New Beaver Field as seen in a postcard from the Tichnor Brothers Collection. (See postcards from Lebanon in this collection here .)

3 min read

45 views and 355 shares

Posted September 10, 2019

When we saw a tweet about Penn State’s biggest blowout ever, it was clear — LebTown had to cover this.

It was new trivia for me, a lifelong Penn Stater and Lebanon Countian.


Penn State’s biggest blowout ever took place against none other than Lebanon Valley College. That’s right, our Lebanon Valley College.

Penn State's 79 points vs. Idaho rank tied for No. 6 all-time:



109 – Lebanon Valley College (109-7), 1920

99 – St. Bonaventure (99-0), 1917

82 – Susquehanna (82-0), 1926

81 – Cincinnati (81-0), 1991

80 – Gettsyburg (80-0), 1917

79 – Geneva (79-0), 1916

79 – Idaho (79-7), 2019 — Mike Poorman (@PSUPoorman) August 31, 2019

Mike Poorman writes at StateCollege.com, where his Penn State column is one of the most well-read on the beat.


Read More: Penn State’s 79-7 Blowout of Idaho: This Spud’s for You (StateCollege.com)

Where was this game though? Did it make the Daily News? Your editor had to find out.


The game was held in State College at New Beaver Field (located on the site of today’s Kern Building). In this 1924 archival image, the original Old Main building, Schwab Auditorium, Carnegie Building, the Armory, and Irvin Hall can be seen. All but the original Old Main building and the Armory stand to this day.

With the headline Lebanon Val. Trounced by Penn State, the un-bylined article showcases the verve of newspaper journalism at this time:

Hobey Light’s Lebanon Valley team was slammed 109 to 7 on Saturday by Penn State at State College. When the score first reached here it was disregarded. Some of the wise ones declared that the message got mixed up with a political story to the Sunday morning newspapers, and the figures were thought to be estimates of the Harding plurality in the electoral college. Later, however, it (the football score) was confirmed, the only balm accompanying the sad news being that Lebanon Valley had treated their opponents mighty rough, while the blue and white eleven were piling up the score.”


According to the report, Penn State coach Hugo Bezdek gave all players time in the game, with even the third team proving “unstoppable.” Lebanon Valley scored the first touchdown of the game, but following that Penn State kept possession and was not forced to punt the entire game.

Read More: Former Penn State Sports Legend Hugo Bezdek Was A Man Of Many Talents (Onward State)

The more buttoned-up Lebanon Evening Report noted that, “the game was too one-sided to be of any interest, and the only enthusiasm shown occurred in the last period, when the Nittany rooters began to call for their team to run its total up to 100.”

And what about in State College?


GRIDIRON TEAMS SCORE OVERWHELMING VICTORIES, shouted the Penn State Collegian front page that week.

“The Lebanon colleginus were powerless at the hands of the heavier, more experienced, and better fitted Nittanyites and offered little resistance to any of the three different Penn State lineups that were on the field.”

The paper noted that the only surprise of the game was the scoring of the first touchdown by LVC.


So, there you have it: The inside story of Penn State’s 109-7 blowout of LVC.

By the way, we have one more piece of Penn State/Lebanon Valley trivia for the road. We might write more about this later on, but Lebanon lawyer Jack Ferry shared something on Facebook that was new to us: The stone at the top of the Penn State Obelisk is from our very own Mt. Gretna.

Head over to Onward State if you want to read the full legend of the Penn State Obelisk, and if there’s any other Penn State/Lebanon Valley mashup stories you think we should cover, drop us a message using the form below.


Thanks for reading LebTown!

Our stories are free to read thanks to the support of our members and advertisers.



Join LebTown as an annual member and you’ll reserve a mug of your own, plus all the usual benefits!



Learn more and join now here.