UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — With this weekend’s Blue-White Game, which is expected to draw tens of thousands of fans and visitors, we take a look at the history of the annual spring football scrimmage.
The Blue-White Game got its start 73 years ago, following the Penn State football team’s first season under Coach Rip Engle. Engle came to Penn State from Brown University in 1950, leading the Nittany Lions to a 5-3-1 record in his first year and coaching the team until 1965.
Like in past years, Penn State faced off against other teams for their spring scrimmages — Navy on April 14 and Bucknell two weeks later. Then, Engle was asked to play an intrasquad scrimmage sponsored by the Alumni Association to benefit the scholarship fund.
On May 5, 1951, Penn State football players were split into Blue and White teams to face off against each other in the first-ever Penn State intersquad match. Approximately 500 fans attended the game — which was held on the State College High School Memorial Field due to new grass having just been planted on the team’s home turf at New Beaver Field. As reported by The Daily Collegian, general admission was $1 and 50 cents for students, with proceeds benefiting a Penn State scholarship fund.
The Blue and White teams, each led by a student captain, faced off for a chance to win an old water bucket trophy, and the scrimmage was the culmination of a five-week spring training program. In 1951, the Blue team won the coveted prize with a 7-0 victory. For the next four years, the spring game would be unofficially known as “The Bucket Bowl.”
Read more about the history of the Blue-White game in this 2010 article from Penn State Athletics.
Find more information about the 2024 Blue-White Game, which will kick off at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 13, in this Penn State News story.