Penn State Nittany Lions

Penn State Nittany Lions
Penn State Nittany Lions
University	Pennsylvania State University
Conference	Big Ten
NCAA	Division I/FBS
Athletic director	Sandy Barbour
Location	State College, Pennsylvania
Varsity teams	31
Football stadium	Beaver Stadium
Basketball arena	Bryce Jordan Center
Ice hockey arena	Pegula Ice Arena
Baseball stadium	Medlar Field at Lubrano Park
Soccer stadium	Jeffrey Field
Lacrosse stadium	Penn State Lacrosse Field
Other venues	Penn State Golf Courses; Penn State Ice Pavilion; Rec Hall
Mascot	Nittany Lion
Nickname	Nittany Lions (and Lady Lions)
Fight song	Fight On, State
Colors	Blue and white;
Website	www.gopsusports.com

The Penn State Nittany Lions are the athletic teams of Pennsylvania State University, except for the women's basketball team, known as the Lady Lions. The school colors are navy blue and white.^[2] The school mascot is the Nittany Lion. The intercollegiate athletics logo was commissioned in 1983.^[3]

Penn State participates as a member institution of the Big Ten Conference at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level for most sports. Penn State is one of only 15 universities in the nation that plays Division I FBS football and Division I men's ice hockey. Two sports participate in different conferences because they are not sponsored by the Big Ten: men's volleyball in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA) and women's ice hockey in College Hockey America (CHA). The fencing teams operate as independents.

Penn State has finished in the top 25 in every NACDA Director's Cup final poll, a feat only matched by nine other institutions: Stanford, UCLA, USC, Florida, Ohio State, Texas, North Carolina, and Michigan.^[4] The NACDA Director's Cup is a list compiled by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics that charts institutions' overall success in college sports. Penn State's highest finish came in the 1998–1999 standings when the Nittany Lions finished 3rd.^[5] PSU finished in 5th place in the 2013–14 standings; it was the fifth time the program finished in the top 5 and the tenth time the program finished in the top 10.^[6]

Sports sponsored

Men's sports	Women's sports
Baseball	Basketball
Basketball	Cross country
Cross country	Field hockey
Football	Golf
Golf	Gymnastics
Gymnastics	Ice hockey
Ice hockey	Lacrosse
Lacrosse	Soccer
Soccer	Softball
Swimming & diving	Swimming & diving
Tennis	Tennis
Track & field^†	Track & field^†
Volleyball	Volleyball
Wrestling
Co-ed sports
Fencing
† – Track and field includes both indoor and outdoor.

Basketball

Men's basketball

Penn State's men's basketball program reached the Final Four once in 1954, though the best postseason finish in recent years occurred in 2001 with a trip to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament after a win over UNC in the round of 32. The most recent postseason championship for Penn State was the 2009 National Invitation Tournament on April 2, 2009. Penn State outscored Baylor 69–63 to capture its first men's basketball national title in school history and its second postseason tournament title since winning the Atlantic-10 Tournament in 1991.^[7] The Nittany Lions lost in the first round of the 2011 NCAA Tournament, the team's most recent postseason appearance.^[8]

Notable alumni include: Frank Brickowski, John Amaechi, Calvin Booth, Mike Costello, Stanley Pringle, Geary Claxton, Jamelle Cornley

Pat Chambers is in his seventh year as head coach at Penn State with the 2016–2017 season.

Women's basketball

The Lady Lions, the Penn State women's basketball team and the only athletic team not known as "Nittany Lions," have had more success than their male counterparts, often gaining berths into the women's NCAA tournament, reaching the Final Four once in 2000. The Lady Lions have reached the NCAA tournament more than any other Big Ten team with 25 appearances as of 2014. The Lady Lions have won 8 Big Ten Regular Season Championships and 2 Big Ten Tournament Championships. The most recent postseason championship won by Penn State was the 1998 Women's National Invitation Tournament.

Coquese Washington is in her seventh year as head coach of the Lady Lions with the 2013–2014 season.

