Blue White Illustrated

game film. Paterno set a new standard for attendance, and the give-and-take of the question-and-answer format is all the current membership knows. The members affected most by the ab- sence of the head coach are those living outside the immediate State College area. They drive in weekly from Altoona, Williamsport, Lewisburg, Lewistown, Clearfield and Erie. That's a long way to go just to socialize or listen to an under- ling. Steve Dudurich is a stockbroker and investment counselor from Clearfield who has been a member of the Quarter- back Club since 1986 and a season-tick- et holder before that. He was at the first four luncheons this year but passed up at least two others since. "The head coach is the face of the pro- gram, and without him the luncheons are not as much fun," Dudurich said. "It takes an hour for me to go over and an hour to come back and an hour and a half there. It's not a business trip, al- though I have taken a few clients over the years, so it takes a lot of out my day to be there. "I have nothing against the assistant coaches, but I like to see the interaction and the questions between the head coach and the fans. I just don't feel as connected to the program without the head coach. From the beginning, I was amazed that Joe would answer questions and anybody could ask him anything. We also learned a lot about football from what he said. Joe was relaxed, and it was a completely different Joe from what you would see on TV when the media asked him questions. When Mickey Bergstein was the MC, it was fun to listen to them banter back and forth because they had known each other for so long. They had come up together, Joe as a coach and Mickey as a broadcaster. Steve Jones is now the MC and he has been more def- erential to the head coach, but he also has a good sense of humor. Although O'Brien was not as relaxed and didn't seem to like taking questions, his video presentation was interesting and in- formative. You had to be close to the TV screens to see everything, but it was still fun." Despite Franklin's absences, the cur- rent club leaders say attendance has not been much different than during the last part of the Paterno years and O'Brien's two years. "The maximum we can have in the Mount Nittany Lounge is in the 470- 480 range because of line-of-sight to the stage," club president Pete Rohrer said, "and attendance is affected by the weather, if we've won or lost and who we're playing [the following Saturday]. In the last three years with Paterno, at- tendance went down because of his health, and [after he was fired] in 2011 we had to cancel the last three lunch- eons. With Bill O'Brien, attendance went up both years, and last year we av- eraged 367 people. [As of the Temple pregame luncheon] we are now averag- ing 348." That figure may seem inconsequential, but Rohrer concedes that the biggest el- ement in the attendance equation is the participation of the head coach. Even without the head coach, many members will attend for various reasons, primarily because it is also a social occasion. A large percentage of members are re- tirees, like Rohrer, and most are just av- erage fans, although some are big-time donors who get special privileges all the time. This is – or at least, has been – the one time when the "little people" get up close with the most powerful man of the kingdom. Guests who attend the luncheon for the first time are surprised when they learn that people begin lining up more than an hour before the doors open at 11 a.m. to get the seats closest to the plat- form where the head coach will be standing nearly three hours later. Rohrer admits that most of the 22 members of the club's board of directors – all volunteers – are concerned that Franklin's continued absences could eventually take a toll, not only in lunch- eon attendance but also in overall mem- bership, jeopardizing the annual team awards banquet. The annual dues run $75 to $150 and each luncheon costs $20. It's another $35 for the banquet, where fans get to mix with players and their families. Rohrer is serving an unprecedented three-year term as president, but his successor next year for the normal two- year tenure is worried about the future of the organization. "Anyone who's a Penn Stater knows we're based on tradition," said Lisa Schroeder, a member since 2003 and only the second woman president. "Our members have become accus- tomed to seeing and hearing from the head coach every week. A lot of our members have been involved for 20 to 30 to 40 years, maybe traveling up to three hours or so to get here, and it's been disheartening to not have our current coach present. These are very dedicated Penn Staters, not just foot- ball, and they go to games and give money to support all the sports, and some are big donors." Schroeder, a real estate broker, worries about members returning next year and in the future. "And what about our cor- porate sponsors who now give money and contribute to this group?" she said. "One of the benefits is they get to meet the head coach and have a photo taken with him. Will they continue with us? We like to hear from the players and the assistant coaches and others from the athletic department, but the head coach is still the No. 1 person everyone wants to see." Rohrer is convinced Franklin's deci- sion not to attend every luncheon has as much to do with his unfamiliarity with the club and its mission as with the daily pressure of time on today's high-profile, highly paid college coaches. When the directors met with Franklin for the first time last April, he told them that in all his experience, he had never heard of anything like the State College Quarter- back Club. "Coach Franklin spent an hour with us, and we had Coach Franklin's full at- tention for the entire time," Rohrer said. "He was not texting. He was not looking at his phone. He was not looking at his watch. He was making contributions and making suggestions and changes he wanted to make. That's when he told us he would come for one [luncheon] and if he had time he would show up for more.

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