So much has been written about Penn State's 1986 national champions in the past 25 years that it might seem improbable to single out one player as the unsung member of that great team.

It isn't.

Pete Curkendall, a backup defensive lineman who was then a true junior, made three of the most crucial plays of the season. Without those plays, it's doubtful those Nittany Lions would have reached the pinnacle of college football.

Furthermore, if one agrees with coach Joe Paterno's long-held belief that he measures the success of his teams and players by what they have accomplished in life, then Curkendall is up there with anyone who has ever played for him. He is not a rich man, a doctor, lawyer or business executive. But almost since he left Penn State, his life has been dedicated to making the world a better place for the indigent, the drug addicts and the special-needs children - particularly those born into this world with life-threatening medical problems.

That's not what Curkendall expected when he was playing for those 1985 and '86 teams that vyed for the national championship, losing to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl and then defeating Miami the next year in the Fiesta Bowl.

"I was a fun-loving type of person," Curkendall said recently, "and didn't take things too seriously. I wasn't one of those 'run through the wall' guys before a game. We actually had guys getting sick in garbage cans because they were so pumped up after Joe's [locker room] speeches. Joe's speeches were so understated you could feel the building drama inside of you. I just wasn't into all that.

In fact, the day Curkendall made probably his most significant play of the championship season, he was hiding in a bathroom stall before the game munching on a couple of hot dogs that one of the equipment managers had surreptitiously purchased for him.

It was the ninth game of the year, and Penn State was ranked No. 2 behind Miami with a mediocre 4-4 Maryland team the opponent on a soggy, overcast afternoon at Beaver Stadium.

"I had a pinched nerve in my neck and I didn't know how much I was going to play," Curkendall recalled. "Tim Johnson had been hurt earlier, but I figured he'd still be playing and I might be in the rotation a little bit. So I was sitting in a stall during Joe's pregame speech and I'm devouring hot dogs and a 30-ounce soda."

The next thing Curkendall knew, he was told Johnson couldn't play and he would not only be starting at Johnson's tackle-end position but would be on the field more. Curkendall knew he was in for a long day.

Maryland used a pro-style passing offense, and it turned into an up-tempo game. Fortunately for Curkendall, the Lions controlled the ball for 20 minutes of the first half, but they only held a shaky 7-0 lead after two first-quarter drives failed deep in Maryland territory. Maryland stormed back with its passing in the second half, but Penn State's defense stopped one scoring opportunity at the 2-yard line with an interception by linebacker Trey Bauer and held another one to a field goal. The Terps kept attacking, and early in the fourth quarter they were back at the 7-yard line when their quarterback, Don Henning, called an audible and tried to pass to halfback Alvin Blount in the left flat. Curkendall stepped in front of Blount to intercept the pass with a clear field ahead of him.

"The play was a quick pass, so the [offensive] tackle was supposed to jump back and the defensive end rushes in and [the tackle] cuts you so that the quarterback throws over the end's head," Curkendall recalled. "When the tackle jumps back to cut me, I was literally so tired it took me like two seconds to get to the guy. So, he couldn't cut me down, Bobby White hits the quarterback and the ball bounces off my chest and falls in my lap."

Away he went, all 260 pounds stomping down the sideline with a Maryland posse chasing after him. He made it 82 yards before being brought down at Maryland's 9-yard line.

"And I was tackled by a lineman," Curkendall laughed. "Shane Conlan said later he saw two guys running after me, a running back and a lineman. He said he figured I could outrun the lineman, so he blasted the running back. I told him I let the lineman catch me because I wanted the offense to get a little confidence by scoring."

At the time, Curkendall's interception was the longest one in school history that didn't end in a touchdown. It still ranks second in the record books behind Alan Zemaitis' 90-yard interception in 2003.

