In '93, Penn's Stokes stole the show from Princeton's Elias

Terrance Stokes' 272 yards rushing led Penn to victory on Homecoming 1993. Chris Brassell likes to look back on the good old days. The former Penn wide receiver was a senior during one of the very best days. "One of my favorite long-sleeve T-shirts says 'Game of the Century,'" Brassell said. "It felt like that. We were both 7-0. Two undefeated teams hadn't played so late in the season and the history we were making was inspiring to anybody on the team." And that was just six years ago. In the week leading up to the 1993 Homecoming game between Penn and Princeton, Tigers running back Keith Elias was running his mouth almost as freely as he had run the ball in the opening games of the 1993 season -- he came to Philadelphia in the first week of November leading the Ivy League with 1,286 yards in seven games. Elias, whose Tigers had beaten Penn every year since 1988 -- the last year the Quakers had won an Ivy League title -- insulted everything about Penn and the football team in the week preceding the game, saying "half their team couldn't get in here [Princeton]" because "[Penn's] standards are lower." Elias even ripped his own teammates that week, fearful that "they [would] stay up all night trying to catch up on their work" instead of preparing for the game. Elias' insulting remarks were particularly tough for Penn to take because the previous year the Quakers had traveled to Princeton with one loss in the Ancient Eight needing a victory to ensure a tie for the league title. "There was a winning drive that we didn't convert," Penn quarterback Jim McGeehan said. "I used that prior season's game as a motivational pitch. We had five yards for a share of the title my junior year and we didn't get it done. That's what I carried into the game, and going in [with] both [teams] undefeated added to the excitement and drama at the time." The Quakers kept quiet during the week leading up to the 1993 game, maintaining a calm approach thanks in part to then-second year coach Al Bagnoli. "Our team was very businesslike," McGeehan said. "We approached the game like every other game and that was just the way Coach Bagnoli instructed us. There was a lot of hype because we were both undefeated, [but] it wasn't like a different game for us." That doesn't mean that the Quakers weren't as fired up for that game as for any game that any of them had ever played. It also didn't mean that Penn didn't take offense to what Elias had said. "There were a lot of things said by the Princeton players," Penn running back Terrance Stokes said. "We just wanted to do it on the field and leave all that other nonsense [behind]." Beyond all of the bad blood, and all of the past history between the two squads coming into the game, there was as intense an atmosphere in the actual events as there has been for any Penn game since the formation of the Ivy League in 1954. "You had two 7-0 teams going in it for the first time in God knows how many years," Bagnoli said. "We had close to 40,000 people in attendance. We had Sports Illustrated. Obviously you want to win that game, and that makes it special." It was even more special because of how the day unfolded. Rain struck the East Coast for the second consecutive Saturday. The previous week, Penn had battled through squalls at the Yale Bowl to defeat the Elis, 48-7. "I think that our offense was, as Coach [Dan] Staffieri would say, 'on all cylinders,'" McGeehan said. "We just played the game before at Yale in the rain and we scored 48 points. The seven games prior [to Princeton], our offense was the best in the league. Coach Bags had us focused." Princeton had struggled a bit more at home against Columbia, beating a hapless Lions team 14-3. On the slick artificial turf of Franklin Field, the Tigers -- used to playing on the Palmer Stadium grass -- literally dropped the ball. Princeton fumbled eight times, losing four to the Quakers defense. Their quarterback, Joel Foote, had a particularly tough time, in stark contrast to McGeehan. "I hated turf, but I had to learn to play on it," McGeehan said. "Joel? just wasn't used to the effect of a wet ball on turf. The grass gives it a natural feel, where the turf gives a slippery feeling to the ball." The man who had the least trouble with the ball that day, though, was certainly Stokes. "When you're a football player, you don't care about the conditions," Stokes said. "You just go out there and play." Stokes and the rest of the Penn offense did just that en route to a 30-14 victory that day over the Tigers. "Both offenses were good, both defenses were good," Stokes said. "The score was not indicative of the game. It was a really well-played game. We got some breaks. If they hadn't turned the ball over, who knows? But it was one of the best games I've