I am a longtime Pitt football fan, from the vindictive Southern officials in Pitt’s ’50s Sugar Bowl games, through the 9-1 ‘63 season, the woeful following decade until the arrival of Johnny Majors, Jackie Sherrill, Jimmy Johnson and all the good local coaches, foremost, Foge Fazio, Junkos, et al.
We had up and downs over the decades, to the present team, good, not top 10, good, not HOF coaches. Good teams excited me; mediocre, bad ones kept me interested for a turn-around.
But the University of Pittsburgh has never sold its soul just for football success; it remains a premier university with major college football. Our Pennsylvania taxpayer-supported PSU is a football team, football stadium, football town annexed to it, and by the way, a university. Few of the general public are aware of the excellence of Penn State, only those alums, their families and the research/academic community. Shameful!
I am grateful for the Pitt administration’s integrity; I am a proud, successful grad for having a Pitt education, degree, and do not want to do a Faustian deal to have a national football championship.
I hope all Pitt people stand by this: “It’s only a football game!”
Dale Anthony Kennedy
Plum