The Penn State Nittany Lions have been a welcome addition to the Big Ten in 1990. They have managed to bring another school whose tradition of excellence at Beaver Stadium has helped prop the conference up during some very difficult years in which the once mighty conference has lost some of its prestige. Penn State tickets to these college football games are some of the most coveted tickets in the entire state of Pennsylvania.
The football program began back in 1887 and that very first season the team boasted an incredible undefeated record at 2-0. Football did become a notable force on college campuses and for sports fans until later. Then, when the un-coached team began, it played as a club team merely associated with Penn State. The first coach arrived in 1892. George Hoskins lasted three seasons, going 17-4-4 in that time frame.
Penn State would have to wait until Tom Fennell before the school's football team would have another great coach. Fennell took the Nittany Lions to a 33-7-1 record. Coaches Bill Hollenback, Dick Harlow, Hugo Bezdek, and Bob Higgins led the team to many great seasons from 1910 to 1948. Their contributions are often forgotten since football struggled to earn the national acclaim at the college and professional level until after World War II.
When the country finally did embrace college football, Rip Engle was the head coach. Under his tenure the Penn State Nittany Lions went 104-48-4 from 1950 to 1965. The school went 3-1 in bowl games when being invited to any bowl game was something to celebrate (as opposed to now when half the Division 1a teams play in December and January).
In 1966 the Penn State Nittany Lions hired its current head coach Joe Paterno. Paterno's impressive history includes two national championships, the first in 1982 and the second in 1986. Penn State football reached a level of prestige that has permeated all of its history, glossing over the difficult years and making them won of the most recognizable teams in the country with their simple solid blue and white uniforms.
In recent years Joe Paterno has been criticized for being a figure head that no longer coaches the team, but simply roams the sidelines. Still, his presence has helped Penn State football to two Big Ten conference titles in the past four years and a 3-1 record in bowl games over the same period. Paterno has gone 383-127-3 while holding the position as head coach and is a living legend.
The Penn State Nittany Lions finished the regular season in 2008 with an 11-1 season. The team went to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and played an awful first half, going down 31-7. They posted 17 second half points to make the final score (38-24) a little more respectable.