been associated with at Penn." The Quakers had a dangerous and well-balanced offense in 1993. McGeehan was in line to become Penn's all-time passing yardage leader that week, regularly connecting with Brassell and sophomore Miles Macik. Stokes, meanwhile, had piled up 780 yards rushing in the season's first seven games. Princeton decided to try to stop the Penn air attack, setting up in nickel and dime defensive packages all afternoon. But Penn had other options -- namely Stokes, who carried the ball 42 times against the Tigers, racking up 272 yards. "I just thought I had carried it 25 times, about 150 yards," Stokes said. "When they announced [the statistics] over the PA system, I remember my eyes popping open like, 'Whoa! Did I just do this?'" Stokes did do it, and the 272 yards on the ground set a Penn record that still stands, despite strong challenges from Jim Finn last year at Brown and this year from Kris Ryan against Fordham. "We had probably the top two receivers [in the league] in Miles and Chris, and the weeks leading up they both had big games," Stokes said. "I was sort of an unknown commodity, even though I was No. 2. It was still Keith Elias' league and no running back could do his things. They played a lot of nickel and dime and we were able to exploit that." Although Penn's offense baffled the Tigers all day long, the defense may have been even better. Led by first team All-Ivy selections Andy Berlin, Dave Betten and Pat Goodwillie, the Quakers defense halted Elias' reign of terror, holding the arrogant back to just 59 yards on 15 carries. If not for an early 18-yard scamper, Elias would not even have outgained quarterback Foote, who had 44 yards on the ground. "We felt a little slighted because of the comments that were made," McGeehan said. "We felt vindicated when we shut him down, when the defense shut him down." In addition to more than quadrupling Elias' rushing total, Stokes made it into the end zone that day, something that Princeton's back was unable to do. For Stokes, who averaged 6.5 yards per carry on the day, the run that earned six points for Penn was his best of the day. "That was the score that put us up for good," Stokes said. "It was only a seven-yard run but it put us up for good, and I guess at that point, we knew we were going to win the game. We felt like that was confirmation, that we were going to get our [championship] rings now." Not only was Penn on its way to the title after that game, Stokes had clearly emerged from being an "unknown commodity" into being one of the top backs, if not the top back, in the Ivy League. "[Stokes] played as well as any running back has ever played at Penn that day," McGeehan said. "But he always had that ability in him. He just showed people how good he really was. It helped having the other weapons on the field, but the draw play was designed well, and he was breaking tackles and running, and he turned probably five-and-six-yard gains into 40-yard plays because of the caliber player that he is and was." Even though Stokes ran for all that yardage, nobody touched the end zone more in Penn's 30-14 win than Brassell, the fifth-year senior who was a good receiver but had been a secondary option in the air for most of the season to the sophomore Macik, who was on his way to the first of his three first-team All-Ivy selections. "I felt like the old wise man that year, not necessarily getting all the kudos, but I was comfortable with that," Brassell said. "It was really great to see Miles develop, and that was a fun experience. I just wanted to finish on a high note in my fifth year." McGeehan found Brassell five times for 90 yards against Princeton, including a 30-yard touchdown strike to open the scoring 1:44 into the game and an eight-yard score with 44 seconds remaining in the first half to give Penn a 21-7 lead at the intermission. "I had games with more yards, more catches," Brassell said. "I did have other two-touchdown games but it was the statistics and the atmosphere of the game that I guess would give it the edge being my best personal day. It was the perfect environment, both teams 7-0, 35,000 people, and being able to feel I contributed to the win led it to be my favorite day." Brassell recently had an opportunity to look back on his favorite day and the '93 season when many of his teammates joined him on one of his new favorite days -- Brassell was married on October 2. "Three of us were fifth-year seniors -- Dave [Betten], Frank [Caccuro, an offensive lineman and co-captain with Betten] and myself," Brassell said. "Jim McGeehan was in my wedding and a couple of other football players who didn't get to go fifth-year, they kind of curse me every time they see me because I can pull out that ring and we just got to relive memories of that season. It's nice, now I have two rings."