Part I: Entry into the Big Ten
By Michael Bezilla
University Relations
Editor's note: Bryce Jordan served from 1983 to 1990 as Penn State's 14th president. Now president emeritus, he lives in retirement in Austin, Texas. As part of the University's sesquicentennial observance, we asked him to reflect on some of the key issues that made his presidency unique. In part one, he discusses Penn State's entry into the Big Ten conference. Composed mostly of public land-grant universities, the Big Ten is one of the nation's most respected and successful collegiate athletic conferences. It has emphasized the importance of academics in the lives of student-athletes ever since its founding in 1896. Its academic counterpart, the Committee on Institutional Cooperation -- CIC -- promotes collaboration in such varied areas as research, scholarly publishing, and study abroad.
"I was concerned that we didn't fully realize what a wonderful institution we were," said Bryce Jordan, as he recalled some of his first impressions about Penn State after being named its 14th president in the fall of 1982. Jordan then was executive vice chancellor for the University of Texas system. For the next several months -- before he officially assumed his new duties on July 1, 1983 -- he commuted to University Park on weekends while wrapping up his responsibilities in Texas. During that time he came to realize, perhaps because of his outsider's perspective, that while Penn State was an academic powerhouse, "we did not appreciate how good we really were."
"I started thinking very early on -- while I was still commuting every weekend -- about ways to change that, to bolster our academic prestige," he said. That's when the idea of having Penn State join the Big Ten conference occurred to him.
"Penn State was academically a Big Ten-type of school, but it was not playing its academic peers. I thought we should be playing our academic peers," he continued, pointing out that the Nittany Lions perennial football opponents included many institutions of primarily regional impact and visibility. "Who would not want to be in the same league with nationally recognized schools like the University of Michigan? Northwestern? Even the University of Chicago, which was not on the athletic schedule but was a member of the CIC."
Perhaps Head Football Coach Joe Paterno would not. "Joe was not enthusiastic about my candidacy for the presidency. He couldn't imagine a music historian from the state of Texas heading Penn State. He was hoping for someone really well known -- someone whose picture would be on the cover of Time magazine, as he later told me," Jordan explained with a chuckle.
But the two men soon came to terms and developed a good relationship. Paterno favored any plan that would help the University win greater academic recognition, and "got on board pretty quickly with the idea of joining the Big Ten," Jordan noted. "I did not have to give him a sales pitch at all, nor did I have to convince the Board of Trustees."
"However, some of the faculty thought I was glorifying athletics, so I made a speech to the Faculty Senate in which I essentially said, 'Look, the Big Ten is the only athletic conference where every member has qualified as a member of the Association of American Universities (the nation's most prestigious group of graduate and research institutions). Not even the Ivy League can claim that.'"
Most of the reluctance from the Penn State side to join the Big Ten came from alumni. "Some people feared we would no longer play our traditional opponents. I recall that wrestling fans, for example, did not want Penn State to lose the chance to wrestle Lehigh University and some of our longtime opponents among the state-owned universities."
Such misgivings were minor compared to the reaction of a few Big Ten university presidents, coaches and athletic directors, who raised "vehement objections," said Jordan. Perhaps the most public was Indiana Hoosiers' basketball coach Bobby Knight, who decried the alleged geographic isolation of the University Park campus and likened a visit there to "a camping trip." More thoughtful critics pointed out that travel times and expenses could swell for Midwestern teams playing a Mid-Atlantic rival.
"The geographic issue was mostly a cover," Jordan insisted. "I've always thought the real objection was related to the fact that Penn State athletics was flying high, especially in football (with national championships in 1982 and 1986), and some people were concerned about the intensity of the competition.
"I thought all along that the Big Ten would add a 12th school after Penn State's entry, and that would lessen the geographic issue. There was even some talk of adding my own alma mater, the University of Texas. The conference could divide north and south into six teams."
That did not happen. But Penn State was invited to join the Big Ten in the fall of 1989 and over the next four years integrated its athletic programs into the new conference schedules. Jordan credited Stanley Ikenberry, then president of the University of Illinois and chair of the conference's Council of Ten (and a former Penn State senior vice president) with convincing a majority of his colleagues that Penn State would be a good fit.
And the results? "Well," Jordan said with a laugh, "Coach Paterno did later complain to me -- mildly -- about the intensity of the competition."
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For a biographical sketch of Bryce Jordan, visit http://www.libraries.psu.edu/speccolls/psua/psgeneralhistory/presidents/jordan.htm online. For photos from the Jordan years, go to http://live.psu.edu/still_life/2005_09_22_jordan/ online. To view the Bryce Jordan retrospective Web site, go to http://www.sesquicentennial.psu.edu/2005_jordan/ online.