Blue White Illustrated

two hours prior to the kickoff. From there, the players walk to the tunnel en- trance through a roped-off area between a phalanx of cheering fans on both sides. At least the buses are still operating, bringing the team from the main locker room at the football building as they have done for more than five decades. Completely gone this year is TailGreat, a pregame pep rally and alcohol-free party inside the Bryce Jordan Center that featured the Penn State Blue Band enter- taining the crowd by playing the same music it would use later that day inside the stadium. Sometimes the opposing team's band also joined in the festivities. TailGreat was a youngster compared to the blue buses. It was created in 1994 as an alternative to the traditional tailgating in the parking lots and a way to attract more attention to the Blue Band. Thankfully, the band is now part of the new players' walk to the tunnel, but that hasn't dissipated the complaints from fans who had been TailGreat regulars. No one is happy when a tradition they have come to love and respect is changed. Yet few traditions, at least in football, are meant for eternity. That's certainly been true at Penn State, starting with the uniforms of the first team in 1887. Its pink-and-black color scheme was meant for the 19th century not the 20th and 21st. For nearly nine decades, from 1904- 1992, the last game of the regular season was almost always against the University of Pittsburgh, and the rivalry was one of the best in college football. It was a tra- dition that ended with Penn State's entry into the Big Ten Conference in 1993, and the Nittany Lions are still without a ri- valry to match the swagger and the bit- terness of the old Pitt-Penn State games. In the early days of Penn State football, there was one tradition that stood out, and it is still my favorite from the past: the bonfire celebrations. Historian Lee Stout traces the first bon- fire to the night of Nov. 12, 1892, after an 18-0 win over Bucknell, then Penn State's No. 1 rival, and it continued well into the 20th century. The student population had grown from 282 in 1892 to nearly 2,561 in 1914, but the town and campus were still miniscule compared to today. Technology was radically different, too. For long-distance road games, the team traveled by train, usually from a station in Lemont, and that inspired an- other tradition that lasted for years. Stu- dents and townspeople would follow the horse-drawn wagons to and from the train station, with impromptu pep rallies taking place when the team left and when it returned. Naturally, the size and enthusiasm of the crowd varied depend- ing on the importance of the game and the eventual outcome, proving that some things never change. On game day, the students gathered in the Armory – a multipurpose building that included a gymnasium and was lo- cated about where Willard Building is today. That's where the students and faculty could follow the on-field "ac- tion" through the sparse information fed by telegraph.

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