With its appearance in the 2016 TaxSlayer Bowl, Penn State will be playing the Georgia Bulldogs for only the second time. The teams’ first meeting, in the 1983 Sugar Bowl, was an historic occasion, as Penn State won its first national championship with a 27-23 victory on New Year’s Day.

Blue White Illustrated contributor and Penn State sports historian Lou Prato was at that game as a fan and later wrote about it for his first book, The Penn State Football Encyclopedia. This story is adapted from the account of the game that appears in the encyclopedia.

By Lou Prato

No one honestly predicted this would be the team that would give Penn State its first national championship. There were far too many questions before the season began and another imposing schedule.

The Nittany Lions’ principal rival, Pitt, was the preseason No. 1 team. The AP media poll tabbed the Lions eighth, and Sports Illustrated ranked them ninth, asserting that “Penn State will be pressed to equal last season’s 10-2 record” after losing 11, including two first-round NFL Draft choices and most of the offensive line.

But Joe Paterno overhauled his offense, installing a big-play attack that combined the passing of veteran quarterback Todd Blackledge and the Lions’ talented receivers, All-American Kenny Jackson and Gregg Garrity, with the speed and quickness of running backs Curt Warner and Jon Williams. In front of them was a revised offensive line featuring tackles Bill Contz and Ron Heller, guards Pete Speros and Dick Maginnis and center Mark Battaglia

On defense, Paterno shifted some personnel between the front line and linebacker as he worked with various schemes. The starting unit featured experienced players such as linemen Greg Gattuso and Walker Lee Ashley, linebackers Scott Radecic, Dave Paffenroth and Ken Kelley, as well as a veteran secondary made up of Roger Jackson, Mark Robinson and Dan Biondi and hero Harry Hamilton.

What happened through the season was a mixture of exceptional playing, emotional highs and lows, and some bad and good luck. A thrilling 27-24 upset of Nebraska in the first game under the lights at Beaver Stadium propelled the Lions to No. 3 but was followed by the lowest of lows, a stunning 42-21 loss at Alabama. But prodded by a fiery postgame locker room pep talk from backup senior running back Joel Coles, the team rebounded to win six in a row.

Then, when it counted most, good luck intervened. A tie with Arkansas by then-No. 2 SMU one week before Penn State beat the Panthers helped set up the national championship game in the Sugar Bowl at the New Orleans Superdome on New Year’s Day with undefeated Georgia led by Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker.

And the Nittany Nation flocked to Bourbon Street by land, air and sea.

“How ’bout them Dawgs?” came the Georgia cheer echoing down Bourbon Street and the French Quarter. “Woof-woof-woof.” But the yells didn’t have the same sting and were nowhere near as aggravating as the “Roll Tide” hoots that State fans had heard on their previous visit to the Sugar Bowl in 1978. They may have been outnumbered, but the Lion followers in New Orleans this time were not outdone by Bulldog fans, and screams of “We are… Penn State” could be heard throughout the downtown and especially in and around the team’s headquarters at the Hilton Hotel.

The manager of the hotel was a PSU graduate, and the lobby seemed like one gigantic tailgate for hours on end. Blue and White signs proclaiming “Lions #1... No Bull” were plastered on billboards and buses, and “Love Ya Lions” placards hung in the windows of many New Orleans shops and bars. One watering hole on Bourbon Street catering to PSU fans renamed itself Fritzel’s Lion’s Den, hanging a giant Penn State football helmet on its second-floor balcony and playing recordings day and night of “Hail to the Lions” and “Fight on State.”

A pep rally outside the Superdome around 4 o’clock on New Year’s Eve attracted thousands of fans, who were given large blue or white foam hands with the index finger pointed in the air and a #1 printed on it. Most of the souvenir hands were toted into the stadium the next evening and thrust high into the air continuously by the exuberant Penn State followers.

Following the usual routine for a New Year’s Day game, the team arrived in New Orleans the day after Christmas. Once again, Paterno closed practices. He also tried to keep players away from the ardent fans who crowded the lobby of the Hilton for hours each day to socialize and catch glimpses of the team coming and going on buses.

This was Paterno’s chance to redeem himself and the Nittany Lions for what happened at the 1979 Sugar Bowl, when the team was No. 1 and was upset by Alabama, 14-7. He didn’t want any major distractions to deter the Lions from pursuing their ultimate goal. Still, some players were able to cruise Bourbon Street early in the week, as Paterno kept his word to let them have some fun.

