Posts tagged ‘Centre Daily Times’
The Fallout From State Patty’s Day
State Patty’s Day was celebrated in State College on Saturday, and the effects are still being felt. The fourth annual “holiday” attracted national media attention, with the likes of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Washington Post, and U.S. News & World Report covering the event. The news leading up to this year’s party seemed to imply a toned-down affair—downtown bars agreed not to open early for the revelers, the undergrad who helped start State Patty’s Day announced he was disowning it, and at least two local bars, the Lion’s Den and the Shandygaff, didn’t open at all — but the post-party numbers told a different story. Local police announced 430 reports over the weekend and made 160 arrests — more than half of them of non-students and “visitors” who apparently came to town last weekend solely to party.
I’m sure that plenty of students — probably a large majority — enjoyed the day and didn’t get out of hand. Like a lot of locals, I avoided downtown on Saturday, so I can’t account for how crazy it actually was. Reading accounts of a hit-and-run DUI and the State College cop who was punched in the face, however, I think I made the right choice.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Something to Cheer About for Betty Jean Love Gibbs
Betty, left, and her daughter Cynthia pose after the special presentation at Sunday's City Lights event.
Like the rest of the staff, I’ve been spending a lot of time reading back issues of The Penn Stater and its predecessor, Penn State Alumni News, because we’re approaching the magazine’s 100th anniversary. I’ve learned a lot about Penn State history, so I figured I was well-prepared for the Alumni Association’s City Lights event Sunday in Pittsburgh. It was staged at the new August Wilson Center for African-American Culture, and the title of the lecture by Courtney L. Young, librarian and professor of women’s studies at Penn State Beaver, was “Famous African-American Penn Staters.”
And, yes, I knew the basics about the Penn Staters whose lives Young highlighted. But it was the tale of a woman I’d never heard of—and whose story was nearly lost—that made the biggest impression on me.
Betty Jean Love Gibbs ’56 arrived at Penn State as a talented dancer and gymnast. But when she wanted to try out for the cheerleading squad in 1953, she was told that was impossible. “Negroes are not allowed on the squad,” officials told her.
The story shocked me. Just two issues ago, we featured the Men of ’47, the Penn State football team that refused to play without its two black players and integrated the Cotton Bowl. How was it possible that just a few years later, a black woman wasn’t allowed to be on the cheerleading squad?
Darryl Daisey ’83, who researched Gibbs’ story, isn’t sure, but he has a theory. “In the late 1940s, Penn State was pretty progressive,” he said after the program. “But some things were still taboo, and that included interracial dating and dancing.” He thinks that cheerleading may have fallen into a similar category.
Daisey learned about Gibbs from Charles Blockson ’56, an African-American history expert, and he tracked down the details for his Web site, www.pennstateblackhistory.com. He then told her story at Sunday’s City Lights event, and he and the Alumni Association made a special presentation to Gibbs, giving her a prize-winning photo of her dancing that was taken by Penn State faculty member Edward Leos, a proclamation from Penn State cheerleading coach Curtis White naming her an honorary cheerleader, and her very own official Penn State cheerleading uniform.
Gibbs didn’t let the cheerleading setback hold her back. She competed at the 1956 U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials, and after graduating with a physical education degree, she worked at various YWCAs, danced professionally in New York, and opened Love’s Academy of Dance when she moved back to her hometown, Pittsburgh. She also taught at Pittsburgh’s acclaimed high school for the Creative and Performing Arts.
“I enjoyed my life at Penn State,” Gibbs told the gathering of alumni. “There were some things we could do, and some things we couldn’t do but did anyway. We got an education, and that was the important part.”
You can read more about Love and some of the other prominent black Penn Staters in this story (which had a lot of help from Daisey) from Monday’s Centre Daily Times. And you can find out more about upcoming City Lights programs, which reach out to alumni in five major metropolitan areas (Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, New York, and Washington, D.C.) here.
Lori Shontz, senior editor
The Changing of the Leaves
When you tell people you moved to central Pennsylvania from Miami, you get a lot of weird looks. Even the people who understand that we wanted to return “home” shake their heads a little.
This time of year, we’re especially happy we’re here: The leaves are changing! It’s one of the things we missed most in Miami, where everything is green all the time. Every fall weekend, we suffered cognitive dissonance as we watched football games, the stands full of bundled-up fans, while we were wearing tank tops and spending halftime on the beach.
As luck would have it, Penn State’s experts believe that this year is going to be a spectacular one for fall foliage. Marc Abrams, a professor of forest ecology and physiology in the College of Ag Sciences, says we’ve got the cool nights and sunny days of the past month to thank.
The Centre Daily Times ran a fall foliage story Sunday, and Abrams said that this week could be the high point. So this should be a great time to run on the trails — and to snap some photographs. Our friends from Miami want to see what fall in central Pennsylvania looks like.
Lori Shontz, senior editor
A Windy Day in Happy Valley — and, Wait a Minute, We’re Losing to Eastern Illinois?!
