Blue White Illustrated

COLLEGE HALL HONORS BOWES Penn State letterman Bill Bowes has been elected to the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach for his time at the University of New Hampshire, it was announced Jan. 8 by the National Football Foundation. An end, Bowes lettered for the Nittany Lions from 1962-64. He was a captain on the '64 team that won the Lambert Trophy. Bowes is the 24th member (18 play- ers, six coaches) of the Penn State football family to be elected to the Col- lege Hall of Fame. Linebacker Shane Conlan was the most recent inductee, in 2014. Bowes will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Dec. 6. Following his graduation, Bowes served as a graduate assistant for the Lions for the 1965 season before join- ing the UNH coaching staff. He was the recipient of the Penn State Univer- sity Alumni Athlete Award in 2000. A native of Blanchard, Pa., Bowes is the winningest coach in Yankee/At- lantic 10 Conference history, posting a 175-106-5 record during his 27 seasons at New Hampshire. He took the reins in 1972, becoming the youngest head coach in the program's history, and went on to lead UNH to four Yankee Conference titles and four NCAA play- off appearances. TIDE WIN MOORE AWARD The in- augural Joe Moore Award for Offensive Linemen, which Lou Prato wrote about in the Dec. 18 edition of BWI, was won by Alabama at the end of the regular season. The other finalists for the award, which is named for a Penn State graduate, were Arkansas, Iowa, Michi- gan State, Notre Dame and Stanford. the unease and near panic by many fans after the multiple coaching changes and player transfers that unexpectedly fol- lowed the TaxSlayer Bowl, fan loyalty should be a priority. Obviously, the firing of Paterno and the draconian 2012 NCAA sanctions have had continued reverberations within the Penn State football nation. But this isn't about that aspect of Nit- tany Lion football. Sure, there is a large segment of fans who want to see Pater- no's reputation restored and his statue reinstalled and another faction that is convinced he and others are as guilty as the Freeh report declared. That will all be resolved in time. However, from my perspective, even the most fervent Paterno supporters want the players who wear those classic plain blue-and-white jerseys to succeed on the field. They'll spend their money – up to a point – to show their loyalty to the team, but they also want that loyalty acknowledged and returned. Too fre- quently in the past few years, even be- fore the 2011 season, that loyalty has been tested by the university's decision- makers. The controversial STEP initia- tive of 2010-11 still rankles thousands of longtime season-ticket holders, and nu- merous other changes since then have aggravated rather than alleviated the discontent. Sure, loyalty can be bought by win- ning. But true loyalty emerges when fans are still there during the difficult and troublesome times, as was the case at the TaxSlayer Bowl. And if you don't think loyal fans have an impact in this era of greed and self-indulgence in col- lege football, look no further than the loyal fans who saved the job of LSU head coach Les Miles this past season, stand- ing by him when his bosses planned to let him go. The absence of players and coaches at the pep rally was part of a trend that has eroded the loyal Penn State fan base. Loyalty and traditions don't seem to matter as much anymore as the money to feed the beast becomes the priority. Maybe this is a tsunami for the tradi- tional Penn State football nation. Maybe Penn State is no longer different but just like everyone else in college football. Maybe the younger Penn State fans don't really care about tradition and loy- alty as long as the team wins. If so, than maybe we need to change the last words of our famous cheer to We are… like everyone else. ■ A new Penn State football book by Lou Prato with a forward by Adam Taliaferro The Remarkable Journey of the 2012 Nittany Lions Price: $14.95 plus shipping Published by Triumph Books (soft cover) Autographed copies available via louprato@comcast.net or through Lou Prato & Associates at 814-954-5171 Autographed copies of Lou's book We Are Penn State: The Remarkable Journey of the 2012 Nittany Lions are still available via louprato@comcast.net or through Lou Prato & Associates at 814-272-1853. Price: $19.95 plus tax where applicable and shipping N O T E B O O K

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