The offense did score, with tailback D.J. Dozier running in on the next play, and Penn State appeared to have a comfortable 14-3 lead with about eight minutes remaining. But the fast tempo of the half continued, with Maryland soon narrowing the score to 14-9, Penn State running down the clock before kicking a 36-yard field goal with 1:04 left, Henning quickly driving the Terps 76 yards for a touchdown, and cornerback Duffy Cobbs knocking down Henning's pass attempt for two points with 14 seconds remaining to save the game and the season.

"When I made the interception we needed momentum," Curkendall said, "and then Duffy made that big play at the end. We made plays like that all season."

Earlier, in the only other game he started that year, Curkendall made another of his critical plays, against 24-point underdog Cincinnati at Beaver Stadium. Cincinnati was just 3-2 and then-No. 5 Penn State had overwhelmed its first four opponents by margins ranging from 12 to 35 points. The Lions may have been looking ahead to their next game at No. 2 Alabama, because they were flat and struggled for most of the day, as Cincinnati's five-receiver spread offense riddled their defense with short passes.

The Bearcats stunned the Lions early in the fourth quarter when they took the lead for the first time on a 39-yard field goal. With about six minutes left in the game, they were on the Lions' 49-yard line facing a third-and-1. Instead of another short pass, Cincinnati gave it to their all-time leading rusher, Reggie Taylor, up the middle directly at Curkendall, who was playing nose guard for the injured Mike Russo.

"I remember we needed a stop, we had to do something," Curkendall recalled, "and I was just trying to blow up the center in front of me. It was a straight dive, and [Taylor] came right towards me, which made it a lot easier for me to tackle him [for a 1-yard loss]."

The offense still had to win the game, which it did a few minutes later with five quick plays. On a third-and-10 at the Lions' 25-yard line, quarterback John Shaffer hit sophomore reserve tailback Blair Thomas for 32 yards, then Thomas ran for 32 more to the Bearcats' 11-yard line. Two plays later, second-team tailback Dave Clark carried three tacklers into the end zone from 6 yards out. The defense wrapped it up with a pair of sacks and a blocked kick by Conlan for a safety.

Curkendall's third crucial play was in the next-to-last regular-season game, when a 4-4 Notre Dame team under a new coach, Lou Holtz, came within 39 seconds of eliminating Penn State from the national title game. With the Lions leading 7-6 in the closing minute of the first half, Conlan caused a fumble and Curkendall recovered at the Irish 23-yard line. Massimo Manca's 19-yard field goal stretched Penn State's lead to 10-6.

A furious last-minute rally by Notre Dame put the Irish at the Penn State 6-yard line with about 1:30 left. The Lions led 24-19, so Curkendall's alert fumble recovery and Manca's subsequent field goal provided the three-point cushion that prevented Notre Dame from winning the game on a last-second field goal. As it was, four outstanding plays on the goal line by safety Ray Isom, White, sophomore backup cornerback Gary Wilkerson, Conlan and Pete Giftopulous saved the game and the season. A week later, the Lions clinched a slot in the championship showdown with a relatively easy 34-14 victory over Pitt.

Curkendall believes he recovered the critical fumble because the defense was so "solid in fundamentals." "We did a fumble drill every day in practice, going back to the '85 season," he said. "We'd lay on our backs and [assistant coach] Jim Williams or someone would throw the ball and it was a fist fight to get to that ball. So in a game it just came naturally because we practiced fundamentals so much.

"That play and the others I made were typical of our 'bend but don't break' defense that started in '85 in our first game at Maryland," Curkendall said, recalling the thrilling 20-18 victory over Maryland in blistering heat at Byrd Stadium in the season opener. The Terps were among the highly ranked preseason favorites, and the Lions were on the fringe of the Top 25. An interception for a 32-yard touchdown on the second play of the game by safety Michael Zordich shocked Maryland, and Penn State had a 17-0 lead before the Terps started their comeback. With 1:24 left and the Lions clinging to a 20-18 lead, Maryland drove quickly from its own 24-yard line to the Penn State 33. With 38 seconds left, Alvin Blount caught a short pass coming out of the backfield. But cornerback Lance Hamilton striped the ball away, and there was a scrum for it.

