This blog exists to tell a
story. A passion. Something worthwhile. As long as I can remember, my passion
has been Penn State, State College has been my worthwhile, and I find myself in
quite the ongoing story as I continue to spend more time here.
I grew up with it. A perfect
small town, ballooning to capacity during fall Saturday’s. I saw the beautiful
autumn oranges and reds, the blankets of winter snowfalls, the relentless rains
of spring, and beautiful summer days.
I escaped to Happy Valley as
a child. Season football tickets were the vacations of my youth – six weekends
a year that beat any roller coaster that Cedar Point can boast.
Naturally, then, to come here
was a dream come true. But I watched the halcyon memories of my childhood get
tested just a few months into my first freshman semester.
Jerry Sandusky. Namesake of
the Sandusky Blitz at the coveted campus Creamery, and father of “Linebacker
U.” A name that once only true fans knew, became a name that even those
ignorant of sports would come to memorize. The scandal flipped this community
upside down. (Then school president) Spanier and the Board of Trustees used the
icon and figurehead of Joe Paterno as a scapegoat when they fired him. Cast
aside as if he were scum. And soon campus was crawling with news vans
everywhere.
It was gut-wrenching. The
firing of Paterno. The rioting. The press conferences. The embarrassment. The
harassment. Outsiders – non-Penn Staters – who thought that they knew what was
going on and then went on to bad mouth the university. I watched as every article,
tv show, interview, and headline stole THON donations right before my eyes. The
nation was too ignorant to recognize the separation of one man and his former
employer, and now everyone was suffering.
It was nothing short of a
nightmare.
It’s a little different now, but
the aftershock is still there. I think that this town will bounce back – but
there were moments when it seemed impossible.
I’ve never been very
optimistic, but my goal in this blog is to be just that, to express the
overwhelming optimism I have that State College will get it’s Happily Valley
After. That in a few years, this will all be but a memory, that my children
will view Joe Paterno as their hero just as he has been mine. And that the
honor, integrity, and tradition of this university will be restored in such a
way that even the naysayers must recognize it.
This blog will provide the
reasons for my belief. Week after week, memory after memory, I will write my
own trek toward a Happily Valley After.
