The Lions' Pride

Nice post as usual Better,

I became a fan watching the 86 season, culminating in the Fiesta bowl. I was just starting to really understand football after playing football for a couple of years in Jr HS (as a Canadian kid with Welsh parents, I grew up playing Hockey and Rugby). Penn St was everthing that I thought football was about. Tough hardnosed blue collar work ethic where the team was all that mattered. It didn't hurt that I loathed Miami and everything they stood for! I still remember jumping up and down and yelling at the TV during the fourth in that game. My parents thought I had lost my mind.

After that I learned about JoePa and that was pretty much it. PSU it was.

Before that I would have been a Bama fan if anything. Didn't really follow college ball much before that season but everyone knew about the Bear and he was example of what I thought football was about. Two great traditions.

I grew up on a dairy farm in NEPA near Scranton. I can remember helping my Dad milk cows or work outside and He always had his little transistor radio with us listening to the games. Cappy and Franco, Fran and George on the radio. My sister and I were the first to go to college and we went to PSU because we loved it but also because of cost. I was a JR at UP in 1982-83 when NU came and we were #1&2. Still the best game I ever attended. Stonehands!

Graduated in 84 and then got season tickets in 2000 after expansion. Been taking our 2 daughters to games ever since and now my oldest is a sophomore at UP. Our youngest is a HS jr and after attending THON and football games we cant get her to even look at any other colleges. My only mistake was moving to MD so I get to pay out of state tuition.

Yeah, we're the same age. One and a half of the names finally came back to me.

Do you remember a Kevin Jamison? He was probably a year or two younger than you. And yeah, he was a big dork, for sure. I'm quite confident he still is. The other kid, his name was Eric. I can't remember his last name right now. He drove a little red Toyota MR2. He thought he was so cool. LOL

The other kid -- probably a good five years younger than us -- Eric Olsen. He's the one I know from out here in Colorado. Not sure what he was like in HS, but he's a good guy today.

I played on the Montgomery Legion team for about 3-4years (started a year early b/c they needed players). We always had a decent team -- one kid that made a run at a major league career, Tim Persing -- but it was a whole town of f*ck-ups (including myself while I was there), so we'd always have trouble fielding a team. Every game was like a pick-up game to us -- never taking it seriously -- but we would win a lot of them.

I remember playing Mifflinburg in football (I had three INTs in one game against them, one for a TD), but I don't think I remember playing them in any other sports. We never played Lewisburg in anything that I know of, because they/you were a class or two bigger than us.

No Doubt.

I remember thinking the stadium was going to come down. Like there were times when I thought it was possible it was just going to come down it was rocking so hard. When Tamba forced that fumble at the end of the game it was "THE" moment for me. At that moment I forgot my earlier thoughts that "I could die here...............".

Come to find out later that Engineers said that bolts were loosening during that game and they had to take the "Bounce" off of the screen.

Completely ridiculous and one of the best times I've ever had in my life. I've been to a ton of sporting events and nothing I've ever been to even comes close to that night.

Thats enough reason right there to be a Penn State Fan.

Seven years of brainwashing while attending undergrad and graduate school! Blue and White everywhere. I wonder how many Penn State logos I actually saw in those seven years. Also, how many times I heard "You're in Nittany Lion Country" on the radio.

Probably, more importantly, I love Joe Paterno, and will never fotget him!