Statement Games—

“Statement Games” are games where a team “Lays down the Law” on another team… It could be a surprise, a once-and-done moment, or the beginning of a new trend… Penn State first laid down the law in 1911 on its first arch-rival, the Penn Quakers, 21 years into a football series that had been owned by UPenn… State had its moral victories in the first 17 games played, 16 of them defeats… But, there were two narrow 6-0 losses, and a 3-3 tie in 1909 that ended a 15-game losing streak, and might have been a hint at what was to come…

1911 at UPenn—Our first true upset victory by our first true National Champions!

October 28, 1911, Penn State (4-0 on the season riding 4 straight shutout victories) is at Franklin Field in Philadelphia looking to do the impossible… or at least, the improbable… Beat the University of Pennsylvania for the first time ever… The Quakers, at the time, were one of college football’s juggernauts (National Champions in 1894, 1895, 1897, 1904, 1907, & 1908), but they were facing a Nittany Lions squad that was under the tutelage of head coach Bill Hollenback, a one-time star fullback for the Quakers themselves, and Big Bill had big plans… The tie in 1909 had shown Hollenback what was possible and by 1911, he had recruited himself a juggernaut, of sorts, at State… Players whose names would be etched into Nittany Lion lore… Shorty Miller, Dexter Very, Pete Mauthe, Dick Harlow, Punk Berryman, and so on…

The game was scheduled to be played in four 12-and-a-half minute quarters… The Nittany Lions literally needed only one… The field was 110-yards long in this era (the final year before the advent of endzones on a 100-yard field) and UPenn’s LeRoy Mercer kicked-off from midfield (the 55-yard line)… The Quakers had won the toss and opted to kick hoping to pin the Lions deep in their own end of the field... State Quarterback, Shorty Miller, took the ball at the 15… Miller then begins evading the rush of hopeful tacklers, darts free, and outruns both the UPenn and Penn State players running interference for him…. Miller dashes 95 yards for the score and State is out to an unexpected and stunning 6-0 lead following Pete Mauthe’s goal after touchdown (TD’s were worth only 5 points in this era)…. That was first of his two TDs on the day… Still in the first period, Miller gets loose again for 32 yards and the touchdown for the 12-0 Lions lead… Still in the first, Penn State End Dexter Very makes a monster play, gunning downfield on a punt by Mauthe from behind the goal line that bounced near the sideline well short of midfield (some reports suggest the State 45 yard line)… UPenn All-America Fullback LeRoy Mercer, in some published recaps of the game, either misjudged the ball or delayed fielding it, and Very surprised everyone with his speed, grabbing the ball off the first bounce (per LaVie) and then racing 70 yards (or 65 yards per the Philadelphia Inquirer who also mis-identified Very as Lions Fullback P.A. Barry) for the touchdown and the shocking 18-0 State lead… The Collegian wrote that Very circled behind the endline and laid the ball on the field just behind the goal line… It feels as if this may have been State’s first ever “taunt”, certainly the first aimed at UP… A safety would then have Penn State out in front 20-0 before the first quarter had even ended…

How shocking was all of this? Until this game, Penn State had scored a total of 24 points in the previous 17 games of the series combined—Twelve of those games were shutout losses and State could only muster as many as 6 points on two occasions… The Franklin Field gameday souvenir program referred to Penn State as a “minor college” in a “pat-on-the-head” sort of way… UPenn had little to no respect for the Nittany Lions and no concept of defeat coming into this game…

The game settled into a defensive battle the rest of the way… The Quakers scored their lone touchdown before the half ended. State added a second safety on a blocked punt by Dick Harlow late in the third period to complete the scoring in the 22-6 victory in front of the 15,000 in attendance at Franklin Field… The Bill Hollenback-led Lions had done it… Victory at last… Ending the Quaker domination that dated to 1890…

This Penn State team also upended Cornell and Pitt on the road, and tied Navy in Annapolis to finish 8-0-1 with 7 shutouts (including the 0-0 tie with the Midshipmen)… It would later be retroactively named the 1911 co-National Champion with Princeton by the National Championship Foundation (NCF)… Penn State, for one reason or another, does not claim this national title even though it is, in fact, recognized by the NCAA… PSU has won outright or shared NCF championships in 1911, 1912 (shared with Harvard), 1982, 1986, and 1994 (shared with Nebraska)… The NCF honored national champs from 1869 through 2000 (retroactively prior to 1980)…

For Other Statement & Message Game Stories—CLICK HERE

1981 at Pitt—The game that shoved Pitt off the national stage

1986 at Alabama—The Tide gets rolled in Tuscaloosa

1987 Fiesta Bowl vs. Miami—The game that changed the future

1915 at UPenn—We still have your number