Blue White Illustrated

September 2021

Penn State Sports Magazine

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S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 19 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M hadn't been able to fit all of his mail into the box. There were still two more con- tainers full of subscription forms wait- ing for him. Said Phil, "I went from not knowing where my next dollar was going to come from to all of a sudden having close to 1,000 subscribers." That was the beginning of a 42-year career during which BWI, the successor to Catch Lions Fever, grew into one of the more successful team-specific pub- lications in the country. At the height of its print circulation in the late 1990s, it had about 12,000 subscribers. Phil had a popular radio show in State College, and his publication went digital in the early 2000s, joining the fledgling Rivals.com network as its Penn State site. The dream had come true. But now it's time for something new. Earlier this summer, Phil sold Blue White Illustrated to Coman Publish- ing Company. He had long admired the magazines that owner Stu Coman publishes, including The Wolverine, which covers Michigan, and Blue & Gold Illustrated, a magazine devoted to Notre Dame sports. "He has multiple publications," Phil said. "He has Virginia, he has North Carolina State, he has Notre Dame, he has Michigan. He can do a lot more than I can do." In some ways, BWI's history mirrors that of its sister publications. Like many team-specific magazines, it found an audience by emphasizing recruiting. That had been one of Phil's interests since the 1960s. He and his brother Bill had grown up in Lititz, Pa., sons of a Methodist minister. After enrolling at Penn State to study architecture, Bill de- veloped an intense interest in Nittany Lion sports, which he passed on to his younger sibling. Phil would devour whatever recruit- ing information he could find at the time. But aside from veteran sports- writer Ronnie Christ of the The (Harris- burg) Patriot-News, no one on the Penn State beat was particularly interested in recruiting, and Joe Paterno was quite happy to keep it that way. So Phil started covering it himself. He developed connections in the high school coaching community, making phone call after phone call to inquire about prospects. He made so many long-distance calls that he had a WATS line installed in his home so that he could pay a flat rate rather than by the minute. One of the people who had picked up a copy of Catch Lions Fever at the 1979 Blue-White Game was Tom We- ber, another recruiting maven. That fall, Weber partnered with Phil to start the G&W Recruiting Report. That publica- tion lasted more than 30 years and was a resource for coaching staffs across the country in the days before the internet changed the nature of recruiting cover- age. One of BWI's first editors, John Sev- erance, remembers Phil's devotion to recruiting news. "You have to hand it to him," Severance said. "He was always on the phone with a different high school coach, saying 'This guy is leaning toward Penn State, but this guy is probably go- ing to Michigan.' " Severance, who went on to work at the Centre Daily Times and Palm Beach Post and now lives in Oregon, was a key part of Phil's effort to upgrade BWI's Penn State coverage. Catch Lions Fever had lots of passion but not much polish. So Phil hired Mike Poorman, a future PSU journalism professor, and Poorman was succeeded by Severance. Under the two editors, BWI shed the fanzine sensibil- ity of its early years and became a more professional product. Over the years, some of the mainstays of the Penn State beat either worked full-time or freelanced for BWI. Mark Brennan, Sean Fitz, Nate Bauer and Ryan Snyder were among Phil's full-time hires, while the list of contributors is illustri- ous, including the likes of Neil Rudel, Gordie Jones, Rich Scarcella, Ryan Jones, Lou Prato, Ron Bracken and Jim Carlson. That cadre of talented writers helped BWI survive a few crises over the years, including the Sandusky scandal and the resulting NCAA sanctions, which kept Penn State out of the postseason and hindered its recruiting efforts. But when the pandemic hit last year, Phil began to think that it was time to step away from the day-to-day man- agement of the business. He and his wife, Priscilla, were both having health problems, and the uncertainty that COVID had wrought only made things worse. "When the pandemic came, I tried to run a business and take care of my wife full-time, and I just wore myself out," Phil said. "I didn't want my life to end the way it was progressing to end, so I just said, it's time. I had a great 40-plus- year run, and I've just got to end it." So now, at age 73, he's getting ready to downshift. He plans to continue writing guest columns for the magazine while also contributing to the website. In ad- dition, he said he's looking to write a book about his experiences as an entre- preneur, a recruiting analyst and a Penn State watcher. One of the themes of that book may well have to do with the power of per- sistence. Phil's career, dating back to that spring football game in 1979, is a testament to what a little willpower can accomplish. He's not a wordsmith but managed to make a living as a writer. He's not a conventional broadcaster but has been on the radio in State College for decades. That's where the persistence comes in. "If you work hard, you can do things that you never thought you could do," Phil said. "I learned how small the world is and met a lot of great people in the process. I always had an interest in this, and it enabled me to do something in life. I turned a hobby into a profession." ■ "I went from not knowing where my next dollar was going to come from to all of a sudden having close to 1,000 subscribers." P H I L G R O S Z

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