The big story on a slow news day in State College is the gusty wind that kicked up last night and has lingered through the day. It’s only a minor annoyance for most of us, but for the folks replacing one of the big “Penn State” banners in the south end zone of Beaver Stadium, it’s more than that. Some of the roads around the stadium have been closed and Loop buses have been rerouted after panels flew off the stadium and damaged at least one car in the lot across the street. So if you’re anywhere on campus today, or especially near the stadium, heads up.
Side note: The Centre Daily Times sent a photographer up there to document the news, and he brought back an image that appears to show where the panels blew off. I sent the link to the a friend of mine, Dave Young ’97, who caught a detail I’d missed. His response:
What is the score?!
If this is a motivational ploy from Joe Paterno, it’s a good one.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
More on Bill Cahir
Bill Cahir ’90, who was killed Aug. 13 in Afghanistan, was buried yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery.
The Washington Post had a story yesterday and the Centre Daily Times has one today. In addition, you can hear an NPR piece on him here and see NBC’s Brian Williams pay tribute to him here. I was especially moved by the grief on the faces of his family in the NBC video; my heart just aches for them.
Anyone interested in making a memorial contribution can visit the Web site of the Bill Cahir Memorial Fund.
Tina Hay, editor
Happy Valley Gets Ready for Move-In Day(s)
We’ve just (finally) finished our Sept./Oct. issue, which Alumni Association members will receive at the end of this month. The cover story is a collection of reader memories from their first days on campus — the “Move-In Day” experiences shared by Penn Staters of every campus and era. The timing of this story is no accident, of course, as those of us working at University Park are about to be reminded. Cars full of students, parents, luggage, furniture and who knows what else will be clogging State College in the next few days, hitting a peak this weekend. While those of us who live here may not be looking forward to the traffic (and will avoid the local big-box stores like the plague), the Centre Daily Times reminds us that business owners are understandably psyched. As one local manager says, “It’s kind of like Black Friday morning — only five times as busy, and it’s all day long.”
Yikes.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Penn State’s Resident Astronaut on the Moon Landing
Former Space Shuttle astronaut and current kinesiology professor Jim Pawelczyk ’85 MS is the subject of a short story in today’s Centre Daily Times, which gets his take on the moon landing, his 1998 Columbia mission, and the future of the space program. It’s worth checking out, as is the video below — the sort of footage that makes me which I’d been born a few years earlier to have witnessed it live.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Professional Grades
A few months ago, they were winning championships as Penn State student athletes. Now, these former Nittany Lions are into (or on the verge of) promising pro careers. A story in this week’s Centre Daily Times tells us that Nicole Fawcett, the women’s volleyball All-American featured in our current cover story, is now playing professionally in Puerto Rico. Apparently, Fawcett played her first match for Tus Gigantes de Carolina two weeks ago, just hours after she landed in San Juan. “It was a little weird coming off the plane and taking an hour nap and then going and playing right away,” Fawcett told the CDT.
Closer to home, Penn State held its annual Pro Day on Wednesday. It’s sort of a smaller, localized version of the NFL combine, where pro scouts and coaches show up with stopwatches and tape measures in hand to get a close-up look at the Nittany Lions’ NFL prospects. Based on today’s coverage in the CDT and Harrisburg Patriot-News, defensive end Aaron Maybin and wide receiver Derrick Williams were sufficiently big, strong, and fast enough to solidify or improve their stock for next month’s draft.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
THON Weekend is Upon Us
A colleague down the hall sent me the link to this year’s official IFC/Panhel Dance Marathon video, which is a minute-and-a-half long and well worth the time. According to YouTube, it’s been viewed more than 13,000 times already!
This morning’s Centre Daily Times has a short op-ed piece by a faculty member who was skeptical of the whole THON phenomenon when he first arrived on campus 10 years ago—but whose 5-year-old daughter ended up benefiting from THON in a way that completely changed his perspective. He makes a point that I had never thought about before:
“Beyond the wonder that is Four Diamonds,” he writes, “the students of Thon act as role models for all three of our daughters…. These undergraduates set an example of selfless commitment to a cause, of the volunteering spirit, of the joy of working together as a team toward a noble goal, of the obligation that we as adults have to help others—especially children.”
THON starts tomorrow in the Bryce Jordan Center.
Tina Hay, editor
Camp Woodward Goes to China
You might remember the piece we did in our Sept-Oct 2008 issue on Camp Woodward, which is a mecca for the extreme-sports crowd (BMX, skateboarding, and the like). Today’s Centre Daily Times has a story on Woodward’s latest expansion—to China! Apparently Woodward owner Gary Ream ’76 is working with the Chinese government to open a facility near Beijing in July. This is in addition to the new Woodward facility that will open at Colorado’s Copper Mountain ski resort next month.
The CDT does a nice job of putting into context just how big a deal Woodward is in the extreme-sports world:
“The original Camp Woodward has hosted Tony Hawk, and prompted BMX gold medalists such as [X Games gold medalist Kevin] Robinson and Jamie Bestwick to settle in Centre County with their families. It inspired a reality show on Fuel TV and has corporate sponsorships with Target, Red Bull and PlayStation.”
And this new marketing development, which is pretty cool:
“Through a partnership with Kraft, Camp Woodward will be featured on boxes of Lunchables within the next six months.”
Tina Hay, editor
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