Taking a look back at the 1976 Pitt Panthers Championship Team

In the city of Pittsburgh, you will find several universities but the one that gets the most attention, especially when it comes to football, are the Panthers from the University of Pittsburgh. Pitt, as they are well known, has won five recognized NCAA national titles, the first coming in 1910 and the last in 1976. 

It has been 48 years since that amazing 1976 12-0 season when Head Coach Johnny Majors led Pitt to the Sugar Bowl to take the national crown, a victory over the University of Georgia sealing the deal by a score of 27-3. Looking back at the five national titles, four of those seasons saw the Panthers not losing a single game.

Majors and his squad, as indicated, went 12-0 in 1976. The very first recognized national championship team in 1910 finished with a record of 9-0 led by Head Coach Joseph Thompson. However, Pitt shared that title with Harvard University which posted a record of 8-0-1.

Six years later Pitt won the national title outright as Pop Warner’s team finished 8-0. In a shortened season two years later, Warner won it again playing just five games and winning four of them but had to share the title with the University of Michigan. Another 19 years would pass before Jock Sutherland led the Panthers to a 9-0-1 record and finished the season uncontested as the NCAA champions winning nine of 10 games with one tie.

Then came that undefeated season in 1976, Pitt’s last national football title and Johnny Majors was carried off the field following the defeat of Georgia having completed a perfect season of 12-0. Earlier in the year the Pittsburgh Steelers had won their second consecutive Super Bowl, so the city of Pittsburgh was already in a frenzy and the baseball-playing Pirates had completed a successful season finishing 92-70 and in second place in the National League East division, nine games behind the front running Philadelphia Phillies. The Pittsburgh Penguins made the playoffs but got knocked out in the first round by the Toronto Maple Leafs in three straight games. 

With one championship for the year already in the books, the Pitt Panthers added a second even though the Sugar Bowl was played on New Year’s Day 1977. The Panthers manhandled nearly every opponent in their 12-victory run. It began with a thrashing of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on September 11, 1976, winning by a score of 31-10. Georgia Tech was no match a week later getting smashed 42-14. 

Temple University tried to make a game of it in week three losing 21-7 in front of 38.500 fans at old Pitt Stadium. In a shootout with Duke, Pitt prevailed on October 2, 44-31. Another lopsided score came next as Pitt defeated Louisville 27-6. Big-named schools followed the rest of the way as the Panthers dismantled the University of Miami at home 36-19. On the road, Pitt shut out the Naval Academy 45-0. 

Syracuse University managed to stay within 10 points on October 30 falling 23-13. With only three games remaining on the regular season schedule, the Panthers returned home on November 6 to manhandle Army by a score of 37-7. A week later came the annual “Backyard Brawl” with West Virginia University and a brawl it was at Pitt Stadium with the Panthers prevailing 24-16. 

The final game of the season pitted two teams against each other back in the 1970s was a very bitter rivalry. Pitt vs. Penn State for Pennsylvania superiority. This time on November 26, 1976, it was the Panthers beating up Penn State in Three Rivers Stadium and not in their venue winning going away 24-7.

Now at 11-0, Pitt was all set up to win a national title needing to just defeat the Georgia Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on January 1, 1977. They did just that in an easy victory 27-3 as 76,117 fans looked on. The 1976 Panthers were loaded with talent. On offense, they were led by future Dallas Cowboy and Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Tony Dorsett. 

Pitt had a handful of outstanding players in 1976 and not just a man named Dorsett. There was quarterback Matt Cavanaugh, the Most Valuable Player in the Sugar Bowl who also went on to play in the NFL and become a coach. Jo Jo Heath was a capable running back. Randy Reutershan a fine wide receiver. Bob Jury covered opposing receivers at cornerback on defense. David Logan and Al Romano stuffed the other team’s running backs from the defensive line. 

At the end of the season, Dorsett won the Heisman Trophy and to this day is the only University of Pittsburgh player to win that coveted award. Johnny Majors was named Coach of the Year. 1976 would also be the last in Pittsburgh for Majors who in 1977 was named head coach of his alma mater, the University of Tennessee. For Tony Dorsett, that championship season saw him rush for 1,948 yards and finish his career in college with 6,082 yards on the ground, a then NCAA record. 

