Posts filed under 'Penn State traditions'
Behind the Scenes at Beaver Stadium
Everyone at the Alumni Association pitches in during Traditional Reunion Weekend, and Thursday afternoon I helped guide the classes of 1959 and 1964 on a tour of Beaver Stadium. I’ve covered or attended a lot of games there over the years, but this provided a different perspective.
Alums got a chance to walk out on the field, too. Many had their pictures taken under the goalpost with a Standup Joepa.
My group’s first stop was the locker room—usually forbidden territory for reporters—where long-time equipment manager Brad “Spider” Caldwell and coordinator of practice facilities Kirk Diehl gave us a feel for life behind the scenes.
The team stays at Toftrees resort on Friday night, but doesn’t go straight to the stadium on Saturday. Instead, buses go right past the stadium en route to Lasch Building, where the players get 30 minutes to change into their uniforms. Then they re-board the buses for the traditional drive to Beaver Stadium.
That means Spider, Kirk, and the student managers, having already prepped the Beaver Stadium locker room, have to haul the players’ garment bags of street clothes to the stadium.
“You may ask yourself, ‘Why do they do that? That sounds crazy,’” Kirk said. He paused, then delivered the punch line. “It’s Coach Paterno.”
Added Spider, “He likes tradition.”
This, of course, surprised no one. Several people wondered whether Spider and Kirk had explained how the process could be streamlined by going directly to the stadium. One gentleman asked, “You’ve voiced your opinion?”
Spider grinned. “Our opinion has no merit.”
Other fun facts from the locker room:
—A player running out of the tunnel is wearing between 18 and 22 pounds of equipment, which costs about $1,000.
—The busiest day of the week for the managers is Thursday. That’s helmet day. They clean off the “graffiti” left by other helmets (specifically, by the facemasks), clean the facemasks with steel wool and make sure no metal is showing, and change the stripes (they’re stickers) as needed.
Alums got up close and personal with the equipment in the Penn State locker room. Some of the shoes are gigantic.
—Shoes are also time-consuming. “It’s a Penn State tradition to paint them black,” Spider noted, adding that a “big, black Sharpie” is the best tool to do so. In the past, the shoes have had white accent markings that needed to be covered. “The white’s unacceptable to Coach Paterno,” he said. Kirk chimed in: “You guys see a pattern here?”
But this time, the managers prevailed. Kirk, who is also the athletic department’s liaison to Nike, explained the situation to the company. The new shoe model has gray markings. Paterno is cool with that.
Lori Shontz, senior editor
Add comment June 5, 2009
Your Helpful Alumni Association Staff is Ready to Greet You….
Uh, Bob, can you get some touch-up paint on that goalpost before Thursday?
This week is a big deal around the Alumni Association. No, not because it’s Magazine Deadline Week (which, alas, it is), but because it’s time for Traditional Reunion Weekend.
Starting Thursday, we’ll be welcoming back 800-plus grads from 1959 and assorted other years for four days of reunion activities. It’s kind of an all-hands-on-deck thing for Association staff; we all help in some way, whether it’s staffing the registration tables or coordinating library tours or helping load the buses to Saturday’s All-Class Luncheon.
Among the most popular of the activities are the tours of Beaver Stadium, and this morning a bunch of staff headed up to the stadium for a run-through and a briefing. Apparently Bob Barlock from our Membership unit must have been one of them, as you can see here from the picture he immediately posted on his Facebook page.
Tina Hay, editor
Add comment June 2, 2009
Two Steps Back
Hmmm…. This health blog from the LA Times mentions a study that just might explain why the Lion Ambassadors walk backwards.
—Chas Brua, contributing editor
Add comment May 12, 2009
Campus Tours: Not Just for Incoming Students
Has anyone ever seen a Lion Ambassador walk forward?
We had the coolest staff meeting ever today. No sitting in a conference room for us, the employees of the Penn State Alumni Association. Instead, we divided into four groups for campus tours, led by the Lion Ambassadors. (Yes, they walked backward the entire time.)
I spent four years on campus as a student, and later I covered the university and its sports teams for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. So while I’m always up for a walk around campus (especially in the spring, when it’s green and gorgeous), I wasn’t expecting to learn a ton.
Turns out that wasn’t the case. I heard some nuggets I’d forgotten, such as how the ghost of Frances Atherton lurks in the upstairs window of Old Botany, the oldest academic building on campus, which overlooks the tomb of her husband George, Penn State’s president from 1882-1906. Other stories were brand new to me:
We wandered through the HUB, which prompted a question about student clubs.
—Chambers Building, home to the College of Education, was built to resemble a 1970s-style high school. That’s so the student teachers would get used to their future environment.
—There are some 700 student clubs at Penn State, including one for people named Bob.
—Milton Eisenhower, Penn State’s president in the 1950s, loved his mother’s cookies and eagerly looked forward to care packages. So he talked with his brother Dwight—who, as president of the entire United States, had a little pull—and asked if Penn State could have its own zip code. Dwight obliged, and that’s why University Park’s zip code is 16802 and there’s a post office in McAllister Building.
Fact or fiction? A little of both? I have no idea. But I do know that such stories are part of what makes Penn State’s main campus such a special place.
Lori Shontz, senior editor
3 comments May 6, 2009
Out with the Old…
There's a new man behind the mask
…and in with a new Nittany Lion mascot. Clint Gyory, a freshman business major, claimed the honor after weekend tryouts. An extensive gymnastics background and experience as his high school mascot put him over the top. From the Collegian:
“Dressed as the Nittany Lion, Gyory performed a James Bond skit during which he rescued a Joe Paterno look-a-like and a Penn State cheerleader from the Notre Dame mascot and Notre Dame football coach Charlie Weis.”
The Centre Daily Times has some video highlights of the tryouts here.
Cheerleading coach Curtis White says Gyory (who’s replacing senior and two-year Lion James Sheep) is the first freshman in at least 15 years—and maybe the first ever—to don the Nittany Lion costume. How many one-armed push-ups can a college student do in four years? We may be about to find out.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Add comment February 3, 2009
Not Fair-Weather Friends
If you were on campus in the pelting sleet this morning, you probably noticed all the cars lined up outside the dorms, flashers blinking. Today’s the last day of finals (and commencement is tomorrow). It made me think of a December day 22 years ago when I finished up my undergrad career and said goodbye to the guys I knew in my hall. I haven’t talked to most of them for more than two decades, which is kind of sad. While I’ve stayed good friends with a core group from my high school days, my college friendships just didn’t last as long.
I’m definitely not in the same league as the more than 100 readers who responded to our call for “Penn State buddies” stories. We heard from folks who’ve held reunions for more than 50 years, groups who go on yearly camping trips, others who’ve started their own tongue-in-cheek holidays to get together. Our January/February issue will feature some of the best of those stories. Look for the magazine in your mailbox late this month or early in January, depending on where you live.
Chas Brua, contributing editor
Add comment December 19, 2008
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