Classic Penn State-Notre Dame games in the 1980s and ’90s: Two-point tries, frigid cold, and a tug at a kilt

If you can look past cheerleaders who appear to be at least 35 years old, officials in blousy white knickers, and players in shoulder pads so massive it seemed they were encased in Colonial-era stocks, a glance back at Penn State’s 12 meetings with Notre Dame in the 1980s and 1990s will remind you how entertaining they were.

“It was must-see TV,” recalled Jay Paterno, whose father, Joe, was then the Nittany Lions coach. “One or both teams was usually in the hunt for a national title. The weather was cold and crappy. The environments were hostile. And those shoulder pads. I don’t know how those guys ever caught a pass.”

Decades later, as these same two schools are set to meet in Thursday’s national-semifinal Orange Bowl, it’s easy to forget how much interest was generated by the renewal of competition between what were then the nation’s top two independents, how good those games were (seven were decided in the fourth quarter) and how high the stakes were (the teams won three national titles in those years and one or the other finished in the final AP poll’s top 10 nine times).

Before 1981, these two gold-standard programs hadn’t squared off since 1927. But by the late 1970s, Joe Paterno realized that having Notre Dame as an opponent would impress both potential recruits and those who voted in national polls. The latter was particularly important. In 1973, Penn State, Notre Dame, Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State, and Oklahoma all finished unbeaten. The Nittany Lions wound up fifth in one poll, sixth in the other.

“In 1978, I found a letter my father had written,” Jay Paterno said. “Generally, the idea was that he wanted to raise Penn State’s profile by playing name teams from outside the East. And in those days Notre Dame was the program.”

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For Penn State, the series succeeded beyond expectations. During those 12 years, the Nittany Lions captured national titles in 1982 and 1986, finished No. 3 on three other occasions, and despite the galling losses of blue-chip Pennsylvanians like Ricky Watters and Rocket Ismail to Notre Dame, enhanced their recruiting profile.

The 12 games were nationally televised, filled Beaver and Notre Dame Stadiums, and ratcheted up the enthusiasm among already passionate fans. The competitiveness was compelling. Paterno’s teams won eight of the 12, five by five or fewer points. The series was halted after the 1992 game when Penn State gained admission to the Big 10.

Here’s a look at some of the highlights surrounding those dozen games:

As wide and deep as Penn State’s support was in Pennsylvania, the state’s Catholic fans often were conflicted when the Nittany Lions met the Irish. A nun, for example, at Jay Paterno’s State College school informed the boy before the 1981 game that he’d be expected to root for Notre Dame. “As respectfully as I could, I informed her that my dad coached Penn State,” said Paterno, “and I was going to root for him because I wanted to eat.”

Joe Paterno, meanwhile, provided tickets to that same game for his Irish pastor at Our Lady of Victory, Monsignor Patrick Fleming. Following Penn State’s 24-21 win, however, the coach’s relatives informed him that Fleming and his clerical friends had been cheering vigorously for Notre Dame. “Look, Monsignor,” Paterno admonished him, “it’s hard enough to beat Notre Dame without you putting priests and nuns in our seats to pray for them.”

Their teams’ head-to-head showdowns highlighted the recruiting battles between Joe Paterno and Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz, who replaced Jerry Faust in 1986. “My father got along great with Holtz,” Jay Paterno said. “In fact, Holtz sent my father a photo and wrote on it that he thought he was the best game-day coach he ever faced. But they really butted heads in recruiting.”

Each won his share, but like most coaches Paterno tended to dwell on the losses. At many high schools in the East, the choice for big-time players often came down to Penn State or Notre Dame. In consecutive years during the rivalry games, 1987 and 1988, Paterno was stung when he lost a pair of Pennsylvania offensive stars — Harrisburg Bishop McDevitt’s Watters and Ismail of Wilkes-Barre’s Meyers High — to Holtz. Two of Notre Dame’s four wins in the series came while those two were in South Bend.

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“I don’t think you can lose a kid like Ismail and not have it hurt,” Joe Paterno said in 1999. “He still may be one of the three or four best college players ever.”

The lure of Notre Dame was so powerful that the Irish could often come in at the 11th hour and pick off a player Paterno had been working with for months. To combat that trend, the Lions coach decided to start getting commitments from recruits when they were juniors, a change that soon became a national trend.