When the Panthers opened the season at Notre Dame who was ranked number 11 in the country heading into the contest, Tony Dorsett ran over and around the Irish defense for 181 yards on 22 attempts and scored once. A week later Dorsett scored three times facing Georgia Tech. On October 16, facing the Hurricanes out of Miami, Dorsett scored on runs of 40 and 53 yards and scored on another short burst of three yards.

Dorsett did one better facing Navy. In this game, he had blasts of 69 yards, 32 yards, and one more for six that all ended up in the end zone. In the “Backyard Brawl” against West Virginia, Dorsett torched the Mountaineers for a cool 199 yards scoring three times again. Not to be outdone the very next week against bitter rivals Penn State, number 33 finished with 38 carriers, 224 yards and two touchdowns. One of those touchdowns was for 40 yards. 

Finally, in the championship game against Georgia, Dorsett capped off what was an amazing career at Pitt by blowing through the Bulldogs’ defense for 202 yards and a touchdown. Dorsett would be drafted in the first round that year by the Dallas Cowboys with the second overall pick. The first pick in that selection process was by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who drafted Ricky Bell, also a running back out of USC.

In that 1976 season, Tony Dorsett’s per carry average at season’s end was an impressive 5.8 yards per carry. The year before his mark was 6.8. But his final 1,948 yards rushing for his senior year was his highest total in four years at Pitt. He also caught 38 passes for 404 yards or 10.6 yard per reception. That final season saw Dorsett reach the end zone an incredible 21 times. Starting quarterback Matt Cavanaugh, he would pass for 1,457 yards in 1976 and have a completion percentage of 57.6 with 11 touchdown passes. Jim Corbett, Gordon Jones, and Willie Taylor were the leading receivers.

Corbett caught 33 passes for 528 yards with two scores. Jones hauled in 18 passes for 306 yards and four touchdowns. Taylor added another 248 yards with three touchdowns all on just 14 receptions. Defensively, Bob Jury picked off an impressive 10 passes, Jeff Delaney added seven more, and Leroy Felder six to contribute to the team total of 28. Carson Long kicked 18 field goals on 26 tries and failed to miss a single extra point. Larry Swider had a punting average of 44.2 yards per kick.

In a tragic event, Jo Jo Heath a defensive back with the 1976 team was stabbed to death at the age of 45 on December 30, 2002, while in Charleroi, Pennsylvania. Matt Cavanaugh was drafted by the New England Patriots in 1978 and lasted 13 seasons in the NFL playing for four different teams before heading into coaching roles. Jim Corbett had a short career of four seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals. Gordon Jones had a decent five-year career with Tampa and the Rams catching 97 passes for 1,402 yards with the 1980 season being his best while playing for the Buccaneers where he caught 48 passes for 669 yards and five touchdowns. 



Of Pitt’s defenders, Jeff Delaney played five NFL seasons with Baltimore, Detroit, the Rams, and Tampa. As magnificent as his college career was Bob Jury played just one season in Seattle. Carson Long played one season with the Buffalo Bills but was drafted by the Rams in the 11th round of the 1977 draft only to be released before the start of the season and then signed by the Bills. Finally, there is punter Larry Swider who would play two years in Tampa, and one season each with the Lions and Rams. Like Long, he was drafted by the Denver Broncos but released before the 1977 season began. It took two years before he made it back to the NFL signed by Detroit.

The question remains now will the University of Pittsburgh ever reach the heights it did in 1976? In 2024 there were six players from Pitt drafted into the NFL but as a team, they finished 3-9 in 2023 and 9-4 the season before. 2021 was the Kenny Pickett year in which they won the ACC title. Their record was 11-3 and the last time they had lost three or fewer games dates back to 2009. In 1979, 1980, and 1981 the team had three consecutive seasons finishing 11-1 behind future Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino. All three seasons Pitt had finished in the top 10 national rankings.