LaVie
Spring 1892 — Football players participate in the first spring practice as George Hoskins stresses physical conditioning and teamwork.
October 24, 1903 — In the first game at Pitt, Carl Forkum scores 39 points on 5 TDs and 9-of-10 PATs and Irish McIlveen scores two touchdowns — one on a 56yard run — as Penn State clobbers Pitt, 59-0, in what would be the biggest margin of victory in the series for 65 years.
November 6, 1893 — Beaver Field (later to be known as Old Beaver Field) is dedicated with General James Beaver and his wife present, as Penn State plays its first game against Pitt, then known as Western University of Pennsylvania, and wins easily, 32-0. Funding of $15,000 from the State Legislature helps in the construction of a field, including 500-seat grandstand.
Winter 1904 — Tom Fennell, Cornell star of the 1890s, is hired as the first full-time head coach. October 1, 1904 — Carl Forkum sets the all-time kickoff return record with a 115-yard runback for a touchdown in a 50-0 win over Allegheny, but his feat is never listed in the Penn State record books.
October 13, 1894 — Charlie Atherton sets four all-time records that still stand in the opening game, a 60-0 win against Gettysburg. Atherton kicks 10-of-10 extra point attempts to set the game extra points record for accuracy, points and attempts, and also adds three touchdowns for the most points in a game by a senior (32).
November 3, 1905 — Penn State sets a team scoring record with a 73-0 win over Geneva at Beaver Field as nine players score touchdowns.
November 10, 1894 — Bill Suter establishes a Penn State record that has never been broken for the longest touchdown run from scrimmage with a 90-yard dash around right end for the only Penn State touchdown in a 6-6 tie with Navy in Annapolis.
October 6, 1906 — Penn State wins one of its biggest games ever with a 4-0 victory over the Carlisle Indians before 4,000 fans at Williamsport as freshman “Bull” McCleary kicks a 35-yard field goal for the game’s only points.
November 24, 1894 — Charlie Atherton kicks one of the first placements from scrimmage in the history of college football; his 25-yard boot in a 9-6 win over Oberlin is ignored by historians.
October 20, 1906 — Ed Cyphers runs the “wrong-way” after recovering a blocked kick during the big game with Yale in New Haven and his “bad luck” error helps lose the game, 10-0. It will be the only defeat of the season.
November 29, 1894 — Penn State finishes its first unbeaten season with a 14-0 win over the Pittsburgh Athletic Club and a final 6-0-1 record.
November 29, 1906 — The first of Penn State’s outstanding teams finishes the season with an 8-1-1 record after beating Pitt, 6-0, on Thanksgiving Day in Pittsburgh on a touchdown in the last 30 seconds. The team sets a record of nine shutouts that remains the all-time best for the Nittany Lions.
Summer 1896 — George Hoskins resigns as “head coach” to become coach at Pitt and Dr. Sam Newton is hired as his replacement. September 1897 — “Henny” Scholl introduces the first helmet to Penn State football during fall practice. The helmet is really a derby hat with the brim cut off and rags Center W.T. “Mother” Dunn was selected Penn State’s initial stuffed inside for padding. It gets little usage. The first-team All-American in 1906. The team captain led Penn Athletic Association sets a mandatory student fee of State to an 8-1-1 record, with eight shutout victories. $2.00 to support athletic programs, including football. October 30, 1897 — The “Hidden Ball Trick” is used for the first time in intercollegiate football by Cornell against Penn State in a game at Ithaca. Cornell wins, 45-0. Summer 1898 — Dr. Sam Newton resigns as “head coach” to coach at Lafayette and Sam Boyle is hired as his replacement as coach and trainer. Fall 1898 — The school’s loosely organized drum and bugle corps expands to create a full-sized Cadet Band, which later changes its name to the Blue Band. December 1898 — Junior guard “Brute” Randolph becomes the first Penn State player named to the All-America team, when selected by Walter Camp for the 1898 third team. Spring-Fall 1899 — Sam Boyle of the University of Pennsylvania is hired as “head coach” but leaves at the end of the season. October 7, 1899 — Star quarterback Earl Hewitt runs back a punt 65 yards for the only touchdown, then makes a game-saving tackle on the Penn State six-yard line late in the game as Penn State upsets Army, 6-0, in the first meeting of the two teams at West Point. Penn State will not beat Army again for 60 years. Winter 1900 — William “Pop” Golden is hired as head coach and director of physical training for the Athletic Association. October 1903 — Pop Golden is chosen as the school’s first unofficial athletic director and gives up the position of head coach of the football team. Dan Reed of Cornell is hired as head coach for the last month of the season and decides not to return in 1904.
December 1906 — Center William “Mother” Dunn becomes Penn State’s initial first-team All-American when selected by Walter Camp.
March 17, 1907 — Senior H.D. “Joe” Mason advocates adopting a Lion as the college mascot in an article in the humor magazine Lemon. Mason says the idea evolved when he was a freshman baseball player during a 1904 game with the Princeton Tigers, and that he answered taunts by Princeton players that the “king of the beasts” — Lions — roamed the Nittany Valley until becoming extinct from hunting by Indians and settlers. Penn State beat Princeton that day in 1904, 9-1. Students later vote to adopt a mountain Lion as the mascot and, thus, Penn State becomes the first college to use Lion as its symbol.
October 26, 1907 — Penn State sets a team scoring record with a 75-0 win over Lebanon Valley at Beaver Field. Sophomore “Bull” McCleary scores five touchdowns in the game, setting a season scoring record of 13 touchdowns (which remained the record until broken by Charlie Pittman in 1968). November 28, 1907 — Penn State’s former football captains and managers meet in Pittsburgh on Thanksgiving evening to form an organization that becomes the forerunner of today’s Varsity Letterman’s Club. September 19, 1908 — Penn State loses its first and only game on Old Beaver Field in a shocking 6-5 upset by Bellefonte Academy. November 7, 1908 — A record crowd of several thousand (exact figure unknown) turns out as Penn State plays the final game on Old Beaver Field, beating Bucknell, 33-6. The victory is the 48th against only one defeat on the playing field. Spring-Summer 1909 — Tom Fennell resigns as head coach and Bill Hollenback, AllAmerican fullback and captain of the 1908 University of Pennsylvania team, is hired as his replacement with the title of “advisory coach.” Former Penn State player and then current baseball coach, “Irish” McIlveen, is given the title of “head coach.”
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