Sportswriters saw this game as a matchup between State’s explosive offense and Georgia’s running game and pass defense. For the first time, a Lion team had gained more yards passing (2,369) than rushing (2,283), but it was a balanced attack with an attacking defense and boasted four All-Americans in Warner, Jackson, Ashley and Robinson and a Phi Beta Kappa quarterback in Blackledge.

But Georgia had Walker, a junior who already owned 10 NCAA and 15 Southeastern Conference records. The Bulldogs also led the nation in interceptions with 31, had the two leading pass interceptors in All-American Terry Hoage (12) and Jeff Sanchez (nine) and had given up just seven TD passes all season. What Georgia didn’t have was a passer. Quarterback John Lastinger was completing fewer than 50 percent of his passes, but he was a leader whose performance in clutch situations “allows us to win,” coach Vince Dooley said.

The Bulldogs also had been here before. For the third consecutive year, Georgia was playing in the Sugar Bowl and in 1980 had beaten Notre Dame to win the national title. Paterno had lost all three Sugar Bowl games in which he’d coached, as the Lions fell short in 1972, ’75 and ’78. He had admitted that the Superdome was “a tough place to coach.” To get his players ready for the noise, he used some of the 10 days of practice in State College to work indoors with speakers blaring loud crowd noises. “It would give you a headache when you walked out of practice,” said Garrity. Despite Walker, the oddsmakers listed the Lions as three- to four-point favorites. Bill Conlin of the Philadelphia Daily News picked the Lions to win 27-24. “Balance of Blackledge, Warner offsets brilliant effort by H. Walker,” he wrote. “Fans will talk about this one for years.” Conlin was so right!

The Lions won the toss and chose to receive. Dooley had figured Paterno would first test his “bruised” defensive line by running the ball up the gut. However, Paterno’s strategy was to use the speed and dexterity of his receivers and to throw long. After Warner made 4 yards up the middle on the first play, Blackledge passed to tight end Mike McCloskey for 33 yards, then to Garrity for 27. With two more passes and two runs, the Lions went 78 yards and Warner then ran 2 yards around left end for the touchdown. Sophomore Nick Gancitano kicked the PAT and the Lions led, 7-0.

Georgia came right back. With Walker carrying six times for 40 yards, including runs of 12 and 11 yards, the Bulldogs marched 70 yards in 15 plays before they were halted by State’s defense and forced into a 27-yard field goal by Kevin Butler. For nearly the rest of the half, the game belonged to State. The Lions continually shifted their defensive scheme, hitting the Bulldogs with three waves of tacklers that stripped away Walker’s blockers and gang-tackled him high and low. After gaining 49 yards in the first quarter, he managed only 58 the rest of the night, finishing his final college game with 107 yards on 28 carries.

Thanks to three punt returns by Kevin Baugh, including one of 66 yards, the Lions built up a 20-3 lead late in the second quarter on field goals of 38 and 45 yards by Gancitano and a 9-yard Warner TD that climaxed a five-play, 65-yard drive. With just 39 seconds left in the half, Walker ran back the kickoff 23 yards and Georgia went into its two-minute drill. Lastinger passed four times to reach the PSU 10-yard line, including the fourth one for 26 yards that had split end Kevin Harris catching the ball for 16 yards and lateralling to Walker for 10 more. Then, with just five seconds remaining in the half, Georgia’s 6-foot-5 receiver Herman Archie outjumped 5-9 Dan Biondi on a Lastinger floater to the left corner of the end zone. With Butler’s PAT, Georgia was back in the game, 20-10.

With their confidence restored by Lastinger’s passing and the momentum still in their favor, the Bulldogs took the second-half kickoff and marched 69 yards for a TD. Twice, Penn State appeared to have Georgia stopped on third-and-long situations, only to have Lastinger get the first downs on clutch tosses to Harris for 11 and 24 yards. Walker scored the TD on a 1-yard dive, and Butler’s kick made it 20-17.

Penn State’s offense began to break down. After a few plays, Warner left the game with leg cramps and Blackledge was sacked twice. Warner made some good runs throughout the third quarter but had to leave the field several times because of cramps. Blackledge was sacked again, and several times he didn’t see open receivers. “I lost my poise,” he told sportswriters later. “I wasn’t picking up the blitzes and throwing the ball when I should have.”

However, State’s defense was halting Walker and Lastinger, with Robinson intercepting a pair of passes to end two Georgia possessions. Just before the teams changed sides at the end of the third quarter, the Lions took the ball on their own 19-yard line. Warner gained 11 yards up the middle, and during the timeout, Paterno and Blackledge discussed a pass play Blackledge wanted to call. Ninety seconds into the fourth quarter, the Lions had a first down at the Georgia 47. Paterno sent in that play: “643.”