Cross country

The men's cross country team won NCAA titles in 1942, 1947 and 1950. Before the NCAA began sponsoring the cross country championship in 1938, and unlike today, the annual ICAAAA meet was a premier national championship event for track and field and cross country. The team won ICAAAA championships in 1926, 1927, 1928 and 1930. Penn State runners won the individual ICAAAA titles in 1920 (John Romig), 1927 and 1928 (William Cox, consecutively). PSU men also won ICAAAA team titles in 1950, 1951, 1960 and 2000, as well as individual crowns in 1938, 1946, 1987 and 2004.^[9]

Fencing

Penn State is a fencing powerhouse, winning a record 13 national championships in the sport since the NCAA began awarding titles in combined men's and women's fencing in 1990. The team has finished as champion or runner-up in 21 of the 25 years of the combined tournament.^[10] The program won 6 consecutive NCAA Championships from 1995 to 2000.^[10]

Emmanuil G. Kaidanov was the highly regarded coach of the fencing squads during most of that period. The women's fencing team won national AIAW titles in 1980 and 1981, followed by an NCAA championship in 1983. The team recruits both nationally and throughout the globe and often has a number of highly touted international fencers.

Field hockey

The women's field hockey team is coached by Char Morett, a former Penn State field hockey player herself and 1984 Olympic bronze medalist.

Penn State is one of the premier programs in the nation with 28 NCAA Tournament appearances, the third most in the nation.^[11] Since joining the Big Ten in 1992, the Nittany Lions have been dominant with more Big Ten Tournament titles than any other team and the second most regular season titles behind Michigan.

In 2007, the women's Field Hockey team reached the National Championship game, but fell to undefeated UNC, 3–0. In their tournament run, they were able to defeat two-time defending champion Maryland, 1–0, and defending national runner-up Wake Forest, 2–0. Jen Long was nominated for the Honda Award for her efforts. They also finished as NCAA runners-up in 2002, losing to Wake Forest in the title game 2–0 after defeating Old Dominion 3–2 in the semifinals. 2002 marked the first time Penn State reached the NCAA Finals and second time reaching the Final Four. The team won the AIAW national championships in 1980 and 1981. In 2011 the women's field hockey team won its fifth ever Big Ten title after defeating Michigan 3–2, and first since 1998 when they again defeated Michigan 3–1.

Football

Panorama of crowd on 13 October 2007

Penn State has a large football following and attracts tens of thousands of visitors to its campus; the surrounding area is known as "Happy Valley" for tailgating and games on autumn Saturdays in Beaver Stadium. The largest crowd ever at Beaver Stadium was on October 21, 2017, as 110,823 people watched the Nittany Lions defeat the University of Michigan by a score of 42-13. The school has earned a reputation as "Linebacker U" for the number of high-quality linebackers trained.^[12] Joe Paterno was the head coach for the Nittany Lion football team from 1966 until he was fired on November 9, 2011, in the aftermath of the Penn State child sex abuse scandal.^[13] He was regarded as one of the most successful national coaches, holding the record for wins and bowl appearance. Penn State plays in two football "trophy games" with other members of the Big Ten: the Governor's Victory Bell with the University of Minnesota and the Land Grant Trophy game versus Michigan State University.

Prior to joining the Big Ten, Penn State was one of the strongest of the independent schools in college football. They played a number of schools regularly, including Pitt, Syracuse, West Virginia, Notre Dame, Maryland and Alabama. Penn State has won the prestigious Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy, awarded for Eastern football supremacy, a record 29 times as of 2013. Penn State has also been named the ECAC FBS Team of the Year for a record 13th time.

Penn State won consensus National Championships in 1982 and 1986, both under Coach Paterno. The 1986 team won by defeating the University of Miami in the 1987 Fiesta Bowl, which remains the most watched college football game in history. The school has had a number of other undefeated teams including 1909, 1911, 1912, 1920, 1921, 1947, 1968, 1969, 1973 and 1994, some of which have been awarded national championships from various sources. Penn State has the best winning percentage of any school in bowl games with a record of 26–12–2.^[14]

Penn State is also among the leaders nationwide in terms of players advancing to the professional level. As of 2006, 29 former Penn State players and coaches were on the rosters of NFL teams, the tenth-highest such placement rate in the country. Penn State has been represented in at least one of the teams participating in the Super Bowl 37 of the 41 times the championship game has been played.^[15]

