Penn State – West Virginia football rivalry The Penn State – West Virginia football rivalry is a dormant American college football rivalry game that was played by the Penn State Nittany Lions football team of Pennsylvania State University and the West Virginia Mountaineers football team of West Virginia University . The rivalry began in 1904 with a Penn State 34 - 0 victory . The last game of the rivalry came in 1992 , when Penn State won 40 - 26 . Penn State leads the all - time series with a record of 48 wins , 9 losses and 2 ties . Series history . 1904 – 50 . In 1904 , the West Virginia Mountaineers traveled to University Park to face the Penn State Nittany Lions for the first time . The Nittany Lions won the game , 34 - 0 . West Virginia traveled to University Park for 1905 , 1906 , 1908 , and 1909 matchups against Penn State ; all losses . In 1923 , after a 13 - year hiatus , the two schools met again on the football field at Yankee Stadium in New York City . The result was a 13 - 13 tie . In 1925 , the first game of the rivalry was played at Old Mountaineer Field in Morgantown , West Virginia . The game was also West Virginia ' s first victory of the rivalry , 14 - 0 . Six years later , 1931 , the next game of the series was again played at Morgantown , resulting in another Mountaineer victory . Nine years later , 1940 , the next game was played at Penn State , a Nittany Lion victory . In 1941 , the Lions won again 7 - 0 . In 1942 , the Mountaineers won at home to the score of 24 - 0 . The Lions won the next year 32 - 7 , but the Mountaineers upended them at home in 1944 , 28 - 27 . The next four matchups , up to 1950 , were all Penn State victories . 1951 – 83 . In 1951 and 1952 , Penn State beat the Mountaineers at home and at Old Mountaineer Field , respectively . In 1953 and 1954 , the Mountaineers upset the Nittany Lions at " New Beaver Field " , the Nittany Lions home since 1909 , 20 - 19 and 19 - 14 . In 1955 the Mountaineers won at home to the score of 21 - 7 . The Nittany Lion ' s ended West Virginia ' s three - game streak in 1956 with a 16 - 6 victory at home . They won 27 - 6 the next year , then there was a 14 - 14 tie in 1958 at Old Mountaineer Field . From 1959 to 1983 , Penn State posted a 25 - game win streak . The streak included victories of 44 - 6 in 1965 , 21 - 14 in 1967 , 31 - 20 in 1968 , 42 - 8 in 1970 , 62 - 14 in 1973 , 39 - 0 in 1975 , 33 - 0 in 1976 , 20 - 15 in 1980 , and 41 - 23 in 1983 . Penn State had consecutive victories over some of West Virginia ' s greatest quarterbacks , including Oliver Luck and Penn State - transfer Jeff Hostetler . Penn State went 15 - 5 - 1 in bowl games during this era . Joe Paterno also became the coach of the Lions in 1967 , while Don Nehlen became the coach of the Mountaineers in 1980 . 1984 – 92 . In 1984 , West Virginia broke the 25 - game win streak of Penn State in Morgantown , West Virginia , with a 17 - 14 upset . However , Penn State won the next three contests ; in 1985 and 1986 in shutouts and 1987 in a 25 - 21 contest . In 1988 , under lead of Mountaineers ' legend Major Harris , West Virginia beat the Nittany Lions 51 - 30 , en route to an undefeated regular season , also making the 1988 West Virginia Mountaineers the only team to score more than 50 points on any Joe Paterno coached Penn State squad . In 1989 , Penn State won 19 - 9 at Beaver Stadium . Penn State followed up with three consecutive wins , with the last game of the rivalry in 1992 with a 40 - 26 victory in Morgantown . The rivalry currently lies dormant .