A New Staff & Era Refocuses on Former PSU Players: We Start in the Trenches
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For many of the Penn State Football Alumni, there have been numerous encouraging signs from new Coach Matt Campbell. Many former players were glad to hear him talk about the importance of developing young men and a commitment to academics.
Campbell also stated that he wants his players to understand the history of Penn State. In college football, there is a value in tradition, in wanting to be part of something bigger than yourself. Penn State existed long before this generation arrived and with that comes a responsibility to build on that and hand it off to the next generation.
The outreach of the current staff to the players of the past has been both a priority and authentic. This staff has made it very clear that they want that connection to generations of successful student-athletes and people. Matt Campbell even went so far as to call it the “superpower” of this place.
As a guy who agrees with him, and has always felt the same way, I wanted to write up some essays about the past. Most of us can name the superstars that played here. But human nature always includes some recency bias in anyone’s mind.
The approach here is to share history beyond the current generation. On current NFL rosters some Penn State players are the best on the planet. At this point Saquon doesn’t even need a last name —he’s reached Prince or Madonna status.
But there are many great former players that the sands of time have obscured to some extent. Over the course of the next few weeks, this space will highlight some of these guys. It won’t be a complete list; surely my advancing age will create some forgetfulness.
We’ll start with the most important and largely forgotten guys, the guys up front. As the old saying says, “The Band never plays for the line” but that’s not the case here. The first group we’ll cover are the linemen on both sides of the ball.
And when it comes to linemen, defensive linemen get some glory. That is why the o-linemen will go first.
In the last 60 years of Penn State Football there have been several great offensive lines. Most PSU fans old enough to remember will argue that the two of the best were in 1981 and 1994.
The interior of the 1981 o-line may have been one of the best inside three any college football program ever had.
The first Guard taken in the 1982 NFL draft was Penn State’s Mike Munchak who was the 8th overall pick by the Houston Oilers. The next guard drafted was teammate Sean Farrell, a two-time All-American taken by Tampa Bay with the 17th overall pick. And just twenty picks later, center Jim Romano was the first center drafted when he went in the 2nd round with the 37th overall pick (keep in mind there were only 28 teams then). At tackle Bill "JuJu" Contz was a 5th-round pick in the 1983 draft and Ron Heller was a 4th-round pick in the 1984 draft. One of those tackles took over in 1981 for 1980 All-American Bill Dugan who was drafted in the 3rd round by Seattle in 1981.
At Penn State they were the heart of a 1981 offense that compiled a 10-2 record and #3 final national ranking while playing against the nation’s toughest schedule They closed the season with dominant wins at #1 Pitt (48-14) and in the Fiesta Bowl over #8 USC (26-10). For those new to Penn State--to fans of a certain age the phrase "48 to 14" means a lot. It immediately calls to mind 48 unanswered points in 3 quarters defeating #1 Pitt and Dan Marino on the last day of the 1981 regular season.
Back to that 1981 line, Munchak is in the NFL Hall of Fame, but it goes deeper than that. Those 5 starters logged a combined 45 years in the NFL, an average of 9 years per man (none played less than 5 years). That line was so good that Batman himself couldn't break the starting lineup. Center Mark "Batman" Battaglia would start the next year for the 1982 National Title team.
Of note, Ron Heller was repeatedly voted the NFL’s dirtiest player because he played with an intensity and persistence that drove his opponents crazy. After he retired another Penn State lineman earned that honor, Guard Steve Wisniewski.
Wisniewski was a two-time All-American (1987, 1988) who was a starter on the 1986 National Championship team and then drafted 29th overall in the 1989 draft. His teammate Chris “Bucky” Conlin was a 1986 All-American.
(Spoiler Alert: The names Wisniewski and Conlin are ones you’ll hear more in this column).
Steve Wisniewski went on to a 13-year NFL career with the Raiders. He should be a future NFL Hall of Famer having been named All-Pro and being named to 8 Pro Bowls. Two of his 1988 teammates went on to long careers as well. Center Roger Duffy played 12 years in the NFL while Guard Dave Szott played 14 years.
Dave Szott was recruited out of New Jersey to play defensive line. After a year or two, Joe Paterno was convinced that Szott could be a great offensive lineman. Szott preferred defense and resisted the move, but it paid off for him.
That same storyline would repeat itself with Levi Brown. Like Szott, Brown came to Penn State to play defense. He came from Granby HS in Norfolk, VA. After realizing that Brown was a down-the-line d-lineman, the head coach wanted to move Brown to offense. Like Szott, Brown did not want to make the move, but Paterno told him that he’d likely be a Top-10 pick as an offensive tackle.
The coach proved to be right again when Brown was taken #5 overall by the Cardinals in the 2007 NFL Draft. Another big position move was Irv Pankey. Irv was an oversized tight end who became a tackle before being a 2nd round pick of the LA Rams in 1980 where he played for 11 years before finishing with the Colts for 2 years.
As much as Penn State talks about Linebacker U the offensive line has been a strength over the years. In 1979 two-time All-American Keith Dorney was a #1 pick by Detroit and is a College Hall of Famer.
