Pittsburgh Panthers Football: A Storied History of Triumphs and Traditions
The Pittsburgh Panthers football program represents the University of Pittsburgh, fondly known as "Pitt," in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Football holds a special place as the university's most popular sport. Since the school officially began sponsoring the sport in 1890, Pitt football has consistently competed at the highest level of American college football, currently known as the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision.
Pitt proudly claims nine national championships and ranks among the top 20 FBS college football programs in terms of all-time wins. The program boasts a rich history filled with remarkable coaches and players who have left an indelible mark on college football. This includes a significant number of College Football Hall of Fame inductees, consensus All-Americans, and Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees. Today, the Panthers are led by coach Pat Narduzzi.
Early Years and Rise to Prominence
Football at the University of Pittsburgh began in the fall of 1889, when the institution was still known as the Western University of Pennsylvania (WUP). College football at Pitt began its ascent to prominence when Arthur St. Leger Mosse took over as head coach.
Mosse's 1905 team, his last season in Pittsburgh, achieved a 10-2 record, outscoring opponents by a significant margin. His squads featured team captain Joe Thompson, who played for WUP from 1904 to 1906 and later became the head coach in 1909. Thompson succeeded John A. Moorhead, who had facilitated the innovative use of numbers on football uniforms in 1908.
In 1908, the university changed its name to the University of Pittsburgh and soon became known as "Pitt." The following year, the Panther was officially adopted as the school's mascot.
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Thompson's coaching tenure lasted until 1912, during which he led the team to a 22-11-2 record. A highlight of his time was the 1910 season, where Pitt, guided by star fullback Tex Richards, achieved its second undefeated season. Notably, the 1910 team remained unscored upon, outscoring opponents 282-0, leading many to consider them the national champions of that season.
Winning continued under coach Joseph Duff, including an 8-1 record in 1914, establishing the university as a regional power.
The Pop Warner Era: National Recognition
In 1914, Pitt made a significant move by hiring Pop Warner as head coach. Warner's arrival instantly elevated the program's national profile, transforming it from a regional contender to a national force.
Warner's impact was immediate. Led by center Robert Peck, Pitt's first First Team All-American, and All-American end James Pat Herron, Warner's first Pitt team in 1915 achieved an undefeated 8-0 record, shutting out five opponents. Football historian Parke H. Davis lauded them as the national champions of that season.
The following season mirrored that success, with another 8-0 record and a consensus national championship. The 1916 team featured Herron and Peck, as well as All-Americans Andy Hastings and "Tiny" Thornhill. The team also included Jock Sutherland and H.C. "Doc" Carlson, who would later become legendary coaches in football and basketball, respectively.
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The 1917 team, known as "The Fighting Dentists," finished 10-0 despite losing players to military service during World War I.
The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 disrupted the college football season. Pitt played all its games in November, including a notable War Charities benefit game against undefeated Georgia Tech, coached by John Heisman. Pitt triumphed 32-0 in front of prominent sportswriters.
For the 1921 season, Pitt made college football history on October 8, 1921. Harold W.
The Jock Sutherland Years: Continued Dominance
A natural successor to Pop Warner was Jock Sutherland, Warner's former All-American guard. Sutherland's second season marked the Panthers' debut in the newly constructed Pitt Stadium. The team achieved an 8-1 record and won the 1925 Eastern Championship.
The following year, Gibby Welch led the nation in rushing, helping Pitt secure the Eastern Championship and its first Rose Bowl appearance in 1927.
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Pitt's 1931 team finished 8-1 with six shutouts, including a 40-0 victory over Nebraska. That season also saw Pitt defeat Penn State in State College, using only one first-string player, by a score of 41-6 en route to winning the Eastern Championship. These accomplishments led Parke Davis to again name the Panthers national champions. Pitt followed up with the 1932 Eastern Championship and their third Rose Bowl appearance.
