Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/420483
IN THE SWING Ficken has repeatedly been called on to salvage drives gone awry. In the Nittany Lions' re- cent loss to Maryland, he scored 13 of their 19 points. Photo by Steve Manuel four 8eld goal attempts and an extra point. To truly appreciate what Ficken has accomplished at Penn State during the past three seasons, it's necessary to revisit that game and its a9ermath. Or maybe just the a9ermath, be- cause that's the part that really sent him on his way. The outcry that followed the Nittany Lions' 17-16 loss in Charlottesville was predictably brutal. Had he been campaigning in the State College mayoral race, well, let's just say it wouldn't have gone to a run-off. Ficken received a barrage of message-board and talk-radio flak, along with 150 disparaging emails, of which, about 15 contained death threats. "I was a little shocked by that," he said. So he avoided social media for a while, and he also re- flected on his own experiences as a fan. Ficken had fol- lowed the Chicago Cubs while growing up in Valparaiso, Ind., and like so many Cubs fans, he was angry when the hard-luck franchise lost the pennant in 2003 after falling apart in game six of the National League Cham- pionship Series. That was the game in which a previously anonymous fan named Steve Bartman became an instant pariah after interfering with Moises Alou as he tried to catch a foul ball, a moment so cataclysmic in the eyes of Cubs fans that it now has its own lengthy Wikipedia page. "At that time, when Steve Bartman caught that ball, I was pissed," Ficken said. "But through my experiences [a9er the Virginia game], I felt sympathy for the guy. I've been there. That's sports. Fans are going to get mad. That's the reality of things. If you don't perform to your ability,