Dorney is joined in the Hall of Fame by All-American Glenn Ressler who won the Maxwell Award as the nation’s best player in 1964. Ressler went on to a 10-year NFL career and won two NFL titles (including the Super Bowl). Keep in mind that Ressler played in the days when guys played both sides of the ball as did All-American and College Hall of Fame guard Steve Suhey (1947).
And then there was 2010 All-American and Academic All-American guard Stefen Wisniewski, the nephew of the aforementioned Steve. Stefen is one of over 15 Penn State offensive linemen to earn Academic All-American honors. Stefen played in multiple Super Bowls and now lives in State College.
Spoiler Alert: There is still more to the Wisniewski story.
Tom Rafferty was a 1975 All-American who won two Super Bowls with Dallas. AQ Shipley was a 2008 All-American who won Rimington Award as the nation’s best center. Todd Rucci was taken in the 2nd round of the 1993 draft and his son Nolan just finished his career playing tackle at Penn State.
And there were guys who really flew under the radar. Carl Schaukowitch was an undersized guard (230 pounds) who was drafted in 1973 and played in the NFL. He was part of a strong class of linemen in the early 1970s. The 1974 and 1975 drafts saw 5 o-linemen taken with 2nd-rounders Charlie Getty and Mark Markovich and All-American John Nessel leading the way.
Having mentioned the 1981 offensive line, keep in mind that the 1994 line takes a back seat to no one.
Guard Jeff Hartings arrived as an undersized guard from tiny St Henry, OH where he grew up on an egg farm near the Indiana border. He left as a 1st round NFL pick. Along with fellow guard Marco Rivera they both played over a decade at Pro Bowl levels in the NFL. Center Bucky Greeley was a walk-on who went on to a multi-year NFL career. Tackle Andre Johnson was a 1st round pick. Keith “Goon” Conlin, brother of “Bucky” was the other tackle and was drafted in the 6th round. Keith’s younger brother Kevin started on Penn State’s o-line a few years after Keith finished up his career. Their parents Moon and Mary were legendary as well.
That 1994 line led the way for one of the greatest college offenses in the history of college football. The most telling statistic was that QB Kerry Collins was sacked just 5 times in 12 games. That probably explains why Kerry took them to the old VFW for cheesesteaks on a weekly basis.
Defensive Line:
Let’s get to the Wisniewski part of the story now. The first Wisniewski to come to Penn State was defensive linemen Leo. He was an NFL 2nd-round pick and is the older brother of Steve and father of Stefen.
As you’ve seen with Conlin, Rucci, and Wisniewski, family is a rich theme at Penn State that will play out repeatedly as we look at the history here.
Penn State’s d-line history goes back a long way. The 1947 defense was dominant up front. They still hold the NCAA record for fewest yards allowed in a game when they held Syracuse to -47 yards of offense. They also still hold the NCAA record for fewest yards allowed rushing per game (17.0) and rushing yards per carry (0.64).
A few years later, Penn State’s Rosey Grier emerged as a dominant defensive lineman. He played for the Giants from 1955 through 1962 before finishing up in LA as part of the Rams’ fearsome foursome for four seasons. Grier went on to an incredible career in acting, politics and as a preacher. You can read more about him here.
Grier set the stage for decades of outstanding play from the defensive line. In 1962 Dave Robinson was an All-American. But his impact was far larger than playing the game.
Dave was part of the 1961 Gator Bowl team, that was the first integrated team to play in that bowl game. The team stayed in St Augustine because the hotels in Jacksonville would not allow Penn State’s Black players to stay there.
In that 30-15 Gator Bowl win over Georgia Tech, Robinson leapt over 2 Tech defenders landed on the opposing quarterback causing a fumble that he recovered. Robinson was named the game’s MVP.
Robinson was the 14th overall pick in the 1963 NFL draft by Green Bay and was also drafted by San Diego in the AFL.
It came down to a battle between Al Davis (THAT Al Davis) of the AFL and Vince Lombardi. Penn State assistant coach Joe Paterno was having lunch in The Corner Room and got a call from Vince Lombardi to try to get information on Robinson.
Lombardi was a fellow Brooklynite who’d actually coached St Cecilia’s High School in New Jersey against Brooklyn Prep when Paterno was a player. Al Davis was also from Brooklyn and he came to State College to get the deal done.
In the end Robinson signed his Green Bay contract on the hood of a car outside Rec Hall. He won two Super Bowls and is one of just 2 Penn State players inducted in both the NFL and College Hall of Fame.
Over the next five decades more than 20 different PSU defensive linemen earned first-team All-American Honors.
The greatest of them all may have been Mike Reid, an All-American in 1969 who was named to College Hall of Fame and to the Sports Illustrated College Football All-Century team in 1999. Mike won the Maxwell Award, finished 5th in Heisman voting and was the 7th overall pick in the draft. In a 5-year NFL career, Mike was 1st-team All-Pro and made the Pro Bowl before walking away to focus on his music career. He won a grammy as a songwriter, has written dozens of #1 songs and has been inducted to the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame.
