Penn defensive tackle Tom Gilmore tackles Columbia's running back Al Gonzalez during the game at Franklin Field on Oct. 8, 1984 (Photo by David A. Fields).
As the fall sports season heats up, we're taking a look back at some of the memorable moments from this week in Penn sports history.
Women’s Soccer: Most goals scored in an Ivy League game (6) in 6-0 win at Cornell
In 2008, Penn women’s soccer was hoping to repeat the success it had enjoyed during its 2007 Ivy League Championship season. The Quakers returned every starter from their 2007 squad, yet the team struggled in non-conference play and entered conference play at .500.
Although the team did not measure up to its 2007 season, it did break records in an early-season matchup at Cornell. In a 6-0 shutout of the Big Red, Penn scored the most goals in an Ivy League game in program history. Key in making that record-breaking performance happen were the Quakers’ underclassmen. The impact of Penn’s freshmen wasn’t just limited to that game, either. Through the team’s first ten games of that 2008 season, Penn’s newcomers scored 11 of the team’s 26 goals.
While that victory over Cornell put Penn back on track for its season-long goals, the Quakers won just two more games that season, leaving this record as one of the notable highlights of the year.
Sprint Football: Penn single-game passing record with 429 yards against Army
At the beginning of Penn sprint football’s 2009 season, the Quakers were on a roll, winning their first three games and scoring a combined 106 points in the latter two.
Game number four, however, would prove to be a much stronger challenge, as Penn faced an Army team that it would share the Collegiate Sprint Football League (CSFL) title with the following season.
Penn traveled to West Point, N.Y. for the matchup, led by sophomore quarterback Todd Busler. Behind their young signal-caller, the Quakers fell 35-26, kickstarting a three-game losing streak that would plague the 2009 team, which finished 4-3.
Busler finished the game with 429 passing yards, the only time a Penn sprint football quarterback has ever thrown for 400 or more yards in a single game. Primarily assisting Busler was sophomore wide receiver Whit Shaw, who totaled nine catches for 274 yards and two touchdowns, one of which for 76 yards.
Shaw’s performance marked the second-most receiving yards in a game by a Penn sprint football receiver, and Shaw’s 886 yards on the season are the most in a single campaign in the program’s history.
In addition to the October 2009 contest at Army, Busler holds the next two slots on the list of most single-game passing yards, occurring in back-to-back weeks during his senior season. The next closest person to Busler’s 429-yard record comes 75 yards away from matching it.
Football: Penn smokes Columbia amidst battle for Ivy League three-peat, aided by twin receiver brothers
Thirty-eight years ago this week, Penn football dominated Columbia 35-7 in what was described as a “whitewashing” at the time. It was an impressive effort on both sides of the ball, as the Quakers scored five touchdowns on offense and did not allow the Lions to cross midfield until the third quarter. It was described as an all-around team effort where three-fourths of the 117-man roster played a snap, and quarterback Jim McGeehan delivered a characteristically sterling performance through the air.
Two of his key targets that afternoon were identical twin brothers Pat and Warren Buehler, who were both enjoying breakout seasons. Warren had contributed as a freshman, including making a crucial catch in the legendary 1982 Harvard game, but was limited by injuries during his sophomore season. Pat served mostly a reserve role in his first two seasons as he was transitioning out of his high school position of quarterback. But coming into this game, both were key players, with Warren particularly shining with six catches for 157 yards and two scores through two weeks.
McGeehan spoke very highly of the duo at the time, but he even admitted to having trouble discerning between the similarly-talented twins sometimes.
“It was a lot easier to tell them apart when they parted their hair on different sides,” McGeehan told The Daily Pennsylvanian in 1984.
The 28-point victory in Week 3 was typical of Penn’s season that year, as they mostly blew through Ivy League competition in an 8-1 season that saw the Quakers finally claim an outright conference title after two years of sharing it. This year, Penn has started the season similarly and is certainly hoping to end it on the same note.
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