Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/433715
throughout the 8rst half and into the third quarter, perhaps bothered by the knowl- edge they had no chance at the national championship a;er No. 1 Nebraska had beaten Miami, 24-17, the night before in the Orange Bowl. However, with the score tied 14-14 8ve minutes into the third quarter, a 72-yard kicko9 return by redshirt freshman Am- brose Fletcher set up a 17-yard touchdown by Carter. Minutes later, a virtually un- known fourth-string cornerback named Chuck Penzenik, who started the game because of injuries, returned a mid8eld interception to Oregon's 13-yard line. Three plays later, Carter scored a 3-yard touchdown to break the game wide open. Penn State went on to win, 38-20. Carter shared the Player of the Game award with Oregon's senior quarterback Danny O'Neil, who broke a 32-year Rose Bowl record by completing 41 of 61 passes for 456 yards. O'Neil's performance must have been more impressive to the Rose Bowl hierarchy, because he was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame 11 years ago. Carter has lived in south Florida since 1995 and owns a new kind of environ- mental technology business that has clien- tele around the world. The move south goes back to the day he met O. J. McDu:e at Penn State while on an uno:cial re- cruiting visit in the summer of 1990 before his senior year in high school. McDu:e, a consensus All-America receiver in 1992 who set multiple school receiving records, was a fellow Ohioan, and the two bonded immediately. They've been close friends ever since. While playing for the Miami Dolphins, McDu:e decided to make his permanent residence in Florida. When Carter grad- uated, he decided to join his friend. "I was turning pro, and I knew I couldn't go back to Ohio because they still were not happy with me for leaving Ohio State," Carter said. "At the same time, I wanted to train somewhere where the weather was nice, so with O.J. playing for the Dol- phins, I checked out the area and fell in love with it. We lived in the same town and then bought houses next to each other in Plantation. And now I'm the godfather to his two sons." Carter, a bachelor who was raised by his mother without his father, eventually bought a house for her in Florida, and she lives nearby. Carter said he's proud of his induction into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame because he is proud of his coach, his teammates and the university that made it happen. "I'm true blue and never steered away from the university," Carter said. "I feel bad for Coach Paterno himself. When he was coaching, I'd go up to Penn State once or twice a year, but in his last year I was there six times for games and stu9. It was eerie, because I wondered why I came up there so much. I didn't know he was sick. "We always think of the 'Paterno Way' in doing the right thing. And even in that situation, he did what he was taught to do and supposed to do. But he got vili8ed for actions he had no control over. I'm glad people are now digging in to see what kind of conspiracy was really going on, because that man didn't deserve to go out like that. "Everything was a rush to judgment. Every school, every media outlet, every- body on the planet wanted to vilify Penn State. But it actually brought our alumni base and our university closer together in solidarity. We know it's us against the world. I'm proud of being a Penn Stater. We know how special this university is, and we're going to let everybody know it." ■ i-Jana Carter is occasionally cited as one of the biggest disappointments in NFL Draft history, but the multiple injuries that short-circuited his profes- sional career helped lead to his thriving eco-friendly sanitary technology business, which specializes in the disinfection of the so-called superbug MRSA. That's the contagious bacteria better known as norovirus, which has become familiar to the general public because it has been so prevalent lately on cruise ships. It's also widespread in hospitals and nursing homes, where it affects pa- tients with weakened immune systems. Carter started his company, ByoGlobe, in 2008 in a nondescript office park in Davie, Fla., not far from the Miami Dol- phins' training facility. Today, his business is booming out of an office-warehouse complex in Fort Lauderdale as he supplies products to a range of clients, including health clubs, athletic teams, schools and cruise lines, as well as individuals. Al- though he declined to reveal his annual sales volume, he has six full-time em- ployees and dozens of independent con- tractors who are involved with selling and marketing his products. "At first I went into this to try to do something to help the environment before the whole green wave came," Carter said. "We were kind of in that sector and are still there. But it's still growing and chang- ing, and I'm excited with what we're do- ing. Carter had never heard of MRSA back in 1995, when he was the overall No. 1 choice in the NFL Draft. The Cincinnati Bengals had traded their first- and sec- ond-round selections to the Carolina Panthers to take Carter less than four months after his All-America career at Penn State had ended in the Rose Bowl. The Bengals gave him a $7.125 signing bonus, a record at the time, and a seven- year contract worth up to $19.2 million. They expected the native of suburban K Carter makes smooth transition from sports to business world |