Aug. 31, 2008
By Lou Prato
Exclusive to the Penn State OSR
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Several of the greatest players in the history of Penn State football were on the field Saturday when the Nittany Lions open the 2008 season at Beaver Stadium.
The undefeated 1968 and 1969 teams held their 40th reunion this weekend and the players returning for the festivities were introduced to the crowd at halftime. These were the teams that propelled Penn State into the elite of college football--finishing No. 2 in the nation, winning back-to-back Orange Bowl championships, and helping set a team record of 31 straight games without a loss. Those two squads produced nine first team All-Americans, five members of the College Football Hall of Fame and two members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Of course, their coach, Joe Paterno, also is in the College Football Hall of Fame, but he was a little busy in the Penn State locker room Saturday when the players' names were read over the public address system.
"We've had a lot of team reunions in the past, but I don't remember so many players coming back whose names are so well known," said Michelene Franzetta, a long-time staff assistant in the athletics department who has served as the administrative assistant to the Penn State Football Lettermen's Club for 25 years. Franzetta coordinates the football team reunions and even she is enthused about this weekend's gathering. "These teams haven't had a reunion for about 15 years and they are really a great bunch of guys," she said. "I think the fans are really going to enjoy seeing all those players."
One of the loudest cheers undoubtedly will go to tackle Mike Reid, who won the Maxwell Award as the nation's outstanding player in 1969. Reid, now a well-known country singer and song writer living in Nashville, rarely gets back on campus. Reid and his fellow tackle Steve Smear had the distinction of being captains of both the '68 and '69 teams, sharing the responsibility with John Kulka in '68 and Tom Jackson in'69. Smear, who owns his own insurance agency in Annapolis, is the only member of either team to be selected a second team All-American.
Since they played four decades ago, some of the returning stars may not be as well known to the youngest generation of Penn State fans. That doesn't apply to Jack Ham and Franco Harris. Both played for the Pittsburgh Steelers in their Super Bowl heyday of the 1970s and are now two of just five Penn State players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Ham is the only Penn State player in the Pro Football Hall of Fame who also is in the College Football Hall of Fame. Since 2000 Ham has been the analyst on the Penn State radio broadcasts and Harris frequently attends games, hosting other former players in his Beaver Stadium suite. They still live in the Pittsburgh area where they both own businesses.
In fact, Harris is a partner in one business with his Penn State roommate, Lydell Mitchell, who also is in the College Football Hall of Fame. Mitchell, who lives in Baltimore, will be in Beaver Stadium Saturday as will a fourth Hall of Famer from those teams, two-time All-American Dennis Onkotz, a financial consultant in State College.
The only Hall of Fame enshrinee expected to miss this reunion is another two-time All-American, Ted Kwalick, who is usually occupied on weekends in Santa Clara, CA, watching his 16-year-old daughter, Noel, play volleyball. Interestingly, Kwalick, owner of a voltage protection company, plans to bring Noel on campus in November on a recruiting trip arranged by Penn State's women's volleyball coach Russ Rose. All Americans Charlie Pittman, Neal Smith and Dave Joyner also will be in attendance. Pittman, who along with Onkotz and Joyner was also an Academic All-American, is executive vice president of a newspaper chain out of South Bend. Smith, who still shares the team record of ten interceptions in one season, is a constructive executive for an industrial firm in Selinsgrove. Joyner, the Nittany Lions' first pure offensive lineman to be a first team All-American, is an orthopedic surgeon and businessman from the Harrisburg area and a member of the Penn State Board of Trustees. The other All-American from those two teams, Charlie Zapiec, a vice president of estate planning in New Hope, may miss the gathering.
Among the other stars of '68 and'69 returning for the reunion are quarterback Chuck Burkhart, tailback Bobby Campbell, fullback Don Abbey, and linebackers John Ebersole and Pete Johnson. It was Burkhart's long pass to Campbell in the last minute of the '69 Orange Bowl that set up an improbable come from behind 15-14 victory over Kansas. Burkhart scored the touchdown on a naked bootleg play and Campbell ran for the winning two points on the second attempt after Kansas had stopped the first attempt for extra points but was then penalized for having too many players on the field. One year later, the Lions defense led by Reid, Smear, Smith and Onkotz set an Orange Bowl record of seven interceptions in a 10-3 win over Missouri.
Saturday's halftime ceremonies are only part of the weekend activities. It starts with a reception Friday evening in the Beaver Stadium Letterman's Club. The players also will participate in the Football Eve pep rally that night at the stadium. Then on Saturday morning, there's a pre-game tailgate in the football players' reserved parking area outside the Bryce Jordan Center.
It is fitting that the game the '68 and '69 players will be watching on Saturday was arranged by two of their teammates, Fran Ganter and Warren Koegel. Ganter, a reserve running back 40 years ago who became a long time assistant coach, is now Penn State's associate athletic director for football administration. Koegel, the Lions `starting center from 1968-70 and co-captain of the '70 team, is the athletics director at Coastal Carolina. They, too, will be introduced to the crowd at halftime along with all the other players and managers.
"This is going to be an exciting weekend," Franzetta said. "But I find all the reunions exciting and fun. Next week the 1973 team will be here. They get together every five years and each reunion has been different. That's another great group of guys and I'm looking forward to that one too."
{Lou Prato is the retired director of the Penn State All-Sports Museum and author of three books about Nittany Lions football, including The Penn State Football Vault: The History of the Nittany Lions Book, available in the GoPSUsports.com store, and The Penn State Football Encyclopedia, which can be purchased from this internet web site: http://web.mac.com/blueview/iWeb/Site/Lou_Prato.html.)
-NITTANY LIONS--