Lost in the over four decades of Joe Paterno's career is victory number 373.  You won't find it mentioned in Penn State's football records or in their media guides.   It's been lost in time, but it really exists.  It happened on December 31, 1972 versus Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl.   On the field, it was a 14-0 Oklahoma victory over a flu-depleted Penn State team.  In reality, the Lions victory came in March of 1973, when OU was forced to forfeit 7 wins from the '72 season, including the Sugar Bowl, for using ineligible players.   When the forfeits were announced, Joe Paterno was gracious, saying that his team "knew who won the Sugar Bowl."  And, Penn State has never counted the win, nor even marked the game with an asterisk.  Thus, it has been largely forgotten.

Why does it matter now?

Funny you should ask.   It matters only for purposes of a fair comparison between the two winningest coaches in NCAA Division One-A football history.  You see, Bowden and Florida State also have a forfeit victory... a game that they count in both the school's and Bowden's career victory totals.   Check out the FSU media guide to see for yourself.   On September 17, 1983, the Noles lost on the field to Tulane, 34-28.  But, you will also find an asterisk by that result.  Tulane later forfeited the game to FSU, and if you check the records for the '83 season, you'll see that five on-field losses and 7 on-field wins have added up to an 8-4 record for both the Noles and Bowden. 

To be fair, there is nothing wrong with this.  However, if Bobby can count his forfeit win over Tulane, shouldn't Joe get to count his forfeit win over Oklahoma (even if it seems that Joe doesn't want to)?

So you see... the REAL SCORE is BOWDEN 373, PATERNO 373... (or 372-372, if you don't think the forfeits should be counted as wins)...

It's time to set the record straight.

(Although, I'm sure both Joe and Bobby would say this is much ado about nothing.)