Posts filed under ‘Penn Staters in the NFL’
A Few Photos from Reunion Weekend
I thought I’d share a (very) small handful of photos I took at the All-Class Luncheon on Saturday—just one of dozens of activities that are part of our Traditional Reunion Weekend.
As the luncheon got underway, the Nittany Lion mascot waited outside the banquet hall at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, ready to make his appearance….
…and shortly after he got on stage, the lion took off his head and turned out to be none other than President Spanier, who made some welcoming remarks to the attendees.
After the luncheon, there were some giveaways, culminating in the big prize: a football-weekend package including two nights’ hotel stay and two seats in the Alumni Association’s skybox for the Iowa game. Here, Alumni Association president David Han ’88, ’05g assists while Todd Blackledge ’83 (who was honored as a Penn State Distinguished Alumnus this weekend) drew the winner.
The winner of the football-weekend package was Geraldine Valone ’58 of Buffalo, N.Y., and Blackledge went out into the crowd to congratulate her personally. Pretty cool.
The luncheon closed with some great stuff from members of the Penn State Glee Club:
And afterward, the 800 or so attendees headed outside and piled onto big blue school buses for campus tours.
As happened last year, there were so many people wanting to take the bus tours that we ran out of guides, so I got pressed into service. I didn’t have the standard “Lion Ambassadors Bus Tour Script”—I didn’t have any script. I just winged it. Heck, I’ve lived in State College for 33 years; I know the names of most of the campus buildings by now. And the alumni themselves helped me out with the names of the fraternities on Burrowes Road (not my long suit).
We all had a great time.
Tina Hay, editor
Another Mike Reid?
Turns out former Penn State quarterback Kerry Collins has a new hobby: writing country music.
Guess that’s what happens when you spend a lot of time in Nashville, where Collins is now playing for the Tennessee Titans.
He told The Associated Press recently that he’s been jotting ideas in a notebook for years, and that in 2007 he began to work with some established Nashville song writers, including Ed Hill, who co-wrote Tracy Lawrence’s “Find Out Who Your Friends Are,” and Billy Lawson, who wrote “I Left Something Turned On At Home” for Trace Adkins. Both songwriters say Collins — who majored in labor and industrial relations, hardly an artsy field — has some ability. Collins certainly has endured some life experiences that could translate to country songs.
That said, he’s got a steep climb to become the best football player/songwriter in Penn State history. That honor goes to Mike Reid, the 1969 Outland Trophy winner and a four-time All-Pro for the Cincinnati Bengals, who has written No. 1 country songs and branched out into classical music and musicals. Read this 2001 Sports Illustrated piece for a nice look at Reid’s musical accomplishments.
Lori Shontz, senior editor
Super Busy
Last week I checked in with friend and former Collegian colleague Michael Signora ’96, the director of media relations and international communications for the National Football League. It was a quick conversation. A glance at his job title will tell you that Mike was pretty busy last week.
Down in Tampa for the two weeks leading up to Super Bowl XLIII, Mike didn’t have much time to enjoy the weather or festivities, but at least there were other hard-working Penn Staters in town to keep him company: Among the media horde (4,589 credentialed journalists representing 633 media organizations and 28 countries — wow) were Pittsburgh Tribune Review writers Scott Brown ’94 and Kevin Gorman ’98, Arizona Republic sports editor Mark Faller ’80, and longtime NFL writer Ira Miller ’66.
There were plenty of Penn State connections on the field, too: Former Nittany Lions and current Pittsburgh Steelers Sean McHugh ’04 and Scott Paxson will be fitted for Super Bowl rings, while Levi Brown ’05 started at offensive tackle for the Arizona Cardinals. On the sidelines were Dr. Jim Bradley ’75, the Steelers’ team orthopedic surgeon, and John Norwig ’79, ’84, the team’s head trainer.
Other than Levi, I’m guessing everybody went home happy.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Transition Games
You thought this was the “offseason” for Penn State football?
Nittany Lions past and present are all over the news this week, and for PSU fans, no story is bigger than that of defensive line coach and ace recruiter Larry Johnson Sr. considering a job offer (including a raise and a promotion) from Big Ten rival Illinois. Harrisburg’s Dave Jones (an Ohio State alum, which I reluctantly overlook because he tends to write great columns) breaks down the factors that might influence the decision, both for Johnson and for Joe Paterno. It’s a decision that could have massive implications for Penn State’s short- and long-term football future.