In what was reflective of the competitiveness of the rivalry, two of the games came down to last-minute two-point conversion tries — one made and one missed. In 1987, with 31 seconds remaining, a Notre Dame touchdown trimmed Penn State’s lead to a single point, 21-20. With no overtime then in effect, Holtz decided to go for two and the win. Quarterback Tony Rice rolled out to his right, but a penetrating linebacker, Pete Curkendall, met him at the 5 and brought him down.

Five years later, in what’s been dubbed the Snow Bowl, Notre Dame QB Rick Mirer hit Jerome Bettis for a touchdown with under a minute left to cut Penn State’s lead to 16-15. Again, Holtz opted for two. Mirer dropped back and was pressured. “I liked that play,” Mirer recalled. “I had options.” Mirer scanned the field and then saw Reggie Brooks streaking toward the right corner. “The play was supposed to go to the other side of the end zone,” said Brooks.

When Mirer released the ball, Penn State players were momentarily optimistic. “Brooks was known to have absolutely horrible hands,” said Jay Paterno. “To this day, when I see Bettis he says that when the ball went up, everyone on Notre Dame thought, `Oh no.’” This time Brooks made a spectacular diving grab and the Irish triumphed.

Nov. 21, 1987, the day Penn State won by stopping Rice on that two-point try, was the worst weather day in Beaver Stadium history. Winds of 30 mph howled and the windchill factor dipped as low as minus-20. “It was so cold you couldn’t feel most of your body parts,” recalled Lions tailback Blair Thomas.

Several Penn State players, defying the elements, tied the bottoms of their uniform tops to expose midriffs. “They wanted to show how tough they were,” Jay Paterno said. “I know Trey Bauer and a couple of other guys ended up with frostbite on their stomachs.”

The upper decks at Beaver Stadium’s north and south ends had not been built yet and the roaring winds made passing nearly impossible. Penn State sometimes punted on third down to keep Notre Dame from employing Tim Brown, its all-purpose star, as a punt returner. Thomas, the junior from Philadelphia’s Frankford High, carried the underdog Lions on his back, rushing for 214 yards on 34 carries in the 21-20 victory. “That was as good a performance by a running back as I ever saw,” said Jay Paterno, “because everybody knew you couldn’t throw the ball.”

On at least one of Penn State’s visits to Notre Dame Stadium, Coach Paterno sensed that his players were in danger of succumbing to the historic stadium’s aura.

“Joe comes into the locker room and says, `Listen, I just saw Touchdown Jesus,’” Curkendall said. “`The history here is unbelievable. But unless the Four Horsemen, the Gipper and Touchdown Jesus come down tonight, they aren’t going to beat you.’”

Traditionally, seeking an edge for the Irish, Notre Dame’s band would confront the visitors as they exited the field after their warmups and break into raucous rendition of the school’s famous fight song. Seeing that his players were still anxious, Paterno sneaked up behind the band’s leader and yanked on the kilt he wore. Startled, the leader never gave the signal to start the song. The Penn State players’ laughter seemed to relax them and they defeated Notre Dame.

Another memorable matchup took place in 1990. Notre Dame had won the series’ last two games and was unbeaten and ranked No. 1 in the nation when Penn State, 7-2 and No. 21, arrived in South Bend. The Lions trailed, 21-7, at the half, but Ismail, the speedy Irish star, had exited with an injury. Penn State’s defense stiffened and Notre Dame would not cross the 50 in the second half. Down, 21-14, in the fourth, QB Tony Sacca threw his third touchdown pass, a 3-yard completion to tight end Al Golden, the future Temple head coach who’s now Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator.

“After that touchdown, somebody snapped a great picture of [Golden] standing in a corner of the end zone with both hands up in the air,” said Jay Paterno. “His wife, Kelly, had a painting made of that and it’s hanging in his office. I imagine it’s covered up this week.”

With under a minute left, the Lions’ Darren Perry intercepted a pass and returned it to Notre Dame’s 20. Then with eight seconds on the clock, Craig Fayak, whose long snapper had been the equipment manager when the season began, kicked the game-winning field goal in the 24-21 triumph.

A few years after the series concluded, Jay Paterno was an assistant at Virginia. One morning while he was eating breakfast at a Charlottesville restaurant and wearing a Penn State jacket, a man in Notre Dame gear approached.

“He comes over and says, `You Penn State guys think you’re so great,’ and blah, blah, blah. He had no idea who I was and he kept going on. He said, ‘You guys wish you were us.’ That was all I needed to hear. So I said, `Really? Why? So we could lose to you eight of the last 12 years?’ I ran off every score from those 12 games and ran him off.”