Sport: No. 1 and Still Climbing

For Penn State, once football's Avis, winning never Hertz

How good can a college football team be and still not rank No. 1 in the nation? Let Penn State count the ways. It has had 27 consecutive winning seasons and 40 straight years at .500 or better (both modern N.C.A.A. records). Its coach of 13 years, Joe Paterno, boasts the highest winning percentage (.833) of anyone still sending in signals after ten years of major college football warfare, including three unbeaten and untied seasons capped by victories in a major bowl (1968, 1969 and...

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