The Daily Collegian RB Warner inducted into Hall of Fame By Wayne Staats COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER Curt Warner has come a long way from the hills of West Virginia. The former Penn State All-American running back joined elite company when he was inducted into the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame on Tuesday at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. “I'm just privileged and proud to be a part of the Penn State family” Warner said during the press conference. “I too reflect back and think that, you know, a kid from the hills of West Virginia, the coal mining hills of West Virginia, would have an opportunity to be part of such a great class.” Some other people joining Warner’s Hall-of-Fame class are Notre Dame Heisman winner Tim Brown, West Virginia quarterback Major Harris and for mer Syracuse coach Dick MacPherson. Warner became the 17th Penn State player and 22nd member of the Nittany Lion program to get the honor. The run ning back, who now lives in Washington state, helped lead Penn State to its first national championship with a victory Final weeks make for another great regular season By Matt Brown OH good, Dec. 5 finally arrived. Thankfully, the game of the century would save this lousy college foot ball season. No. 1 vs. No. 2, Tim Tebow and Mark Ingram, Urban Meyer and Nick Saban. No chance this would v ftDIMinN fail to meet expec- MY OPINION tations, right? Turns out it didn’t matter. Penn State’s season seemed to serve as a microcosm for much of the entire college football world a bland 12 weeks with few memorable moments and a slate of boring games. Naturally, as soon as the Nittany Lions' season ended, things took off in the final two weeks of the regular season as STUDENT PACKAGES AVAILABLE 866-373-7370 www.pennstatealumnispi Penn State Alumni Association , : ■a'myf ollegianad. - . AeoHegiandient. . : PrnycollenM'Md. ;* when is a good time magazines are always popular, \k Sounds good but adverse? the deadline is next week. g2g ttyi. against Georgia in the Sugar Bowl after the 1982 regular season. When it came to his single-game per formances, Warner broke the century mark 18 times, with the Lions winning all those contests. He even totaled 341 yards all-purpose yards at Syracuse back in 1981. “Any time he had the ball inside the 20- yard-line guaranteed he was going to score,” MacPherson said at the press con ference. “Third-and-1 he’s down in the Carrier Dome on our 1. Here's Mr. Sweetheart over here. My linebacker sticks him like he’s never been stuck before. Back on third-down-and-1, got one more down. He said, ‘Nice tackle, kid. Don’t go away, I’ll be right back.’ That's what he said.” FOOTBALL Penn State historian Lou Prato saw the program’s all-time leading rusher Monday night and said he admired how Warner was willing to sacrifice his numbers for the team. Without Warner, Prato said Penn State would not have won the national title. “I think the best thing about Curt Warner is the fact, even the year he made All-American, that’s the year Penn State passed more than they ran,” Prato said. Indeed, Warner earned All-American honors twice despite the presence of another Penn State great in quarterback rivals clashed and championships were decided in an end to the season that was nothing short of epic. From a Thanksgiving shootout between Texas and Texas A&M through last Saturday night’s down-to-the-wire ACC and Big 12 title games, we learned to expect the unexpected and never change the channel. Or, actually, we learned to flip between channels every two seconds so we didn’t miss a thing. Thursday, Oregon’s Jeremiah Masoli and LaMichael James out dueled Oregon State’s James and Jacquizz Rodgers in the biggest Civil War game ever at Autzen Stadium. Saturday, just a few minutes after a botched hold on an extra point and a game-winning drive kept Cincinnati’s undefeated sea son alive, 350-pound tackle Devan Cunningham caught a deflected pass to give Fresno State a 53-52 Register Today: WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9 AT 7:OOPM ★ OPERATION WARM * FANS CAN RECEIVE A “WE ARE FANS WHO MAKE A COAT DONATION PENN STATE!” aALLY TOWEL CAN RECEIVE A $5 ADULT TICKET OR AT THE GATES FREE YOUTH TICKET (while supplies last) win at Illinois on a two-point con version. While all that was going on, Houston quarterback Case Keenum completed an unheard-of 56 of 75 passes as the Cougars still managed to lose the Conference USA title at East Carolina. Hours later. Colt McCoy and Mack Brown got away with one of the biggest blunders in college football history as the referees put one second back on the clock and Texas kicked a game-winning field goal to beat Nebraska. As that happened in Dallas. Clemson's C.J. Spiller was busy tearing off big play after big play, rushing for 233 yards and four touchdowns in a back-and-forth loss to Georgia Tech for the ACC Championship in Tampa. A lot to wrap your head around, isn't it? The lesson is. by the time a season ends, college football rarely disappoints. Sure, powers like Oklahoma. Mravel.com www.alumni.psu.edu Stay up to date on deadlines and promotions! ‘"r'tyMiQ wytw.twitter.com/mycollefiianad vs. MONMOUTH BEAT Todd Blackledge, whom Warner gave a shout-out to at the press conference for his attendance. The former Lion led the team in rushing three consecutive seasons and totaled 3,398 rushing yards. As for his NFL career, Warner ran for 6,844 yards and 56 touch downs. Today, Warner is a running backs coach for Camas High School and also owns an automobile dealership. Athletic Director Tim Curley was once the Lions' football recruiting coordinator and helped recruit players on the national championship team. Not surprisingly, he quickly found out just how good Warner would turn out to be. Curley recalls how coach Joe Patemo went down to watch Warner play a basket ball game for Pineville High School in West Virginia. He scored 30-something points that night. ' Curley said. “The night we were there, he put on a show —just tremendous athleticism and a great all-around athlete, not just a football athlete. He put on a great show for coach Paterno. We knew we had something special once he committed to us Tailback Curt Warner runs with the ball. Warner was inducted into the National Football To e-mail reporter: wmssol2@psu.edu Foundation and College Hall of Fame Tuesday. | Bring in this ! ad & receive i 20% 0FF your purchase at either location! •sale items excluded •expires 12/24 tist's marketplace Lgift emporium Slum for Holiday Gifts 12^;Srf e to ik»tei»lown State “SEE" Mon - Frl 10 - 8:30 • . .V.?,«w« the Pig Sculpture! Sat 10 - 5:30 Holiday Hours _ „ _ _ Mon • Sat 11-6 Sun 12-5 . _ Sun 12 - S THE HAWKS! Chat with the football reporters about the bowl game at 1 p.m. today: www.psucollegian.com Southern California, Georgia and Florida State had lackluster sea sons and no stars emerged in the Heisman race. But look at the other stories we've been treated to. Back-to-back undefeated regu lar seasons for Boise State. Toby Gerhart and Jim Harbaugh lead Stanford back from obscurity with huge wins over Oregon and USC. Five teams finish without a loss. A defensive tackle is a Heisman finalist. And every major conference ended up having a late-season game that decided the league title with, of course, the Big Ten's battle between lowa and Ohio 1 \ / \ "To Experience Us, Is To Love Uncle Eli's & Douglas Albert Gallery 123 S. Burrowes St. • State College, PA 16801 • (814) 865-2531 Wednesday, Dec. 9,2009 I State occurring a few weeks before everyone else. Ironically, the only one of those six games that disappointed was the biggest of them all, as Alabama trampled Florida, 32-13. I’m not about to bring in the whole “we don’t need a playoff because the regular season is already a playoff” argument. It would be foolish. But, even in a season that has been labeled a disappointment, college football once again came through with must-see TV over the final few weeks and a series of classic games. No regular season in sports is better, and once again, college football proved it even if Penn State did nothing to help make it memorable. Matt Brown is a senior majoring in jour nalism and is the Collegian's football editor. His e-mail address is mdbsoB2@psu.edu.
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