When Penn State joined the Big Ten in football in 1993, it did not take too long before the Nittany Lions won a conference championship and made a trip to the Rose Bowl. The 1994 season saw Penn State go undefeated in the regular season with spotlight wins on the road at Michigan, a blowout of Ohio State, and a memorable come-from-behind victory on the road at Illinois. With a clean 11-0 record, Penn State hoped to make a final statement for national championship consideration from the polls as Nebraska was also running through its schedule without a loss that same season. And before the BCS came into existence, Penn State being contractually obligated to play in the Rose Bowl as the Big Ten champion meant there would be no true national championship game.
So a trip to the Rose Bowl to face a surprising Pac-10 champion in the Oregon Ducks would have to do. Penn State’s high-powered offense wasted no time having an impact against the Ducks as Ki-Jana Carter raced 83-yards up the middle for a touchdown on the first offensive play from scrimmage for the Nittany Lions, and the game was hardly in much doubt from there. Despite a plucky effort from Oregon and quarterback Danny O’Neil’s Rose Bowl record 456 yards (this record held until 2022 when Ohio State quarterback CJ Stroud passed for 573 passing yards… against Utah), Penn State pulled away in the second half for a 38-20 victory after only leading 14-7 at halftime.
Penn State celebrated its first, and to this date only, Rose Bowl victory and the accomplishment of completing a 12-0 season. Although Nebraska is formally recognized as the national champions for the 1994 season, there was no better way to end the year for Penn State than in the Grandaddy of them all.
Here is a look back at some of the best photos from the 1995 Rose Bowl to close out the 1994 season.