Dave Havern was enjoying a relaxing afternoon Saturday, listening to the Pitt game on the radio while driving to Erie to celebrate his wife MaryJean’s birthday. “We listened to it up until about Meadville,” the former Pitt quarterback said. “I thought that I heard the field goal was good, but I wasn’t quite sure.
” Sometime after Ben Sauls’ field goal gave Pitt a 28-27 come-from-behind victory against Cincinnati, Havern’s phone started buzzing with text messages from buddies and former Pitt teammates. One read, “A very Havern-esque victory.” He wasn’t sure what that meant until he heard the details — Pitt had rallied from a 21-point deficit in the third quarter to win the game.
It was the largest second-half comeback by a Pitt team since Havern led a rally to beat Navy, 36-35, on Oct. 9, 1971, after the Panthers trailed 35-10 at halftime. Havern, who coaches quarterbacks at Shady Side Academy after 13 years as the school’s head coach, was the quarterback in 1970 when Pitt recovered from a 35-8 halftime deficit to defeat West Virginia, also 36-35.
Havern said memories of the WVU victory are more pleasant than those of the Navy game. “The Navy game, it was not the thing of beauty that the second half of the West Virginia game was,” said Havern, a redshirt senior in ’71. “It was a horrible game.
I tried to get tricky, and I ended up pitching it to a defensive end from Navy. I catch him about the 10, and he runs me over and scored. It was that kin.
