Who doesn’t love Penn State sports?

Athletics is one of the backbones of the culture at Penn State. The Nittany Lions have been good in pretty much every sport for a long time, so we here Onward State thought we’d draft our favorite teams from the school’s history.

To keep things interesting, each person could only draft one team from each sport. That way, there weren’t too many football or women’s volleyball entries.

Here’s the draft we came up with:

Now that you’ve seen the whole draft board, let’s hear from each team captain.

Team Ben

With the first overall pick, I had to go with 2016 football. Beating Ohio State, winning the Big Ten Championship, and putting on a show in the Rose Bowl was so incredible to watch.

For my next pick, I went with 1954 men’s basketball. The team made the Final Four that year, putting on one of the best seasons on record for Penn State basketball.

With the next pick, I went with 2022-23 men’s hockey. This was an excellent year for the hockey team, and I remember following it during my senior year of high school. The team made the Frozen Four that year.

To close out my picks for the draft, I went with 2018-19 wrestling and 2015 men’s soccer. These teams both won the championship in their respective years, showing hard work, determination, and grit.

Team Mikey

I was shocked to see that with Ben’s first pick, he didn’t spring for one of the two Penn State national championship football teams. I was quick to pick up the undefeated 1986 football team. With my second pick, knowing there were plenty of good wrestling and volleyball teams to choose from, I chose the 2015 women’s soccer team, the only Penn State soccer team to win a national title in the NCAA era.

In rounds three and four, I picked the 2009 women’s volleyball team and the 2017-18 wrestling team. Both of these teams won the national championship in their respective years and were completely dominant.

In the fifth round, I picked a personal favorite: 2021 men’s soccer. This was my freshman year, and this season I went to every single home game for the team, including when they won the Big Ten Tournament to clinch their first double in program history. I rounded out my draft with the 2000-01 men’s basketball teams, one of the better teams in the history of the program.

Team Michael

This was the draft beat’s first draft in about a month, so I had to shake off the rust, but being in the No. 3 spot made that easier. 1986 football was taken off the board before I was up, which I expected to happen with the first overall pick. So, I went with the other national championship-winning football team: 1982. That team went 11-1 before eventually beating then-No. 1 Georgia in the national championship, so it was a no-brainer.

In round two, I took 2008 women’s volleyball, another team that won a national championship. It was also a squad that went 38-0 and 114-2 in individual sets, sweeping every regular season opponent. Pretty good if you ask me.

In the third round, I took 2022-23 wrestling. You can’t go wrong with most years of Penn State wrestling, but the 2022-23 team that won a national championship was an exceptionally good one.

I took women’s basketball’s only Final Four team in school history, 1999-2000, in the fourth round. With a 30-5 overall record, the Lady Lions finished the season on top of the Big Ten and in the No. 6 spot in the final AP Poll. Then, round five brought me to 2019 men’s lacrosse. The 2023 team that was picked in the previous round also went to the Final Four, but 2019’s squad had the better record, going 16-2 and finishing No. 1 in the conference.

In the last round, I took a real sleeper: 1979 women’s bowling. The team won a national championship. Can’t beat that.

Team Aidan

My first-round pick fell all the way down to me at pick four, 2023-24 wrestling. This wrestling team was undoubtedly the greatest wrestling team ever in the sport. In round two, I selected 2022-23 men’s basketball. Unlike many other teams on this list with championships, this team brought so much joy to the school after years of a struggling program.

In round three, I snagged the 2014 women’s volleyball team. I was never worried about which women’s volleyball team would fall to me considering how many national titles the program has won. My next pick was an NCAA Tournament quarterfinals team in 2003-04 women’s basketball.

My final selection was the 1994 football team. One of the most talented teams in program history, I saved it for the last round as the others selected a football team with their first-round picks.