BlueWhiteIllustrated.com - One for the ages

October 7, 2009

BWI Staff

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By Ron Bracken
Blue White Illustrated Special Contributor

They're in the fourth quarter of their lives now, all of them closing in on the end of their careers.

For the most part they're a little chubbier, have a little less hair than they did when they were navigating uncharted waters at Penn State.

And even though the fog of time somewhat obscures their view of what happened 40 years ago, there are moments, games, that shine through like a beacon, as bright today as they were in the fall of 1969.

There are polls out there asking participants to select the greatest team Penn State has ever put on the field. Many of the respondents, most likely those who were not yet born in 1969, select the 1985-86 teams as the greatest Joe Paterno has ever had.

You have to forgive them their ignorance. They only know what they've read about the 1968-69 group, maybe what they've seen on the highlight films lying around the house. Unless you saw them, unless you watched that defense toy with opposing offenses like a cat with a mouse, you couldn't fully appreciate just how good that unit was.

Consider this: In 1969, Penn State allowed 11 teams a total of 90 points. In the Orange Bowl it shut down a Missouri team that was averaging 450 yards per game, allowing it three points and forcing nine turnovers (seven interceptions and two recovered fumbles). In its last four games it gave up a total of 18 points. And yes, this was in the modern era, not the single-wing days.

If you ask them, at least the four which were contacted for this story, they will tell you that the one game that rises above the others was that 10-3 Orange Bowl win in 1970.

Oh, the 1969 Syracuse game in which they overcame a 14-0 fourth-quarter deficit to win 15-14 gets some consideration, as does the 17-14 win on the road at Kansas State.

But it's that night in Miami that glistens in their minds.

It was their last hurrah, the last game for that core group of seven defenders who had burst on the scene two years earlier, also in a night game in Miami, and grew into one of the best defenses college football has ever seen.

"We were almost like a pro team," said defensive tackle and co-captain Steve Smear. "We had seven guys who had played together for almost three years. (Linebacker) Denny Onkotz was so bright. They gave him so much information to digest. He would see an offensive alignment and he'd put us in a defense that was better suited for that set. We did a lot of things on the fly.

"In our senior year Joe rarely came over to the defensive field. He'd be over on the offensive field screaming and yelling but he pretty much stayed away from us."

With good reason. Paterno's defensive coaches were Jim O'Hora, J.T. White, Frank Patrick and Dan Radakovich. He's never had a better group of assistants.

"They never got the notoriety they deserved," Smear added. "They were really good coaches and really good men."

And they had really good talent to work with on the field.

- Mike Reid, Smear's running mate at defensive tackle and fellow co-captain (they were elected co-captains as juniors and seniors), was the Outland Trophy winner, an All-American and future NFL standout.

- Onkotz was an All-American linebacker whose budding pro career was shattered when his leg was broken while playing with the New York Jets.
u Jack Ham was another All-American linebacker and NFL Hall of Famer with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

- John Ebersole, a defensive end, had a long career with the Jets.

- Free safety Neal Smith set the school record for interceptions with 10 in one season, later equaled by Pete Harris.

They were the stars but their supporting cast would have been stars on other teams. People like linebacker Jim Kates, defensive end Gary Hull, Hero Mike Smith and defensive backs George Landis and Paul Johnson.

It was a stunning collection of talent.

"The toughest defense I ever played against was when we went against our first team defense in scrimmages," said quarterback Chuck Burkhart, who finished his career at quarterback with a 22-0 record. "We'd be running the ball (in the scrimmages) and Joe would come over and say, 'Don't you think you ought to open it up a little, throw the ball?' and I'd just say, 'No, I think we need to work on our running game.'

"That team was built to play defense and not make mistakes. And we had a great stable of running backs - Charlie Pittman, Lydell Mitchell, Franco Harris.''

It took all of them to handle Missouri, which had crushed Michigan in a late season game and went to the Miami with a trio of speed burners in Mel Gray, Joe Moore and Jon Staggers.

"I thought if we held them to three touchdowns - I didn't think they had a very good defense - we would win,'' Smear said. "I never expected to hold them to three points. You're talking about guys who could run the 100 in 10 flat. I was shocked that we held them to three points because they had so much firepower.''

Penn State got the early lead on a 29-yard field goal by Mike Reitz and a 28-yard pass from Burkhart to Mitchell. Then it turned the game over to the defense.

In Ridge Riley's "Road to Number One" Missouri quarterback Terry Roper explained his dilemma.

"I've never seen a defense like Penn State's," McMillan said the next day after six of his passes had been intercepted. The seventh was against backup quarterback Chuck Roper. "They always rushed four men and forced me to throw before I was ready. They covered my men like blankets. I threw a few passes away to avoid interceptions at first but when we got behind I had to try to hit, but heck, the receivers were always covered..."

The Tigers finished the game with 306 yards (189 rushing, 117 passing) but never were able to cross the goal line, prompting Onkotz to utter his famous post-game comment when asked how long he thought Penn State could have held the Tigers?

"Forever," he said.

Mike Smith, Onkotz and Landis had two interceptions apiece while Hull came up with the third. Landis had the clincher when he picked off Roper at the Penn State 2 and returned the ball to the Penn State 42 in the closing seconds.

Ham, now a Penn State football color analyst, is adamant about which offense was the best he faced in his years at Penn State.

"Missouri," he said. "And there was a gap, a crevasse, between them and number two," he said. "I don't remember anyone else we played who had an offense that good. People don't realize how good that offense was. We thought our defense was good, and it was, but we were playing a team that averaged 38 points a game, that had destroyed Michigan. To a man we realized how good they were and the way we played, to shut down a fine offensive team like that, really put a stamp on our defense. That offense was outstanding and that was our best effort. That was strength against strength and we really had to be at the top of our game.

"We saw tape of them and knew we were getting ourselves into something. We knew that game would be a true test of our defense. That defense was as good as it gets."

Warren Koegel was the center on the Penn State offense and co-captained the 1970 team along with Ham. In practice he had the privilege of working against Reid, Smear, Kates and Onkotz - the middle of the defense.

"That front seven was as good as you'll find," said Koegel, who is now the athletic director at Coastal Carolina. "When they tried to find out if I could play they had me go against Reid and those guys. That defense was outstanding.

"I think the game that defined us was Syracuse, where we were losing and came back to win. If there was a game we had no right to win, that was it, but no one wanted to lose. And even in the fourth quarter, no one believed we would lose.

"And the Orange Bowl was obviously a big game. It wasn't high-scoring by today's standards but it was a physical, hard-fought game."

When it was over, when Penn State had posted its second straight 11-0 season and run its undefeated streak to 30, the Lions had to settle for the No. 2 ranking in the polls behind a Texas team they could have met in the Cotton Bowl. But that's another story for another day.

They had done all that was asked of them, beaten every opponent who lined up across from them in two and one-half years. None of the teams that have followed, great as they might have been, could say that. And it's doubtful any ever will.

"Looking back, no team was able to do what we did," said Burkhart, now the director of the C5 Foundation for disadvantaged kids sponsored by Coca-Cola. "At the time we didn't know what we were achieving. It just seemed like we were doing what we were supposed to do. It becomes more special in hindsight. Things were a lot slower and simpler then. After 40 years it seems like we achieved more than it did when we were doing it."

Smear, who is an insurance agent in Baltimore, might have summed it up best.

"Think about it. 30 games, no losses," he said. "That's pretty tough to do no matter what era you're talking about."

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Behind the Big Ten Network

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