A recent report indicated that Penn State's football program ranks 12th nationwide in terms of economic contributions to each program's university, athletic department, conference, and community. The report, based on ticket sales, sponsorships, football program expenses, athletic department expenses (non-football), shared conference profits, and county revenue figures during home football games, revealed that the Nittany Lions are presently worth roughly US$63 million.^[16]

In July 2012, the NCAA announced several punitive measures as a result of the Penn State child sex abuse scandal. In addition to vacating all wins between 1998 and 2011, Penn State was banned from post-season play for four years, and the number of scholarships was reduced. Players were free to transfer during the 2012 season without sitting out a year, but few did so. After details of the case emerged, the NCAA restored all vacated wins and rescinded both the remaining ban on post-season play and scholarship reduction.

Gymnastics

In 2007, the men's gymnastics team won their NCAA record 14th national championship, by defeating powerhouse Oklahoma at Rec Hall, with the score of 221.000–220.200, denying them a threepeat. The women's team won the AIAW national championship twice, in 1978 and 1980, edging out other dominant teams like Cal State-Fullerton and Utah.

Ice hockey

Men's ice hockey

Aside from five years in the 1940s, the men's ice hockey program has had varsity status since the 2012–13 season.^[17] The team plays in the Pegula Ice Arena^[18]^[19]^[20]^[21] and competed as an independent Division I team in the 2012–2013 season. In the 2013–2014 season, the team began play in the Big Ten conference's first year of sponsorship of men's ice hockey. Recently, the team achieved the number one ranking in Division I men's hockey for the first time in program history.

Before becoming a varsity program, the men's ice hockey team, the Icers, competed at the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) Men's Division I level and was a member of the Eastern States Collegiate Hockey League (ESCHL) from 2007–08 through 2010–11. Penn State won seven ACHA DI National Championships in 1984, 1990, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003. The Division II men's hockey club team were champions of the University Hockey League during the 2003–04 and 2001–02 seasons; they were runners-up during the 2002–03, 2000–01, and 1998–99 seasons.^[22]

Women's ice hockey

The women's program moved to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level beginning in the 2012–13 season^[23] and joined College Hockey America, becoming the fifth member of the conference.^[24] The team also plays in the Pegula Ice Arena.^[18]^[19]

Before becoming a varsity program, the women's ice hockey team, the Lady Icers, competed at the ACHA Women's Division I level in the Eastern Collegiate Women's Hockey League (ECWHL).

Lacrosse

The Penn State women's lacrosse teams have won two NCAA titles, in addition to three United States Women's Lacrosse Association championships in 1978, 1979 and 1980.

The Penn State men's lacrosse team dates to 1913 and made recent headlines with their hiring of Cornell coach Jeff Tambroni. Penn State has appeared in four NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship tournaments, including in 2003, 2005, 2013, and 2017.

Penn State has had seven alumni and coaches^[25] inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame, including Mary McCarthy Stefano, Gillian D. Rattray, Barb Jordan, Betsy Williams Dougherty, Candace "Candy" Finn Rocha, Joanne Connelly and Thomas R. Hayes.

Soccer

Men's soccer

Before the NCAA began its tournament in 1959, the annual national champion was declared by the Intercollegiate Soccer Football Association from 1926 to 1958, the result of polls and the subjective opinion of the ISFA administrators. In that time, Penn State shared eight national championships and was selected three times as champion outright (1929, 1938, 1954). The rival College Soccer Bowl was held from 1950–1952 in an attempt to decide a national champion on the field. Penn State gained a last-minute tie in the 1950 championship final. The team won in 1951; however, the ISFA failed to select Penn State that year.

Women's soccer

The women's soccer team won its first NCAA national championship in 2015. The program has been particularly strong in recent years, as the team won 15 straight Big Ten Championships through the 2012 season, which was an all-time Big Ten record for women's teams. The streak surpassed the 12 by Michigan swimming & diving of the 1990s and led the then-ongoing run by Northwestern's women's tennis squad, which had won 14 straight titles through 2011.