One of the greatest periods in Pitt football history occurred during the 1936 and 1937 seasons, featuring Heisman Trophy candidate and Hall of Fame running back Marshall Goldberg. In 1936, Pitt shut out five opponents, won the Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy as Eastern Champions, and ranked third in the Associated Press Poll. Pitt defeated Washington 21-0 in the Rose Bowl, leading many selectors to name Pitt as the 1936 national champions.
However, tensions arose between Sutherland and the university administration, partly due to the university's refusal to provide pocket money for players during the Rose Bowl trip.
Pitt followed up the Rose Bowl-winning 1936 season with a 9-0-1 record in 1937, including five shutouts, another Eastern Championship, and a number one ranking in the AP's final poll. During this time, Pitt regularly dominated opponents, even leading Notre Dame to drop Pitt from its schedule.
However, in 1937, the university began implementing policies to de-emphasize its athletic programs, restricting practices, discouraging alumni involvement, and eliminating recruiting and all subsidization of athletics. These policies marked the beginning of the end for that era of Pitt football prominence.
Despite this, the Panthers still impressed during the 1938 season with the "Dream Backfield." Sutherland, described as "a national hero," was perhaps the most admired coach in the university's history. During his 15-year tenure, he compiled a record of 111-20-12, including 79 shutouts.
The Post-Sutherland Era: Challenges and Revival Attempts
The policy of deemphasis resulted in a decline in Pitt's football fortunes, with a succession of coaches with short tenures. In 1945, with new university chancellor Rufus Fitzgerald, athletic scholarships and recruiting were reinstated. However, substantial damage had already been done to the football program. During this era, Pitt's first African-American player, Jimmy Joe Robinson, led the team in receiving and rushing.
Walter "Mike" Milligan brought Pitt back to winning records in 1948 and 1949, achieving consecutive 6-3 seasons that included appearances in the national rankings and back-to-back shutouts of Penn State.
In 1955, Pitt sought a return to its previous success by hiring John Michelosen, a quarterback on Jock Sutherland's 1936 and 1937 championship teams. Michelosen immediately brought Pitt football back to respectability with the 1955 Eastern Championship, capped by an appearance in the 1956 Sugar Bowl. Pitt's invitation to the Sugar Bowl was surrounded by controversy because Pitt, an integrated team, was the first to bring an African-American, Bobby Grier, to play in a southeastern bowl game in the segregated Deep South.
Four additional winning seasons followed against formidable national schedules. The 1963 team, led by All-American Paul Martha, swept through a schedule with the only loss of the season was in late October at Navy, which would finish the season ranked second in the nation. The Panthers, at 7-1 and ranked fourth in the nation, headed into their rivalry against Penn State with a chance to play for a national championship. However, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, the game was postponed. The bowls, which feared inviting Pitt before their season finale against Penn State, signed other teams, leaving Pitt without a bowl invitation despite defeating the Nittany Lions, and ending the season with a 9-1 record.
In eleven seasons at Pitt, Michelosen achieved a 56-49-7 record with only 4 losing campaigns. Pitt finished ranked among the top twenty programs in four seasons with Michelosen at the helm. Michelosen was a major coaching influence on such modern day NFL coaching greats as Mike Ditka and Marty Schottenheimer, both of whom played at Pitt under Michelosen.
The Johnny Majors and Jackie Sherrill Era: National Championship Glory
University Chancellor Wesley Posvar took action to revive the football program and hired Johnny Majors in 1973. Majors immediately upgraded the recruiting, most notably bringing in future Heisman Trophy winner Tony Dorsett. Majors' impact was immediate and the Panthers their first bowl bid since 1956 when they were invited to play Arizona State in the 1973 Fiesta Bowl. Improvements continued with each season setting the stage was thus set for the 1976 edition of the Panthers to make a run for the national championship.