Blackledge faked to Warner up the middle as four receivers sped downfield. The junior quarterback saw Garrity – the team’s “other receiver” all season long – get a step on freshman cornerback Tony Flack down the left sideline. “I threw the ball as far as I could,” Blackledge said later. It was a perfect pass to Garrity, who made a diving catch in the end zone for a touchdown. “I think that was the most important play of the game,” Dooley said later. It was more than that, as “The Catch” has since become synonymous with Penn State football excellence.

Gancitano’s PAT gave State a 27-17 lead, and for the next several minutes the Lion defense was in control. A sack by Ashley with about five minutes remaining forced the Bulldogs to punt from their own 25, and it was here that Baugh made a mistake, trying to run with the ball instead of signaling for a fair catch or letting it bounce. His uncharacteristic fumble – State’s only turnover of the game – set up a six-play Georgia touchdown drive that ended with a 9-yard TD pass to Clarence Kay. But the Lions stopped Walker on the two-point conversion attempt, and now, with 4:54 left, the Bulldogs needed more than a field goal to take the lead.

Georgia opted not to try an onside kick, and while Dooley would later second-guess that decision, the strategy nearly succeeded. With Penn State facing third-and-3 from its own 32-yard line, the Bulldogs called timeout, and Blackledge went to the sideline to discuss the play. Paterno said a run was the safe play, but Blackledge wanted to throw a pass. “Throw it,” Paterno said. The 7-yard square out to Garrity for the first down caught the Bulldogs completely by surprise. When reflecting on the game years later, Paterno said it was this play that epitomized Blackledge and the 1982 team.

“That was my most memorable catch in the game,” Garrity remembered years later. “We needed a first down to keep the drive going and to keep the ball. It was for a first down and kept the drive going, and we could run the clock. Basically, it kept Herschel Walker and the Georgia offense off the field. Herschel could just explode at any second. This was just as important as the catch in the end zone. And it was the last catch I ever caught at Penn State.”

As the seconds ticked off the clock with the scoreboard showing a 27-23 score, it was obvious to the players and their fans in the record Superdome crowd of 78,184 that the Lions were about to reach college football’s Holy Grail. “We’re No. 1, we’re No. 1,” they started chanting.

When the game was finally over, they stood and cheered for nearly 15 minutes as the players hoisted Paterno on their shoulders and carried him into the center of the field with his right arm outstretched and his index finger pointing to the top of the Superdome. It is an indelible image captured by photographers and flashed to newspapers around the country, and it remains one of the iconic scenes in Penn State history. “This is the best football team I’ve ever had,” a jubilant Paterno told sportswriters. Dooley said, “Penn State is the best-balanced football team that I’ve seen since I’ve been coaching.” Meanwhile, in the locker room, Blackledge broke out the cigars for himself and his teammates.

“No. 1 At Last!” read the headline on the cover of Sports Illustrated, featuring Garrity celebrating after his touchdown. Copies of that SI cover photo now occupy prominent spots in the homes of thousands of Penn State fans around the world.

“There is nothing phony about college football’s newest champion,” wrote Peter Finney, sports editor of The New Orleans Times-Picayune. With his 228 passing yards, including the TD toss to Garrity, Blackledge was named the game’s Most Valuable Player. Warner, despite his cramps, had outdueled the Heisman Trophy winner for the second year in a row, this time gaining 117 yards and two TDs on 18 carries and 23 yards on two pass receptions. Radecic, an Academic All-American like Blackledge, had led the Lion defense with 14 tackles, and his fellow Academic All-American, Hamilton, had 10 tackles. Paterno’s Grand Experiment had finally paid the biggest dividend of all.

A crowd of nearly 8,000, including Gov. Dick Thornburg, met the team upon its arrival at the Harrisburg Airport the next morning. Then, as the team buses made the 100-mile trip back to State College through the small towns in the central Pennsylvania mountains, thousands of well-wishers were on the road along the way to cheer, wave and honk their horns into the night as their new heroes passed by. “I learned as never before how much this team and its success are an expression of so many people,” Paterno would later write in his autobiography, “Paterno By the Book.” “I never saw such love between people who didn’t know each other.” When the team reached State College, it was greeted by a large crowd in the parking lot of a shopping mall, then another rally at Rec Hall. A few days later, they were honored with parade through downtown State College, and thousands turned out despite a heavy snow storm.

It was a heady few months for Paterno and Penn State fans. Today, it is still a great memory for the players and coaches of the 1982 team and for all the fans who were inside the Superdome on that historic night to see it all happen. After 95 years of football, Penn State was, as the famous Sports Illustrated cover proclaimed, “No. 1 At Last.”