As the decade changed to the 1970s, dominant defenses were led by the guys up front. Bruce Bannon, Randy Crowder and Mike Hartenstine were All-Americans. Crowder played 7 years in the NFL while Hartenstine logged 13 years in the league. In 1977, Danville, PA native Randy Sidler was a first-team All-American as well as an avid outdoorsman.
One of the best 1-2 combos upfront was the defensive tackle duo of Matt Millen and Bruce Clark. Both were 1st-team All-Americans in 1978 and they went by the nickname of Salt and Pepper. An injury slowed Millen in 1979 while Clark repeated as a 1st-team All-American. That 1978 defensive line inside presence was complimented by defensive end Larry Kubin (another multi-year NFL veteran and a great outside pass rusher). Millen would go on to play linebacker in the NFL and win 4 Super Bowls.
Among the notables in the 1980s and early 1990s was All-American Walker Lee Ashley. He was part of defenses that shut down Heisman Trophy winners Marcus Allen (1981) and Herschel Walker (1982) in back-to-back bowl games.
1986 All-American Tim Johnson had a clutch sack of Miami QB and Heisman Trophy winner Vinny Testaverde that changed the momentum of their final drive. That sack helped clinch the 1986 National Title. The keystone of that game was the defensive line’s ability to get to Miami’s quarterback without having to blitz.
The line anchored by Bob White, Donnie Graham, Mike Russo, Tim Johnson and Pete Curkendall had a huge game. In one of the greatest defensive performances in the history of the game, Penn State’s defense defended Miami for 93 plays and held them to one touchdown in a 14-10 win. Miami had averaged over 38 points per game.
That line had personality as well. Johnson had a long NFL career, won a Super Bowl and became a pastor. Curkendall once referred to himself as “The Great Wall of Elmira” and Russo looked like he’d walked off the set of “The Godfather”.
In the late 1990s newly hired assistant d-line coach Larry Johnson started to put his stamp on that position. In 1998 and 1999 guys like Brad Scioli (6 years in the NFL), Justin Kurpeikis (5 years in the NFL) were playing alongside All-American and 1st overall pick in the 2000 NFL draft Courtney Brown.
The 2002 defensive line was a great unit. Tackle Jimmy Kennedy was a massive presence inside, an All-American and a 1st round draft pick. Defensive end Michael Haynes was also an All-American and 1st round draft pick. The other defensive tackle was Anthony “Spice” Adams, a second-round pick. Now “Spice” Adams is better known for his on-line and acting persona, so much so that many people do not realize that he played 9 years in the NFL.
Also seeing some playing time on the 2002 d-line were freshmen Jay Alford and Tamba Hali. Alford would go on to 4 years in the NFL and win a Super Bowl with the Giants. Hali moved to d-end and made the signature play of the epic 2005 Penn State win over Ohio State when he sacked future Heisman Trophy winner QB Troy Smith causing the fumble that clinched the game.
Hali was an All-American, a first-round pick, a 12-year NFL player and a 5-time Pro Bowler. As a kid, Hali fled Civil War in his native Liberia to get to the United States. His story was an inspiration to many others. His teammate, defensive end Matt Rice is another name to remember here at Penn State.
Matt Rice was a talented artist and designed the 2005 season schedule poster. After time in the NFL, he returned to Baltimore where he became a noted artist. He also helped inspire and work with children in the city before cancer took him far too early in 2023. He was an inspiration to 2008 All-American Aaron Maybin who also came to Penn State from Baltimore.
Maybin was immediately followed by All-Americans in Jared Odrick (2009) and Devon Still (2011).
All of them made big impacts off the field. Maybin went back to his native Baltimore and has a career as an artist, an activist, a teacher and is changing lives there. After 7 years in the NFL, Odrick has been a voice for social justice, become an artist, an actor a producer and a successful race car driver.
Devon Still’s daughter Leah was diagnosed with cancer while he was still in the NFL. Leah’s battle and her story captivated the country. Devon and Leah raised awareness and funds to help other families combat pediatric cancer, even as she battled to win her own fight. Devon and Leah won the Jimmy V. Perseverance Award at the 2015 ESPYs.
More great linemen followed the ones highlighted here. But names like Donovan Smith, DeQuan Jones, Anthony Zettel, Carl Nassib, Odafe Oweh, Chop Robison and others are well known to the current generation of players, coaches and fans.
As the days unfold, the focus on these essays will reach back a decade or more to illuminate the long history of unique and talented players at Penn State. We’ll highlight some of the strong family connections that saw brothers playing here, as well as father-son, grandfather-father-son and even a great grandfather-grandfather-father-son line.
We’ll have essays on backfields & bloodlines, linebacker U, quarterbacks and receivers (including tight ends) as well as assistant coaches and special teams players. Hope you enjoy the journey through these essays as much as we do.
A new beginning at Penn State opens the door to the past. And it is indeed a proud past made up of some incredible people. These are the builders of what became known as Success With Honor. And given a renewed interest in that past, we are happy to highlight so many great student-athletes that set the standard.