Larry Johnson is Penn State's No. 1 recruiter
Kerry Collins ’94 is weighing an offer, too, and he’s made it clear he’s got the ultimate leverage: Give him what he wants, or he’ll retire. Collins, an unexpected starter this season who led the Tennessee Titans to the best regular-season mark in the NFL, has made it clear he’d still like to play, but he has no desire to sit on anyone’s bench. If the Titans don’t want him to start next season, he’ll try to find a team that does. If he can’t, he’ll retire to his North Carolina farm.
Former Paterno assistant Jim Caldwell had no such choices to make. When Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy announced his retirement earlier today, Caldwell, the Colts’ associate head coach last season, was promoted to the top job.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Coming Back From Cali
I was one of many Penn Staters who made the trip to California over New Year’s, though maybe the only one who didn’t go primarily for the Rose Bowl. I did go to the game — I had third-row seats directly behind the end zone, which didn’t offer much of a view, but did allow me to smell the grass, which was cool. Mostly, though, I went to visit family (my roots, not to mention a whole lot of relatives, remain in Southern California), eat some great fast food, and enjoy the weather.
Check, check, and check. A few highlights:
-Stopping for dinner at Pie N Burger, the neighborhood greasy spoon recommended by occasional Penn Stater contributor Paul Levine ’69 in his pre-Rose Bowl primer on PSU Live. Both the pie (banana cream) and burger (cheese-) were terrific — although, if I’d known the place was owned by an SC grad, I might have passed…
-Getting up early to attend the Rose Parade, where my four-year-old sat on my lap with a $7.00 program, keeping track of which floats were coming next (his favorite: the giant hat-tipping robot named Asimo), and waiting for the delayed B-2 bomber fly-over (it also flew over the stadium that afternoon — scary stuff). The let down, and another bad omen for the game, came when the Blue Band marched past without playing a note. I guess they were in between songs, but that didn’t make it any easier to rebut the SC fans nearby who mocked us for having a band that didn’t actually play.
Thanks to Brad Youtz '96 for the photo.
-Walking to the parade Thursday morning and seeing a couple of the Paternoville regulars, who I got to know while working on the feature in the magazine’s Jan/Feb 2009 issue. They’d apparently gotten a hotel near Disneyland, stayed up all night Wednesday, then taken a $100 cab ride to Pasadena early Thursday to catch the parade and the game. Between the lack of sleep and the game’s outcome, I imagine their Thursday night was not fun. Sorry guys.
-Most of the SC fans we encountered during the week were polite enough, but there were a few exchanges that, shall we say, reflected poorly on the broader Trojan fan base. A selection:
“Good luck Thursday. I’m predicting 52-0.” From some guy who felt compelled to slap me on the back while I had lunch with my family on Tuesday afternoon.
“You guys came all the way out here for nothing.” From a guy we passed walking through the pregame tailgates. A wasted trip? He obviously wasn’t aware of the weather back east.
“C’mon baby, check me out — I’m in a higher tax bracket!” My favorite, offered by a not-entirely-sober young man to my sister, with whom I was walking through the tailgates. Locals (particularly UCLA fans) like to joke that USC actually stands for University of Spoiled Children, a line that is itself sort of childish, though not entirely unfunny (nor, in this particular case, inaccurate).
For the record, my sister declined to check him out.
Yes, we booed the tunnel.
-The game itself didn’t offer much worth remembering (although the crowds trying to squeeze through the antiquated tunnels were hard to forget), but it was cool seeing Ki-Jana Carter ’95 waving a towel on the sidelines to rouse the crowd just before kick-off. Like anyone who was a Penn State fan back then, I’ll never forget Carter busting a huge touchdown run to open the scoring in the ’95 Rose Bowl. That game left Penn Staters frustrated at the injustice done by the pollsters. This game just left us humbled.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Another Chance in the NFL
Looks like former Nittany Lion punter Jeremy Kapinos ’06 has landed a job with the Green Bay Packers. Kapinos, who went undrafted after leaving Penn State, has had free-agent stints with the Jets, the Ravens (very briefly), and the Jets again, but was released last June. His new deal with the Packers reportedly covers the rest of this season, plus next season.
A year ago, Kapinos was working on the maintenance crew at Burke Lake Golf Course in Virginia, while waiting for a chance to get back into football. He mowed, he raked traps, he did whatever else they needed him to do. “There was this one morning I had to pick up this goose that one of the foxes got on like the ninth hole or something,” Kapinos told a newspaper in Westchester County, N.Y. “Golfers were complaining about it.”
If you want to know which Penn Staters are playing where in the NFL, CBS has an “alumni tracker” that’s pretty good.
Tina Hay, editor
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