It came up as it always does in the doldrums of the offseason. It gets picked up by desperate college football media looking for any little tidbit. It gets meaningless controversy going for 15 minutes. It is then forgotten until next year. Rinse and repeat.
I am of course, referring to Pitt-Penn State not playing in football. Usually it is when one coach or the other (and occasionally both) gets asked about it.
Todd Graham being the new guy, and Joe Paterno now a recluse, means Graham gets to get the question this year. Honestly, I don’t even want to read the article.
It’s not that I wouldn’t like to see Pitt and Penn State play annually in football and men’s basketball. It’s that it just isn’t happening for probably at least 10 more years. I see no point in wasting time in that pointless issue given the timeframe.
Isn’t that a sequel called, ‘Weekend at Happy Valley’. They even put shades(tinted glasses) on Diaper Joe just like they did with Bernie.
The best thing Pitt could do is have an undefeated season, win the National Title and State Penn would come calling to play for certain.
At that point……we tell them we’ll play them at home twice for every visit to Happy(less) Valley.
This subject just comes up each summer so that hacks can sell papers to the 60+ gang that still reads newspapers and remembers the good Pitt-PSU years. It isn’t economically feasible to restart the rivalry long term for either Pitt or Penn State. The best we could ever hope for is a few games every few years. But even that won’t happen for at least another decade or two.
John Woodruff was gifted with long legs and a beautiful, graceful stride. Several years ago Chancellor Mark Nordenberg, on behalf of the university, honored Woodruff at the Pitt Varsity Letter dinner during Homecoming. Nordenberg apologized to him for Pitt having acquiesced to requests to have him not participate in certain track meets due to his race. Woodruff attended the event in a wheelchair. Both of his legs were amputated at the knees due to diabetes.
link to youtube.com