- 1986
- 2017
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1986 National Champs – Nittany Lions
The 1986 NCAA Division I-A football season ended with Penn State winning the national championship. Coached by Joe Paterno, they defeated Miami (Fl) 14–10 in the Fiesta Bowl. This Fiesta Bowl was the first in the game’s history to decide the national championship, launching it into the top tier of bowls. Miami came into game #1 and Penn State #2. ... -
Nittany Lions’ Saquon Barkley
In the first game of the season against Akron, Barkley had 14 rushes for 172 yards, two touchdowns, and a long run of 80 yards. He also recorded 54 receiving yards on two catches. For his efforts, Barkley was named co-Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week. In the 2017 Big Ten opener, the Nittany Lions visited the Iowa Hawkeyes. ...
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. 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. PSU finished in 5th place in the 2013 - 2014 standings; it was the fifth time the program finished in the top 5 and the tenth time the program finished in the top 10.
College Sports Established
1887
Location
State College, Pennsylvania
College Name
Pennsylvania State University
Collegiate History
1973 - Present / NCAA Division 1
1907 - 1973 / University Division of the NCAA
Conference History
1991 – Present / Big 10 Conference
1976 – 1979, 1982 - 1991 / Atlantic 10 Conference
1892 - 1975 / Independent
1891 / Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Football Association
1887 - 1890 / Independent
Nickname
Nittany Lions - In 1904, Penn State baseball player Joe Mason came up with the moniker. At the time, Penn State didn’t have a mascot, so when Princeton players gibed the Penn State team over how their Bengal tiger mascot was the coolest, Mason retorted that Penn State had the Nittany Lions, “the fiercest beast of them all.”
The name came from their locations: Penn State is situated in the Nittany Valley near Nittany Mountain, and the lions he was referring to were mountain lions that once roamed the region.
NCAA Championships
Baseball 0
Men's Basketball 0
Women's Basketball 0
Football 2
1986, 1982
Soccer 0
To qualify as a greatest player for this team, the player must have played one season for this team. If not, we will remove the player.