Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1464375
M A Y 2 0 2 2 19 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M FIVE YEARS AGO, 2017 On a banner day for coach John Gondak's track and field programs, the Penn State men took first place at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships, while the women finished third. The three-day meet took place at Penn State, making the Nittany Lions' performance that much sweeter. "This has been personally a date I've had on the calendar for three years when we first found out we were going to host in 2017 as the goal to host a great championship and have two teams that could contend," Gondak said. "It's been a fantastic year. Our women finished second in cross country and won in- doors [at the Big Ten meet in February], and we finished third today. To be top-three during all three seasons is outstanding. "Our men were second indoors and first outdoors, so both programs are in a great spot right now, and we have some outstanding recruits coming in. … The future is really bright." The stars for the Penn State men were Isaiah Harris, who captured his fourth Big Ten 800-meter title with a time of 1 minute, 49.68 seconds; and Malik Moffett, who won both the long jump (8.00 meters) and the 200 (19.87 seconds). On the women's side, Danae Rivers claimed the 800-meter title in 2:04.14, completing an indoor-outdoor sweep in the two Big Ten championship events. 10 YEARS AGO, 2012 Bill O'Brien had been virtually unknown to Penn State fans less than six months earlier, but when the inaugural Coaches Caravan made its way around the Mid-Atlantic region in April and May, the Nittany Lions' new head football coach was the star of the show. O'Brien had come to Penn State from the relative anonym- ity of an NFL assistant coaching job; he had been the New England Patriots' offensive coordinator and a Bill Belichick protégé. But when he took the Penn State job, he became the most outward-facing employee at an embattled university. The fallout from the Sandusky scandal was continuing to un- fold, and the purpose of the caravan, an 18-stop, 2,000-mile trek to blue-and-white strongholds throughout Pennsylvania and the surrounding states, was to give PSU supporters some- thing to feel good about after months of devastating headlines. "I want them to know that I'm in charge of a football pro- gram that is part of a great athletic program that is part of a very, very special university," O'Brien said while meeting with reporters prior to a stop in Philadelphia. "I want them to know that myself and our staff — we are going to work extremely hard to continue the tradition of winning football games and graduating players." 25 YEARS AGO, 1997 Penn State went the distance against UCLA in the semifinals of the NCAA Men's Volleyball Championships at Columbus, Ohio. After the Bruins had taken two of the first three sets, the Nittany Lions clawed back to win the fourth. But UCLA outlasted Penn State in the decisive fifth set, 15- 10, and advanced to the title game, where it lost in five sets to Stanford. The match was the last for one of the program's all-time great players, outside hitter Ivan Contreras. As a freshman in 1994, the Tampico, Mexico, native had helped the Nittany Lions become the first team from outside of California to win a national title in men's volleyball. In 1997, he won National Player of the Year honors from the American Volleyball Coaches Association, and he spearheaded the Lions' return to the final four in his last season, but he wasn't able to lift them to another national championship. — Matt Herb This Month in Penn State Athletics History New football coach Bill O'Brien was the headliner when Penn State embarked upon its first Coaches Caravan in May 2012. PHOTO COURTESY PENN STATE ATHLETICS