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“A Century of Excellence” Remembered at the Penn State All-Sports Museum

While the last two decades have seen a wealth of breath-taking moments for Penn State Football—from the high-flying 1994 team to Joe Paterno surpassing Bear Bryant to last year’s run to the Orange Bowl—seldom has circumstance, timing, and success come together as it did in 1986. In the program’s 100th season, celebrated as a “Century of Excellence,” Penn State went undefeated and upset #1 Miami in the Fiesta Bowl to claim its second National Championship in five seasons. To honor the 20th Anniversary of this storybook season, the Penn State All-Sports Museum has installed “A Century of Excellence” Remembered in its changing exhibits area. This exhibit focuses on the achievements of the 1986 National Championship squad and includes the 1986 Lambert Meadowlands Trophy, ECAC 1986 Team of the Year Trophy, Philadelphia Sportswriters Association Team of the Year Plaque, and many other items relating to that phenomenal season. Several other objects from the 1986 campaign are on permanent display in the Museum’s football area including the trophy from the 1987 Fiesta Bowl, programs from the game, one of the Fiesta Bowl watches given to the players, Coach Paterno’s Bear Bryant Coach of the Year Award, a 1986 National Championship ring, and the 1986 Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year issue featuring Coach Paterno. “A Century of Excellence” Remembered will run through March 15, 2007.

Visitors continue to be impressed by the artifacts, photographs and other memorabilia that highlight the 130-year history of sports at Penn State.

The All-Sports museum honors the student-athletes and coaches down through history who have helped make Penn State's intercollegiate athletic program one of the best in the nation. Inside the museum, the inspirational story of men's and women's sports at Penn State is shown in dramatic visuals that cover the walls from floor to ceiling. You'll see larger-than-life action photographs, many of them rare archival images. You'll see the equipment the athletes use and the uniforms they wear. You'll see a collection of Penn State men's and women's trophies including college football's fabled Heisman trophy (won by John Cappelletti in 1973), the Lombardi Award, the Maxwell Award, and two of women's collegiate athletics' highest honors, the Broderick Award and the Wade trophy. Olympic memorabilia from many of the university’s more than 125 Olympians are also on display, including the only Gold Medal won by a Penn State athlete in an individual event--Horace Ashenfelter in the Steeplechase in 1952.

Visitors to the museum can hear the ping of the ball, the roar of the dedicated fans, the fight songs, the Blue Band performing at halftime, and many of our Penn State cheers. Throughout the museum you will find interactive exhibits that invite visitors to experience what it feels like to punch a leather-covered heavy bag and "weigh in" on a digital scale, to grip a discus, shot, and javelin, to hold real sports equipment like a turn-of-the-century football, and to have your photo taken as a blitzing football player at "Linebacker U."

The museum also includes the 30-seat Clemens Family Theatre. Game highlights and various video presentations about Penn State sports are featured daily in the theatre. In other parts of the museum, television screens continuously show video of past accomplishments of Penn State’s student-athletes and coaches.

Information and text courtesy of The Pennsylvania State University
www.gopsusports.com/