Track and field

Before the NCAA began sponsoring a national championship in 1965, the men's indoor track and field team won ICAAAA titles in 1942 and 1959. PSU men also won ICAAAA team titles in 1984, 1987, 2001, 2003 and 2006.^[26]

Volleyball

Penn State is home to one of the top men's and women's volleyball programs. Penn State is one of only 5 schools—and the only school not in California—to win a NCAA Championship for both men and women's volleyball, the others being Stanford, UCLA, USC, and Long Beach State.

Men's volleyball

The men's volleyball team is coached by Mark Pavlik. The program has won two NCAA National Championships in 1994 and 2008 and 16 EIVA titles out of 17 years, including 10 consecutive. They finished as NCAA National runners-up in 1982, 1995 and 2006, to UCLA each time (twice at Rec Hall). They reached the NCAA final four 24 times including 13 out of the last 14 years through the 2008 season and an NCAA record 10 consecutive (1998–2008).

The men's first national title came in 1994, when they beat powerhouse UCLA in five sets after being down 11–4 in the fourth set and then winning the fourth 15–12 and the fifth with the same score. The win made Penn State the first school outside of California in the then-24 year history to win an NCAA Men's volleyball championship. They won the NCAA title again in 2008, defeating Pepperdine 3–1. With the win, Penn State men and women's programs swept the volleyball championships in the same academic year, joining Stanford from 1996–97 to be the only schools to accomplish the rare feat.

Pavlik was named the 2008 AVCA National Coach of the Year.

Women's volleyball

The Penn State women's volleyball team, one the nation's premier volleyball programs, is coached by Russ Rose, who, since his first season in 1979, has led the Nittany Lions to a record of 1,189 and 186, an .865 winning percentage, through the end of 2015. Rose stands as the NCAA Division I all-time winningest coach, as he owns the NCAA Division I Records for win percentage and total victories.^[27] Rose has won all but 51 of the program's wins. On December 17, 2009, Rose earned his 1,000th career victory with a win against Hawaiʻi in the 2009 NCAA National Semifinals. In all but one season under Rose, there has been at least one AVCA All-American on his team.

The program is one of only two DI universities to appear in every NCAA tournament (1981–2015). They have won seven NCAA National Championships, the most all-time, in 1999, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013 and 2014. They were the national runners-up in 1993, 1997, and 1998 and also reached the Final Four in 1994 and 2012.

The team achieved unprecedented success from 2007–2010. The Nittany Lions won four consecutive national titles in that span, the most consecutive titles in NCAA Division I history.^[28] In that historic stretch, Penn State won 109 consecutive matches (Sept. 21, 2007-Sept. 10, 2010), 111 consecutive sets (Dec. 15, 2007-Dec. 18, 2008), 94 consecutive home matches (Sept. 1, 2006-Dec. 11, 2010), and 55 consecutive road matches (Sept. 28, 2007-Sept. 10, 2010), all NCAA Division I records.^[29]

The Lions were extraordinarily successful when Penn State was in the Atlantic 10 conference, as they won the title all 8 years without losing a single conference match before joining the Big Ten. In the Big Ten, the team has won 16 titles since 1991, including a conference record 8 straight (2003–10).^[30] During Big Ten play, Penn State went undefeated 6 times (1998, 1999, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009).

Wrestling

Before joining the Big Ten, Penn State was a member of the Eastern Wrestling League from 1976 to 1992. Before that, Penn State was a member of the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA).

In April 2005, Penn State broke ground on a construction project designed to expand and modernize Rec Hall for the students, faculty, and staff who use the facility. As part of this renovation, Intercollegiate Athletics created the Lorenzo Wrestling Complex that ranks among the nation's finest facilities in the sport.^[31]

In 2012, three members of the wrestling team finished one-two-three in the voting for the Dan Hodge Trophy, college wrestling's equivalent to the Heisman Trophy: sophomore David Taylor, sophomore Ed Ruth, and senior Frank Molinaro.^[32] Penn State Wrestling has won seven team NCAA national wrestling championships (1953, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017), in large part because of coach Cael Sanderson, who started coaching the program in 2009.

