The 1946 Penn State Nittany Lions football team was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team that represented

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

as an independent during the

1946 college football season The 1946 college football season was the 78th season of intercollegiate football in the United States. Competition included schools from the Big Ten Conference, the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC), the Southeastern Conference (SEC), the Big Six C ...

. In their 17th year under head coach Bob Higgins, the Nittany Lions compiled a 6–2 record and outscored opponents by a total of 192 to 48. Penn State halfback Maderak was selected by the

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as a second-team player on the 1946 All-Eastern football team. The team is notable for voting to cancel a scheduled game against the

Miami Hurricanes The Miami Hurricanes (known informally as The U, UM, or The 'Canes) are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The Hurricanes compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic A ...

rather than playing without African American players. The team played its home games in

New Beaver Field New Beaver Field was a stadium in University Park, Pennsylvania. It served as the third home of the Penn State University Nittany Lions American football, football team, hosting the team until they moved in 1960 to Beaver Stadium. It was built to r ...

State College, Pennsylvania State College is a home rule municipality in Centre County in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is a college town, dominated economically, culturally and demographically by the presence of the University Park campus of the Pennsylvania Sta ...

Schedule

The scheduled game against the Miami Hurricanes was cancelled in early November by unanimous vote of the Penn State team. Miami officials felt that Penn State fielding their African American players Wallace Triplett and Dennis Hoggard in Miami could have led to "unfortunate incidents", and the team chose to cancel the game rather than playing without Triplett and Hoggard. Miami reportedly invited

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to replace Penn State. This invitation was promptly declined and rebuked in an editorial in ''

The Daily Orange ''The Daily Orange'', commonly referred to as ''The D.O.'', is an independent student newspaper published in Syracuse, New York. It is free and published daily during the Syracuse University academic year. It was one of the first college papers ...

'', titled "No Thanks, Miami".

After the season

The 1947 NFL Draft was held on December 16, 1946. The following Nittany Lions were selected.

References

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

Penn State Nittany Lions football seasons

Penn State Nittany Lions football The Penn State Nittany Lions team represents the Pennsylvania State University in college football. The Nittany Lions compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision as a member of the Big Ten Conference, which they joined in 1993 afte ...

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