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A Singing Valentine’s Day Tradition
Jen Espinosa arrived at 102 Thomas on Tuesday afternoon expecting to take a Bio 411 exam.
She sat in her seat, a couple rows from the back, and took out a No. 2 pencil. Her professor, James A. Strauss, began handing out scantrons.Then five male students wearing suits walked into the lecture hall. And the exam was delayed.
The well-dressed quintet has a name: They are The Dreamers, the official a capella group of Phi Mu Alpha, Penn State’s singing fraternity. And for the 23rd straight year, The Dreamers spread love on Feb. 14 by delivering singing Valentines throughout the day.
The routine is simple: The youngest member of The Dreamers—this time it was Brian Bender, a freshman who is also in the Blue Band—must walk in the classroom and ask the professor for permission to interrupt class. Once Bender got the OK, the rest of the group joined him and called the Valentine to the “stage.”
Most recipients, like Espinosa, have no idea it’s coming. Embarrassed by the attention, Espinosa refused to walk to the front of the room to be serenaded by The Dreamers — until Dr. Strauss made a (more…)
Welcoming Bill O’Brien
This Super Bowl photo of Bill O'Brien accompanied a story about his final game with the New England Patriots in The Boston Globe.
It’s just before 12:30 on Monday afternoon, and the HUB is packed.
It’s one of those days where you can barely walk more than 20 feet without accidentally bumping somebody’s shoulders. It’s the day after the Super Bowl, and more than a few students have bags under their eyes. The line at Panda Express is long, but the line is Starbucks is longer.
But here are Maddy Pryor and Marissa Peterson, two public relations majors, sitting at a table in the center of the chaos. And they couldn’t have bigger grins on their face.
“The Super Bowl is over,” Peterson said. “Which means he’s finally ours. He’s all ours.”
He, of course, is Bill O’Brien, Penn State’s new football coach. With the New York Giants’ 21-17 victory over New England on Sunday, he officially concluded his duties as the Patriots’ offensive coordinator and can now assume full responsibilities of his new job.
Pryor and Peterson are members of PRIDE, a student-run organization focused on promoting sportsmanship. On Monday, they also promoted hospitality in their event titled Welcome Bill O’Brien to the Penn State Family! “We just wanted to welcome Bill O’Brien to the Penn State family and show our support,” said Peterson, the club’s secretary. “He arrives tomorrow.”
So PRIDE created an over-sized welcome card on white poster board. They encouraged students to write small messages or simply sign their name. Whitespace was filling up quickly. Everyone seemed to like the idea. As I hung around the table, a freshman on the men’s basketball team, Trey Lewis, stopped by. In a thick Sharpie pen, he wrote: “Welcome coach, from men’s basketball. -Trey Lewis #3”
The women don’t know exactly how they’ll get the card to O’Brien. “But we’ll find a way,” Pryor said.
The table also featured a sportsmanship pledge, one of PRIDE’s signature initiatives. There were about 150 signatures on the pledge poster on the table. Pryor said there were six more posters rolled up under the table. The pledge is brought out a few times a year, Pryor said, including April’s Blue-White weekend.
A few students lingered around the table, talking about the pledge and Coach O’Brien. Peterson quizzed students from a prepared set of O’Brien-centric trivia questions so fans can get to know their new coach a little better.
Some questions were very basic. Did you know O’Brien is from Massachusetts? Did you know he has two sons named Jack and Michael?
But there was one question that stuck out.
Did you know O’Brien wore a blue jersey with a white collar and plain helmet while he played football at St. John’s Prep?
-Emily Kaplan, intern
P.S. To read the Boston Globe story that accompanied the photo, click here.
Sign of a New Era
Defensive coordinator Ted Roof fields questions from the press.
Reporters lingered in the lobby of the Lasch Building on Wednesday afternoon, many still in awe of what just occurred.
If there was ever a sign that Penn State football is embarking in a new era, this might have been it: Nittany Lion players and coaches were made available to the media—for in-person interviews—on national signing day.
“It’s a new twist,” junior defensive tackle Jordan Hill said, with a laugh. “It’s a new staff and there’s a lot of new things going on.”
New indeed.
Penn State football was notorious for running a closed door operation under Joe Paterno. No reporters at practice. No unsupervised interviews with players. No exceptions.
Longtime Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writer Ron Musselman ’81 remembered that not that long ago, Penn State wouldn’t even release the names of their new recruits. Sports information director Jeff Nelson could recall only one occasion where Paterno addressed the media in person on national signing day. And Paterno’s availability that day lasted about 10 minutes.
But Wednesday was different. Five assistant coaches and four players arrived at the Lasch Building to field any questions that came their way.
The mood was relaxed. The players filed in one by one at their leisure. The coaches hung around, laughed, and shook hands with their new beat writers.
It was new ground for everyone.
