The Penn State football team was literally stuck in Chicago overnight Saturday when the right rear wheels of its chartered airplane went off a runway at Midway Airport and became stuck in mud.
No injuries were reported when the jetliner, which a team spokesman said was operated by Florida-based Planet Air, ran off the runway as it taxied. The Nittany Lions were returning to State College, Pa., after beating Northwestern 38-35 and giving coach Joe Paterno his 323rd win, tying Bear Bryant for most major-college victories.
After a two-hour wait at Midway, team officials scrambled and found more than 50 rooms at nearby hotels for the 110-member traveling party. The team returned to the airport Sunday morning and arrived back on campus at 10:30 a.m. Central Daylight Time, almost 14 hours late.
“Everybody was fine,” Penn State athletic department spokesman Jeff Nelson said Sunday from State College. “They just wanted to get home. Fortunately, everybody was in a pretty good mood. That helped significantly.”