Blue White Illustrated

It's a spring tradition, but does it have a future? W hen the annual rite of spring prac- tice began for Penn State's 2016 football team, I began wondering if the traditional Blue-White Game that has marked the ceremonial end of the spring drills for 60 years is an endan- gered species. Technically, endangered species are wildlife, like the black rhinoceros and Bengal tiger, threatened with extinction. The Eastern mountain lion, which begat the Nittany Lion mascot in 1908, was declared officially extinct by the U.S. Wildlife Federation in 1973, and the Nit- tany Lion's soul mate, the African lion, is on the vulnerable list, just below the endangered category as defined by con- servationists. Like the African lion, the Blue-White Game as we have known it is now vul- nerable. In fact, one can conclude that all spring practice games in college football could be an endangered species based on what has happened in the past few years. Until coach Bill O'Brien altered the format in the spring of 2012, Penn State's Blue-White scrimmage had been treated for decades almost like a fall game, with tailgating outside the stadi- um and a real game inside it. There were tweaks in the actual game over the decades that included the elimination of kickoffs and punts, allowing certain players to switch sides during the action and the use of a running game clock in the second half. But the officiating and chain crews were always there, the scoreboard was on and running, and, since at least the 1980s, the cheerlead- ers, Nittany Lion mascot and the Blue Band have been an integral part of the Blue-White Game. BOLT FROM THE BLUE Akeel Lynch and Chris- tian Hacken- berg teamed up in last year's Blue- White Game. Photo by Bill Zimmerman HISTORY

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