“This has never been Penn State’s way,” said linebackers coach Ron Vanderlinden, one of two assistants Bill O’Brien retained from Paterno’s staff. “I have done that in years past at other universities. But here, it feels a little awkward.”
Nelson said he pitched the idea of making coaches and players available to O’Brien, who is still fulfilling his duties with the New England Patriots, who are playing the New York Giants in Sunday’s Super Bowl. O’Brien had no qualms with the request.
Nelson said this could be the first of many new policies O’Brien might implement.
“[Talking to reporters] on a Wednesday? You didn’t really see that too much when Coach Paterno was our coach,” said running back Silas Redd, one of the most well spoken and thoughtful players on the team. “But Coach O’Brien is a little more lenient with that. I’m guessing that it’s because he’s in the NFL and they’re dealing with media all the time.”
Whatever the reason, it seems everyone’s embracing the change. That includes Larry Johnson, the most tenured coach on O’Brien’s staff. Johnson is entering his 17th year at Penn State. And while things might be different this year, Johnson displayed his usual grin and casual demeanor on Wednesday. For him, it’s just business as usual.
“It’s not necessarily a different culture,” Johnson said. “It’s just something we’re doing moving forward in trying to be transparent. That’s the biggest thing.”
Emily Kaplan, intern
‘We Can Lick the World with the Liberal Arts’
Joe Paterno giving Penn State's commencement address in 1973.
He had a degree in English Lit from an Ivy League institution. He sometimes quoted Shakespeare to his football team. Plus, he and his wife donated millions of dollars to Penn State’s library, as well as an undergraduate fellows program.
Joe Paterno always valued a liberal arts education, and here’s a look at how Paterno expressed that over the years. Many thanks to Vicki Fong ’81 — a manager of publications and public relations for Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts — for sharing.
First, Paterno addressing a group of Paterno Fellows. “We don’t need anything else. We can lick the world with just the liberal arts,” he said, prompting chuckles from the crowd. As Vicki wrote in an email: “It always makes me smile.”
Here’s another video on what it means to be a “Paterno Professor.” Michael Berube, the Paterno Family professor in literature, says, “Wherever I go, people of course ask, ‘Is that the Paterno family?’ I say, ‘Yes, there’s only one.’ And they’re just massively impressed.”
And lastly, in case anyone’s interested, here’s a PDF that you can download of Paterno’s iconic 1973 commencement speech. My favorite part about having Paterno as the keynote speaker? Looking at who he succeeded.
There were no speakers from 1960-69. In 1970, Charles Conrad Jr,. a NASA astronaut, spoke. In 1971, it was the Earl Warren, the retired Chief Justice of the United States. In 1972, it was James A. Michener, a Pulitzer-Prize winning author. And in 1973: Joe Paterno, Nittany Lion head football coach.
Emily Kaplan, intern
An Early Morning Goodbye
This photo from Nick Sloff '92 shows the line outside Pasquerilla Spiritual Center on Tuesday afternoon
I arrived at 6 a.m. Wednesday, nearly two hours before officials again opened the doors to Pasquerilla Spiritual Center for Joe Paterno’s viewing. And I wasn’t even the first one there.
By far. The Early Bird award goes to David Brown of Greensburg, Pa. He’s a Pitt alum, but has been a Penn State — and Paterno fan — his entire life. Brown arrived at 4 a.m. He left his house at midnight.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there had been 1,000 fans here at 4,” Brown told me. “I just wanted to pay my respects.”
By 6:30, it was just a handful of people. The sun hadn’t risen yet and it was the type of late January morning where you could see — and feel — your breath.
By 7, there were 75 people. Fifteen minutes later, that number doubled. And at 7:40, when officials opened the doors of the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center for Joe Paterno’s viewing, the line had grown to 1,000.
Thousands of fans, supporters and members of the Penn State community are expected to pass through the spiritual center from 8 to noon Wednesday to pay their final respects to Paterno.
When I left Pasquerilla Tuesday night at about 11, police told me that “tens of thousands of people” attended Tuesday’s 10-hour window. When I walked through at 10:40, Paterno’s children, Jay ’91 and Mary Kay Hort ’86, stood by the exit and shook hands, hugged and thanked supporters who walked through. Sue Pohland ’62, was also there until the end — sitting in the chairs normally reserved for the choir, wearing a thick red coat, her arm around one of her granddaughters.
The second guy in line Wednesday had a story, too. John Myers, 70, from Tamaqua, Pa., arrived at 5 a.m. after a two-and-a half hour drive.
“It was worth it,” he said.
Myers has been a Penn State fan for more than 60 years. He remembers visiting State College in high school. After the last football game every year, the school would send a bus up so students could attend Penn State games. The bus cost 75 cents.
Emily Kaplan, intern
P.S. To see more of Nick’s photography work, click here to check out his blog.
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