1946 Penn State Nittany Lions football team

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1946 Penn State Nittany Lions football
ConferenceIndependent
1946 record6–2
Head coach
  • Bob Higgins (17th season)
CaptainRed Moore, Bucky Walters
Home stadiumNew Beaver Field
Seasons
← 1945
1947 →
1946 Eastern college football independents records
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
No. 2 Army     9 0 1
Muhlenberg     9 1 0
Yale     7 1 1
Buffalo     7 2 0
Harvard     7 2 0
Massachusetts State     6 2 0
No. 13 Penn     6 2 0
Penn State     6 2 0
Boston University     5 2 1
Boston College     6 3 0
Columbia     6 3 0
NYU     5 3 0
Cornell     5 3 1
Villanova     6 4 0
Boston College     7 3 0
Hofstra     4 3 0
Colgate     4 4 0
Syracuse     4 5 0
Drexel     3 4 0
Franklin & Marshall     3 4 0
Brown     3 5 1
Pittsburgh     3 5 1
Princeton     3 5 0
Vermont     2 3 2
Temple     2 4 2
Bucknell     3 6 0
Dartmouth     3 6 0
Tufts     1 6 0
CCNY     1 7 0
Carnegie Tech     0 6 0
Fordham     0 7 0
Rankings from AP Poll

The 1946 Penn State Nittany Lions football team represented the Pennsylvania State University in the 1946 college football season.[1] The team was coached by Bob Higgins and played its home games in New Beaver Field in State College, Pennsylvania. The team is notable for voting to cancel a scheduled game against the Miami Hurricanes rather than playing without African American players.[2]

Schedule[]

DateOpponentSiteResultAttendanceSource
October 5Bucknell
W 48–612,401[3]
October 12at SyracuseW 9–012,000
October 19Michigan Statedagger
  • New Beaver Field
  • State College, PA (rivalry)
L 16–1917,149
October 26at Colgate
W 6–213,500[4]
November 2Fordham
  • New Beaver Field
  • State College, PA
W 68–010,305[5]
November 9Temple
  • New Beaver Field
  • State College, PA (rivalry)
W 26–013,356[6]
November 16at Navy
W 12–722,000
November 23at Pittsburgh
L 7–1442,124
November 29at Miami (FL)
  • Burdine Stadium
  • Miami, FL
canceled
  • daggerHomecoming

The scheduled game against the Miami Hurricanes was cancelled in early November by unanimous vote of the Penn State team.[2] Miami officials felt that Penn State fielding their African American players Wallace Triplett and Dennis Hoggard in Miami could have led to "unfortunate incidents",[7] and the team chose to cancel the game rather than playing without Triplett and Hoggard.[2] Miami reportedly invited Syracuse to replace Penn State. This invitation was promptly declined and rebuked in an editorial in The Daily Orange, titled "No Thanks, Miami".[8]

After the season[]

The 1947 NFL Draft was held on December 16, 1946. The following Nittany Lions were selected.[9]

Round Pick Player Position NFL Club
7 53 Bill Smyth Defensive end Los Angeles Rams
16 140 Jeff Durkota Fullback Philadelphia Eagles
26 240 Larry Joe Back Chicago Cardinals
30 279 Joe Colone Back Washington Redskins

References[]

  1. ^ "Penn State Yearly Results (1945-1949)". College Football Data Warehouse. David DeLassus. Archived from the original on August 5, 2015. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  2. ^ a b c "Football team stood against racism, broke barriers in 1946-47". psu.edu. February 14, 2006. Retrieved January 5, 2020.
  3. ^ "State Defeats Bucknell by Big 48-6 Score". Sunday Call-Chronicle. Allentown, Pa. Associated Press. October 6, 1946. p. 18 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "State Wins, 6-2, Against Colgate". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pa. October 27, 1946. p. S2 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "Nittany Lions Shear Rams' Wool, 68-0". Sunday News. New York, N.Y. Associated Press. November 3, 1946. p. 99 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ Baumgartner, Stan (November 10, 1946). "Penn State Blanks Temple Eleven, 26-0". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pa. p. S1 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Penn State-Miami U. Grid Game Is Latest Victim of 'Racial Problem'". The Gazette and Daily. York, Pennsylvania. AP. November 6, 1946. p. 25. Retrieved January 5, 2020 – via Newspapers.com open access.
  8. ^ "Syracuse Turns Down Miami Offer to Sub for Penn State". The Tribune. Scranton, Pennsylvania. 13 November 1946. p. 17. Retrieved 29 November 2020 – via Newspapers.com open access.
  9. ^ "1947 NFL Draft Listing". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved November 29, 2020.


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