finished 11-0 for the first time in Pitt football history.  And, oh yeah, it was the first time Pitt ever defeated a team coached by Joe Paterno.

TPN, Wed., Dec. 1, 1976: An undefeated (11-0) season, number one in the nation in the major polls, the Lambert Trophy as number one in the East, a Heisman Trophy winner, a trip to New Orleans, a possible coach of the year and a national championship staring them in the face – what else could the Pitt Panthers want?

Well, a victory over Penn State would have been the topping, so the Panthers’ 24-7 clawing of the Nittany Lions last Friday not only magnified all of Pitt’s other distinctions, but restored a sense of pride to the team which had fallen the previous 10 years to their cross-state rivals.

4. Pitt 27 – Georgia 3. Jan. 1, 1977, Superdome.

(A ticket from the Sugar Bowl where the Panthers won the 1976 National Championship / Courtesy University of Pittsburgh)

This was the game that capped everything off for the Panthers’ 1976 season. After No. 1 Pitt defeated Penn State to finish 11-0, the Panthers were invited to New Orleans to face No. 2 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Pitt simply dominated the Bulldogs and left no doubt that it was the best team in the country.

TPN, Wed., Jan 5, 1977: Forty years is a long, long time to wait for a championship — just ask the Pittsburgh Steelers. But it’s worth it. You stand there perplexed, goose bumps blanketing your body, and you don’t know whether to laugh or cry from the feeling of satisfaction.

3. Pitt 37 – Notre Dame 27. Nov. 13, 1999, Pitt Stadium.

(A postcard from the final game at Pitt Stadium / Courtesy University of Pittsburgh)

Remember how I felt about Civic Arena last year? Well, take that and multiply it by 10. That’s how Pitt fans felt about Pitt Stadium in 1999, the historic venue’s final season. Pitt demolished the 74-year-old stadium just a month after the final game was played.

It was an emotional night as Pitt defeated Notre Dame by 10 points.

TPN, Mon., Nov 15, 1999: When Pitt Stadium was finally empty Saturday, Pitt was missing two goal posts, shards of turf, a bench or two, and some signs, but it had a victory.

The Panthers defeated Notre Dame 37-27, in the final game at Pitt Stadium in front of 60,190 fans. The crowd was the eighth largest in stadium history and the largest since 1983, when the Panthers played rival Penn State.

2. Pitt 12 – Penn State 0. Sept. 16, 2000, Three Rivers Stadium.

(The cover from the Sept. 18, 2000 edition of The Pitt News, after Pitt defeated Penn State)

It seems a shame that some of the more recent “best games in Pitt history” are celebrating “lasts.” Less than a year after Pitt played the emotional final game at Pitt Stadium, the Panthers played another emotional final game — this time against Penn State.

After Pitt chose to stick with the Big East and Penn State decided to ruin the math for the Big Ten, one of the best rivalries in college football came to an end. But Pitt got the last laugh.

TPN, Mon., Sept. 18, 2000: So long. Farewell. Goodbye.

For the last time in the foreseeable future, Joe Paterno and his Nittany Lions left Pittsburgh Saturday with no bragging rights and no points on the scoreboard as Pitt trounced Penn State 12-0 in front of a crowd of 61,221 at Three Rivers Stadium.

1. Pitt 13 – West Virginia 9. Dec. 1, 2007, Milan Puskar Stadium.

(An advertisement from the 100th Backyard Brawl / Courtesy University of Pittsburgh)

Going into the final week of the 2007 season, West Virginia was No. 2. All it needed to do was beat a dismal 4-7 Pitt team to earn a trip to the national championship game.

After the Pitt-Penn State rivalry became dormant, the Backyard Brawl quickly grew bigger and bigger, and this game — the 100th edition of the rivalry — only added to the fire. Literally. Pitt won 13-9, and a small riot consumed Oakland, with people lighting couches on fire to taunt Mountaineer fans who were infamous for burning couches.

TPN, Sun., Dec. 2, 2007:  The 100th Backyard Brawl was supposed to be a mere formality — 60 tedious minutes of football against pushover Pitt stood between West Virginia and its best shot ever at a national title.

Instead, it will go down as the rivalry’s biggest upset.

The Mountaineers, without quarterback Pat White for nearly half the game, imploded, and Pitt did the impossible, knocking off No. 2-ranked West Virginia 13-9 and squashing its national championship hopes on Saturday at Milan Puskar Stadium.

If you’re interested in reading the full text of any of these stories, every single edition of The Pitt News is available on microfilm at the Hillman Library. But be careful — if you’re as interested in Pitt sports as I am, you’ll be there for hours.