"I was there, and the Maryland guy was laying there with the ball," Curkendall said, "and Trey literally snatched the ball out of the guy's hands and won the game. At some point, you hit a wall when you can't even bend, and someone has to make the play. So a play like that - and my interception against Maryland the next year and those five interceptions by Gifto and Shane and everybody when we had to have them in the national championship game against Miami - those big plays defined our '85 and '86 seasons, and formed us as a team on defense.

"And what I remember most about our '86 team was the leadership. Shane led on the field. Bobby [White] was a great leader. And Trey was the heart and soul of that team. He was the guy when we needed a fire to be lit, he lit it. Obviously, the offense had leadership, too, with Shaffer, D.J., Steve Smith and those guys. There was closeness on our team. Everyone wasn't buddies, but it seemed like everybody was friends. Whereas when we played Oklahoma and Miami, there were literally groups of guys that never hung out together and never seemed as close as we were."

Curkendall attributed the camaraderie directly to Paterno. "We believed everything he told us," Curkendall said. "We drank the Kool-Aid, and everything he said came true. He let us know when we were good and not good. If you look at '85, those first seven or eight games were close. What happened was, when we needed a stop, we stopped them, and when we needed a score, we scored. That built the confidence for '86, and when we lost the national championship in '85, Joe said in the locker room, 'Remember how you feel right now, and carry that through every day next year.'

"Even when we lost that Oklahoma game, we left that field knowing we could have won. It was almost like just a glitch in the road for us as a team mentality. We expected to win the national championship. We expected to win every game."

What's ironic in retrospect is that Curkendall almost missed being part of the championship team because he felt his ability wasn't appreciated by Paterno and the coaching staff. He had been highly recruited out of Southside High School in Elmira, N.Y. - selected to several scholastic All-America teams and named the New York Player of the Year - and was good enough as a true freshman to be Russo's backup at tackle in a four-man line. The Lions switched to a three-man line in 1985, and Curkendall found himself as the primary reserve, but it rankled him. When White returned in '86 as one of the many fifth-year seniors to rejoin true seniors Johnson and Russo as starters, Curkendall abruptly left preseason camp.

"It only took a couple of days to realize I made a mistake, that I had been with these guys, and the team was extremely close," Curkendall said. "I remembered telling a TV guy back home after my freshman year when we were 6-5 that with all our young guys we will be playing for the national championship maybe next year or within two years. I'm not a soothsayer, but I believed we were going to win it all [in '86], and I knew I could contribute and went back."

Yet, a year later, after all the camaraderie and happiness of 1986, Curkendall was ready to quit again, foregoing a senior year in which he knew he would be a starter, because of an academic issue.

"I had a problem with a professor over the summer where I took a 15-credit internship for [a degree in] administration of justice, and Joe said I had to get a 3.0," Curkendall said. "I didn't need a 3.0 for the NCAA; I needed it for Joe. I didn't think it was a fair grade by the professor, so I was going to take him to some board. This is happening during [preseason] camp, and Joe says, 'You can't come to camp until you straighten this out.' "

The situation festered, with Curkendall missing all the practices, until the last week when Paterno brought him back but told him he would be redshirted. Curkendall said he didn't want to do that and would leave school. On late Friday afternoon before the 1987 opening game against Bowling Green at home, Curkendall was hanging around on campus with a couple of friends as the football team checked into a local hotel. That's when assistant coach Jim Williams called. The grade had come in, and Paterno wanted him to play.

Curkendall not only played but forced a fumble in the end zone that linebacker Quintus McDonald recovered for a third-quarter touchdown in a 45-19 romp that was the 200th victory of Paterno's career. "So I missed all those practices," Curkendall laughed, "which wasn't all bad."