With final college accomplishments having a record of 159–0, 4 NCAA titles, 3 Dan Hodge Trophy awards, 4-time NCAA Outstanding Wrestler, and 4-time Big 12 Conference Champion under Olympic gold medalist Cael Sanderson, from 2011 to 2013, he is considered to be among the best college wrestling coaches of all time, even though he finished 2nd this past wrestling season^[when?] with 19% of the vote for Best Head Coach to Oklahoma State University Coach John Smith (wrestler) who received 21% of the vote. However, Cael Sanderson did receive a unanimous voting for number 1 in the Greatest Collegiate Wrestler of All-Time by a 67% of the vote, placed by the Division 1 College Wrestling Coaches Poll.^[33] The Penn State Nittany Lion wrestling team, under the guidance of head coach Cael Sanderson, won its fourth straight NCAA wrestling championship in 2014. The Nittany Lions also crowned two NCAA individual national champions as Ed Ruth (Harrisburg, Pa.), and Quentin Wright (Wingate, Pa.) each claimed titles.

Penn State's national championship win in 2018 extended the Big Ten's championship streak to twelve years.

Team sports

Penn State offers a program of "team sports," programs that have not been granted full varsity status, but are members of the Athletic Department and receive greater support than club sports. Penn State team sports "compete nationally at the highest level."^[34] Rugby (men's and women's) has been a team sport since 2005. Ice Hockey (men's and women's) was a team sport from 2005 until 2011, and has since been elevated to varsity status.^[34]

Rugby

The Penn State rugby program is classified by the university as a "Team Sport" within Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics Department, and therefore receives university support (paid coaches, facilities, health insurance, etc.) equivalent to a varsity program.^[35] As of 2011, Penn State rugby was funded 52% by alumni donations, 32% by player dues, and 16% by university contribution.^[36]

Penn State rugby was founded in 1962 and plays in Division 1-A. Penn State has been one of the most successful programs in college rugby. Penn State advanced to the national semifinals 10 times from 1989 to 2007, and reached the finals 5 times from 1989 to 2001. With 76 registered players, Penn State was ranked as the largest college rugby program in the United States in 2009.^[37] Penn State made headlines when they defeated favored BYU 48–46 in the 2018 D1A quarterfinal to reach the semifinals.

The women's rugby team fields a perennially competitive side, winning national titles in 1997, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. The 2014 Penn State Women's team won their ninth Collegiate National Championship, with a 58–0 semifinal victory over West Chester University and a 38–0 triumph in the championship match against Stanford.

Rugby sevens

Penn State has appeared in three consecutive editions (2010–2012) of the Collegiate Rugby Championship (CRC). The CRC is played every year in June at PPL Park in Philadelphia, and is the highest profile college rugby sevens tournament in the US, broadcast on NBC. In the 2011 CRC, Penn State beat Ohio State in a 12–10 match to qualify for the quarterfinals, where Penn State lost to eventual champions Dartmouth 7–12.

Penn State has been successful in other rugby sevens competitions. For example, Penn State won the 2011 Subaru 7s tournament,^[38] and won the 2012 Halloween 7s tournament led by tournament MVP Blaze Feury.^[39] Penn State finished second at the 2012 Big Ten 7s, losing to Wisconsin in the final and missing out on qualification for the 2012 USA Rugby Sevens Collegiate National Championships.^[40]

Intercollegiate club sports

The university is home to a number of intercollegiate club sports that the university doesn't field at the NCAA level and/or sports not sponsored by the NCAA.

Billiards

Two Penn State students have won the national intercollegiate individual championship in billiards.^[41] In 1982 Thomas Golly won the men's title. In 1988 Janet Dordell captured the women's crown.

Crew

Penn State fields an intercollegiate club rowing team that competes on the national level. The team has participated in several regatta events, including the Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta and the American Collegiate Rowing Association national championship.^[42]

Croquet

Penn State's Club Croquet team was established in 2010 and has been growing since with nearly 150 members. They serve as the sole croquet team at Penn State and compete each year at the United States Croquet Association (USCA) collegiate championships. In 2017, the team won the USCA Collegiate National Championship in golf croquet.