SamSaid!

AN EVENT

     State College is a small town located in the geographic center of Pennsylvania. Among other things, it is the home of the Pennsylvania State University  –  better known simply as Penn State. One unique characteristic of State College is that on 6 or 7 weekends every year it becomes the third largest City in Pennsylvania  — right after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.  Those are the weekends when Penn State plays a home football game. So it was on the weekend of October 8th when Penn State's Nittany Lions hosted the Buckeyes of Ohio State. Over 109,000 fans streamed into Beaver Stadium, not at all deterred by chilly, rainy, blustery weather.

     Penn State does not have a big population base from which to draw fans. Rather, they come from all over the east  —  from cities and towns far away  –  and the RVs number in the hundreds or thousands. This huge stadium sits right in the middle of fields, farms, pastures, orchards, forests, mountains and streams. The surroundings are about as bucolic as bucolic can get. October 8th was a good day for Penn State as they defeated their arch rivals 17-10. On the following day, the throng of thousands melted into the Pennsylvania highway system while making plans for the next visit to Happy Valley –  a term frequently used by sports scribes.  

     Football games with a big attendance are largely the evidence of an active Alumni group. Penn State is no exception, except that a home game is not just a game. It is an event. Every game  –  every year  —over 100,000 people from far and wide. In times when so much of the news is dominated by bad or evil occurrences, it is nice to know that happy events can occur also. And on October 8th, it was a happy event in Happy Valley. And always a bit happier when the home team wins!