Blue White Illustrated

ment intensified as the Penn State peo- ple told him about the lounge and the special parking lot across the street. One of the Michigan visitors had been trail- ing behind, and when he approached the group, Schembechler grabbed him, led him to the windows, pointed at the parking lot and exclaimed, "Not only do the lettermen have this great lounge, but my god, they have their own parking lot, too. We've gotta do something like this for our guys!" Little did I or Bo know at the time that the creation of the lounge and parking lot can be traced to a former Michigan letterman who also had earned a letter at Ohio State. And that Winnebago RV from Ohio. The player was J.T. White, who later became a longtime Penn State assistant coach under Rip Engle and Joe Paterno. Because of World War II, J.T. had been a center on the national championship teams of Ohio State in 1942 and Michi- gan in '47. He was an outstanding coach but also a character who was loved by the Nittany Lion players, not just the ones he coached. Buddy Tesner was such a player, a linebacker on the 1972- 74 teams from Warren, Ohio, and Bud- dy's uncle owned the Winnebago. It's a colorful tale of how Buddy, the Winnebago and J.T gave birth to the Let- terman's Club, and you can read it all on the Penn State athletic department website. Here's the ultra-abbreviated rendition: Buddy had only seen a couple of games at Beaver Stadium since his graduation. He had gone to medical school in Missouri and in the fall of 1980 was interning at a hospital in Warren, living in the basement of his grand- mother's house. He decided to go to a Penn State game and tailgate with team- mate Tom Donchez, so he borrowed his uncle's Winnebago. As the day went, on they bumped into several former team- mates and many of them joined the postgame tailgate. With the tailgating reaching a crescendo, the group decided to drive the RV to see J.T. J.T. climbed aboard the RV, and after a short time the mobile partygoers went to the homes of three other retired assistant coaches – Tor Toretti, Frank Patrick and Jim O'Hora – all of whom piled into the Winnebago. Sometime between the exag- gerated storytelling and the opening of another beer can, J.T. teased the players about the Winnebago and not having a lettermen's organization that gets togeth- er for formal reunions and social gather- ings like the ones he was involved with at Ohio State and Michigan. Great idea, they all agreed. Let's get Joe Paterno to help. It was near midnight, but off went the Winnebago and its rollicking crew to Pa- terno's house, where the coach and his family were still entertaining their postgame VIPs, including bowl game reps. The Paternos invited the 15 or so revelers to join them, turning what had been a relatively quiet gathering into New Year's Eve. "Sue convinced Joe we should have the club," Buddy told me recently. "She was the [force] behind it and came to our first few meetings." Sue told them the first thing they needed to do was to write bylaws, which is just what Tesner did. A few years later, Tesner, by then a prominent orthopedic surgeon in Columbus, helped convince a local high school star to enroll at Penn State, and that turned out well, too. The player's name was Ki-Jana Carter. When Carter was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame last year, he asked Buddy to introduce him. The first official gathering of the let- termen took place in 1982 at the student union building. Some 800 people, in- cluding family and guests, were there. As the reunions continued annually, the lettermen wanted their own special meeting place, and they finally reached that goal in 2001. Actually, the Letterman's Club is loosely organized, with a president who serves for two years, a president-elect and an executive committee that in- cludes three other members. However, the board rarely meets except to help plan the yearly reunions and the now- annual summer golf tournament. As Richardson said, "There is no one per- son who speaks on behalf of the Letter- man's Club." From the beginning, the club has been an independent organization with limited financial assistance from the athletic de- partment and an assigned administrator serving as liaison. Perhaps the key person in helping the club through many years before and after the Letterman's Lounge was Michele "Mike" Franzetta, a long- time football staff assistant, who main- tained the records, protected the players' privacy and became a close friend to many of them. She retired in 2010, and Richardson now has Angie Hummel, who works out of the Lasch Building, to help him with the details of running the club. Buddy Tesner still marvels at how it all started with him and his uncle's Win- nebago. "Right place at the right time," he said. "And I'm proud that's my legacy." There's just one thing missing from the Letterman's Lounge. A photo of that Winnebago. ■ K I C K O F F I S S U E

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