With the departure of 15 starters and 24 lettermen from '86, the 1987 team struggled a bit but finished the regular season with an 8-3 record, upsetting No. 7 Notre Dame in the last game of the year when Curkendall made the most memorable, if not critical, play of his career in his final play at Beaver Stadium.

Once-beaten Notre Dame still had an outside chance to reach the national championship game when the teams met in one of the coldest Penn State game days ever. Wind chill temperatures were 18 degrees, and there were snow flurries throughout the day. It was an evenly fought game, as Penn State jumped out to a 7-0 lead and was still ahead 21-14 with four minutes left when Notre Dame launched a methodical, time-consuming drive from its own 34-yard line, scoring a touchdown with 30 seconds left. The Irish went for the victory, with quarterback Tony Rice rolling right on an option. When Rice saw end Keith Karpinski, he turned inside and Curkendall tackled him by the ankles short of the goal line. "It was a moment that will always be frozen in Penn State football history," reported the Pittsburgh Press.

"That play culminated my career, which was bittersweet," Curkendall said. "I came in here from high school as a prima donna before I realized everybody here was an All-American, and it didn't work out how I planned it. I never lived up to my own expectations, and that's why that last play is my personal favorite."

At the end of the season, he was named a third-team All-American and was a first-team All-East choice by The Associated Press and an honorable mention All-American by United Press International. Curkendall admits he was getting tired of football, and even though he was drafted in the 11th round by Buffalo, his heart wasn't in it. He was cut by the Bills near the end of the preseason, went to the New Orleans Saints' camp the next summer but knew he didn't want any more football. So he quit, but he wasn't sure what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.

"I went back home and really bummed around for a year," Curkendall said. "I needed to grow up. I met this girl who was going to Elmira College, and she told me from day one that she wanted six kids and wanted to adopt special-needs kids. I told her I agreed to it just so she would date me. Nearly 20 years later, we're married with six kids and special-needs kids."

Soon after Curkendall and Renee Perkins began dating, she asked him to work with her at a summer camp for special-needs children. "It was the biggest eye-opener I've ever had in my life in terms of how other people live and adapt," Curkendall said. "It was extremely hard and extremely satisfying. I got [named] the counselor of the summer, which is funny because I was and still am the fun-loving guy I was in college, but I now have my priorities straight."

Curkendall followed Renee to New York, and they continued working with the special-needs community. Then he shifted to helping the mentally ill and homeless people in the Bowery and the Bronx.

Shortly after they were married in 1993, they adopted their first special-needs child, an 18-month-old African-American girl with AIDS who wasn't expected to survive through her early childhood. Renee had been the youngster's teacher at a preschool in the Bronx for the medically fragile. After taking her husband to visit the child several times at a Harlem hospital, she convinced him to do the adoption. That girl, Netti, just turned 21 and will soon leave the Curkendall home in suburban Syracuse.

After eight years working with the street and special-needs people in the city, the Curkendalls moved back to upstate New York to be closer to their parents. They now have two biological sons of their own and three more special-needs children-a boy and girl who are African-American, and the youngest child, who is Hispanic. The other children range in age from 5 to 16, and all but one have serious medical problems that need constant monitoring. Critical operations are sometimes required, including brain surgery.

Renee has continued her work with the special-needs community, while Curkendall now works out of his home for a medical and patient advocacy service after spending several years as a psychiatric case worker and then in IT sales. Curkendall admits the health problems of his children make life difficult and weary sometimes, but he and his wife are exhilarated by their good fortune and how their lives have turned out.

"There's always an echo in my head from Coach Paterno about doing the right thing, and that's stuck with me," Curkendall said. "Even though we argued all the time, he was the grandfather who was always right. So when I made the decision about my kids and my life, I could almost hear his voice."

On his Facebook page, Curkendall has posted his favorite quote, by Albert Einstein. It sums up his life so far, not only his involvement in the 1986 national championship season but his career and personal life after football:

"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."