The Panthers finished the regular season 11-0, and in December, Dorsett became the first Pitt Panther to win the Heisman Trophy as the nation's best college football player. Dorsett also won the Maxwell Award, the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award, and was named UPI Player of the Year. Pitt accepted an invitation to the 1977 Sugar Bowl to face fourth ranked Georgia and defeated the Bulldogs 27-3 and was voted number one in both the final Associated Press and Coaches polls, claiming their ninth national championship. This was Pitt's first undefeated national championship since 1937. The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) named Majors the 1976 Coach of the Year.
Jackie Sherrill, who had been an assistant under Majors, succeeded Majors as head coach at Pitt. Under Sherrill, the winning continued with a 9-2-1 record and Gator Bowl win in 1977 and an 8-4 record in 1978. Sherrill stockpiled future NFL talent including Pittsburgh's own quarterback Dan Marino, Hall of Fame inductee Russ Grimm, and Outland Trophy winner Mark May. Sherrill also molded a devastating defense that was anchored at the defensive end position manned by Hall of Fame inductee Rickey Jackson and Heisman Trophy runner-up Hugh Green, who had the highest finish in the Heisman voting by a defensive player until 1997.
1979 began a string of three straight seasons with 11-1 records. However, an early loss at North Carolina in 1979, a midseason loss during a driving rainstorm at Florida State in 1980, and a devastating season-ending defeat at the hands of rival Penn State in 1981 prevented those teams from clinching an AP or Coaches poll national championship. In each of these three seasons, Pitt rebounded to win a bowl game: the Fiesta, Gator, and Sugar Bowls respectively. Sherrill's teams at Pitt are considered by some to be among the most talented in Pitt and college football history. The 1980 Pitt team alone featured seven first round draft picks, 23 players who went on to start in the NFL, seven others who played in the NFL, and one player each who played in the CFL and the USFL.
In five seasons, Sherrill's Panthers won 50 games, lost nine, and tied one (50-9-1), which places his 0.842 winning percentage at the top of the list for all Pitt coaches, just ahead of Jock Sutherland.
The Big East Era and Beyond
Pitt continued success in the second half of the 1980s under head coach Mike Gottfried, and in 1991, joined the new Big East Football Conference, thus ending its history as a football independent, however coaching changes led to its football fortunes turning for the worse. In 1993, the university again looked to its past and brought back Johnny Majors. However, recruiting had fallen off significantly, and the quality of Pitt's football facilities had fallen behind those of its competition.
Walt Harris replaced Majors in 1997 and took Pitt to the 1997 Liberty Bowl in his first season. At the same time, the university administration began addressing the facility situation starting with the opening of a football practice facility, the UPMC Sports Performance Complex. In lieu of much-needed but cost-prohibitive renovations to modernize Pitt Stadium, the administration made a controversial decision to move home games to the newly proposed North Shore stadium, later named Acrisure Stadium, and to demolish Pitt Stadium.
1999 was the final season for the Panthers in Pitt Stadium, which had served Pitt for 75 seasons. Behind an increasing number of talented players, led by Biletnikoff Award winner Antonio Bryant, Pitt including a 12-0 defeat of rival Penn State. Additional bowl games and national rankings followed over the next four seasons. Overall Harris led the Panthers to a bowl game in six of his eight seasons, including five consecutive bowl games from 2000 through 2004, with bowl victories in 2001 and, led by Biletnikoff and Walter Camp Award winner Larry Fitzgerald, in 2002. Harris also led Pittsburgh to a share of the Big East Conference championship and a Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Fiesta Bowl bid in 2004. Harris was named the Big East Conference Coach of the Year in 1997 and 2004, and he was the AFCA Region I Coach of the Year in 2002. Over his eight years at Pitt, from 1997 to 2004, Harris compiled an overall record of 52-44.
Dave Wannstedt, a Pittsburgh area native and former Pitt player, succeeded Harris as Pitt's head coach on December 23, 2004. Known for his recruiting…
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