The Penn State–Pitt rivalry was always huge for our team but especially for me: I had committed to Pitt, my hometown school, but after they made a coaching change, I decided to attend Penn State instead. During the 1954 Penn State–Pitt football game at Pitt Stadium, I threw a touchdown pass to Jack Sherry ’55 Lib for the game’s first touchdown in our 13-0 win on a rainy afternoon. Another Nittany Lion varsity athlete, wrestler Johnny Johnston ’58, ’61 MEd Edu—who went on to coach the wrestling team at Princeton for nearly 30 years and was president of the National Wrestling Coaches Association—was a freshman at the time and part of the contingent of visiting students who rushed the field. They tore down one of the goalposts, and he retained a section of it. Fifty years later, in 2004, Johnny met up with me at a homecoming game and gave me the section of goalpost, a wonderful keepsake from a win 

I’ll always relish—our third straight shutout against the Panthers.

Bobby Hoffman lettered in football and men’s basketball, helping the Nittany Lions to their only Final Four appearance in 1954.

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