State College Pennsylvania

[Anonymous]

The wife and I just returned home from visiting our son TJ at State College, Pennsylvania. He is a track coach for Penn State...Fresh Off Of a Big 10 First Place Win.
We spent a lot of time over the last week traveling around central Pennsylvania getting to know the area. This area of Pennsylvania is one of the most beautiful places I've traveled. The city of State College, Pennsylvania is the cleanest city I have ever been too. The yards look like parks and the people are some of the friendliest people I have ever met. I had a chance to watch our son cast a fly on a small creek called Fisherman’s Paradise about 10 minutes from down town State College.

We traveled to a town called Boalsburg and watched a Civil War reenactment.
Memorial Day was first started in Boalsburg Pennsylvania in 1864.

One highlight of the trip was spending the better part of a day walking around the Penn State Campus. Part of that day at Beaver Stadium. Box seats are still available for next football season at the very reasonable price of $40,000.00 to $60,000.00 per season with a minimum five season lease.

Here’s a little tidbit of information that I learned about Beaver Stadium. Beaver Stadium is the largest Stadium in the United States and the third largest in the World.

"GO LIONS"

[raffensg64]

That's awesome, Big D. I'm originally from northern PA and spent a lot of time in State College. My mom and dad are both PSU alumni. My grandmother lived there and worked for forty years at the PSU Library. It is a beautiful and clean city as I remember, quite possibly the cleanest I've ever seen. My family would make trips down from Elkland in Tioga County and we would never return home without some shoo-fly pie and fresh fruits and vegetables from the Amish. Did you get a chance to stop by any of their stands?

I miss fishing those streams, creeks and rivers of the hills of northern and central PA. Many were still in rehab from the mining days that killed everything. But they've come a long ways according to family members who are still there.

Beaver Stadium is HUGE....they've been adding capacity there for years. I attended several games there as a youngster, although it wasn't nearly as big then as now. I won't be getting any of those tickets nowadays, though! Congrats to your son on his Big Ten 1st place win. Now if only JoePa and that football team of his can get back on track again!

P.S. It's good to see the PSU Nittany Lion again....we have several family pictures of the same. And thanks for the all the pictures that brought back a flood of great memories!

P.S.S. My dad related to me a story that came out of PSU a couple years ago. Some university bigwigs went to Paterno's house to discuss the possibility of him retiring. His wife Sue took the gentlemen's coats but before she could even hang them up, Joe said "keep those close, Sue, these guys won't be staying long".

Typical Joe Paterno!

[swedefish4life1]

Great stuff BIG D and you must be very proud of him!!!!:-$

Now that poor animal your riding#-o was he benched tested your weight???? LMAO!!!:chef: :cyclopsan

[mav186]

Great history lesson Big D...I always enjoy reading your posts. However, I'm surprised it took 11 years before the first tavern went up though!! LOL :bounce:

[zen leecher aka Bill W]

Two PSU guys on the same board.... who whudda thunk it. I grew up about 60 miles east of State College before uncle sam got me to move out of state.

Here's a question for either of you that a guy aske me when he heard I was from there.

Nittany lions.... what's a Nittany?

Bill W

[Anonymous]

The mascot was the creation of Penn State senior H. D. "Joe" Mason in 1907. While on a 1904 trip to Princeton University, Mason had been embarrassed that Penn State did not have a mascot. Mason did not let that deter him: he fabricated the Nittany Lion on the spot and proclaimed that it would easily defeat the Princeton Bengal tiger. The Lion's primary means of attack against the Tiger would be its strong right arm, capable of slaying any foes (this is now traditionally exemplified through one-armed push-ups after the team scores a touchdown). Upon returning to campus, he set about making his invention a reality. In 1907, he wrote in the student publication The Lemon:
“ Every college the world over of any consequence has a college emblem of some kind—all but The Pennsylvania State College . . .. Why not select for ours the king of beasts—the Lion!! Dignified, courageous, magnificent, the Lion allegorically represents all that our College Spirit should be, so why not 'the Nittany Mountain Lion'? Why cannot State have a kingly, all-conquering Lion as the eternal sentinel? ”
(These words later inspired the fight song known as "The Nittany Lion", which begins "Every college has a legend...".)

Mountain lions had roamed on nearby Mount Nittany until the 1880s. The origin of the name "Mount Nittany" is obscure, the most commonly accepted explanation being that it is derived of Native American words (loosely pronounced as "neet-a-nee") named after the cougars that roamed the mountain or "single mountain" - a protective barrier against the elements.

The name was readily accepted without a vote of the student body. In 1907, the first tangible lion symbols appeared with the placing of two alabaster African lion statues, left over from the Pennsylvania exhibit at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, atop the columns at the main campus entrance on College and Allen streets. They were affectionately dubbed by the student body as "Pa" and "Ma." In the 1920s, a pair of stuffed mountain lions was placed in the Recreation Building to watch over athletic events. One of these original lions is now located in Pattee Library on the Penn State campus. About that same time, the tradition was established of having a student dressed in furry-lion outfits appear at football games.

One truly funny thing is The Folks in Pennsylvania call Mount Nittany an actual Mountian
Picture of Mount Nittany seen below:

[zen leecher aka Bill W]

Yup... it means "lone mountain".