We Are…Penn State

Over the past two years, one of my most frequent destinations has been State College, Pennsylvania. Nestled amongst beautiful farmland in the shadows of Mount Nittany is The Pennsylvania State University where my son, Jack, is a freshman. Technically the university is its own town of University Park and the surrounding college town is State College. It is a beautiful sprawling campus with a mix of classic and modern architecture.

The university was founded in 1855 when it was originally known as Farmers’ High School of Pennsylvania. With the passage of the Morril Land-Grant Act of 1862, the campus became Pennsylvania’s first land-grant university. In 1953, it was renamed Pennsylvania State University where University Park serves as the flagship campus in a state university system of twenty-four locations.

The Nittany Lions are members of the Big10 Conference and football is a religion during the fall at Penn State. Jack attends every home game, rain or shine, in the student section. He even camped out in Nittanyville in the shadows of Beaver Stadium before several home games this season. One of the fun traditions is that football players deliver pizza to the students camping out.

When the football schedule was posted, I decided to make the eight hours drive from New Hampshire to Penn State for the game against Indiana on Saturday, October 28^th. I found Jack at the pre-game block party and we watched the procession of band, cheerleaders, and players walk into Beaver Stadium. My seat was on the 50-yard line and I had a great view of all the action. The game was a little closer than most people thought it would be, but the Nittany Lions walked away with a 33-24 victory. After the game, Jack an I headed downtown and got some burgers for dinner before I headed back to my hotel. I had a blast and am looking forward to attending more games in the future.