Blue White Illustrated

The fans love it, and everyone is more relaxed. Even head coach Joe Paterno, in his last 25 or so years, seemed to em- brace the easygoing spirit of the after- noon. He would spend most of the morning with Nittany Lion Club mem- bers at a special pregame breakfast and then watch the game in the press box as a commentator for the Penn State radio broadcast. The fans not only could enjoy a game without worrying about losing to a reviled opponent like Pitt or Ohio State, but they also could min- gle with the players and get au- tographs in a popular pregame event. In the early years, particularly before tailgating at the Blue- White Game turned into an all- day affair, the Penn State track team had a meet inside the sta- dium following the game, or the baseball team played before or after on its nearby home field. That aspect continues to this day, with various competitions throughout the weekend in the spring sports: lacrosse, baseball, softball, tennis, golf and track. In the early 2000s, a small carnival with a Ferris wheel and merry-go-round was added for the three-day weekend in the west parking lot Friday afternoon with live music and food vendors not far away and fireworks at night. Paterno's wife, Sue, inaugurated a 5K run Sunday morning in 2010 to raise money for the Special Olympics. The carnival, live mu- sic and fireworks disappeared after 2014, but various events are still held on cam- pus Friday afternoon and evening in conjunction with the Blue-White Game, and just like in the fall, the motor homes start pulling into the State College area on Thursday. The weekend has become a fan fa- vorite, evolving from a Saturday after- noon diversion in the 1950s and '60's into one of Penn State's most durable and loveable traditions, a three-day cel- ebration for the football-starved masses of Nittany Lion Nation. Only about 500 fans attended the first Blue-White Game at State College High School's Memorial Field in 1951, but in recent years, the event has routinely drawn large and fes- tive crowds ranging up to a record 78,000 in 2008. The attendance depends primarily on the weather and fans' enthusiasm for the upcoming football season. In those early years, the assistant coaches who ran the two teams picked their squads NFL Draft style, trying to balance the talent on each squad. Later, it was the first team as designated at the end of the spring on one side and the second team on the other, with the other players, including many walk-ons, participating with the third and fourth teams. Often the crowd is impressed by one of those unknown substitutes or walk-ons who may never play in the fall but who get their 15 minutes of Penn State foot- ball fame in the spring. The estimated 30,000 fans at the rainy 2002 game may have forgotten about running back Aric Heffelfinger, who gained 92 yards on five rushes. But the walk-on from Leesburg, Va., was designated the Most Valuable Player by Paterno's equipment and facil- ities honchos, Spider Caldwell and Kirk Diehl, who annually selected the game's MVP but never publicly announced it. That fall, Heffelfinger ran two times for a loss of 1 yard. In O'Brien's first Blue-White Game, he still had the officiating and yard marker guys there in full regalia and the score- board running, but he changed it from an actual game. O'Brien matched the of- fense against the defense in a more con- trolled scrimmage with a convoluted scoring system that had been used in other college spring games. Touchdowns still produced six points and field goals three points, but the offense could also score two points on plays of 15-plus yards and for making two consecutive first downs. The defense scored six points on an interception or fumble and another point if that turnover resulted in a touchdown, four points on a sack and one point on a three-and-out. The de- fense won, 77-65, with five intercep- tions and eight sacks. The next spring, the defense won again, 67-47, but what happened on the second play of that 2013 contest omi- nously portended the endangerment of the Blue-White Game. Rising junior running back Zach Zwinak, who had rushed for 1,000 yards the previous sea- son after starting the year as the third- string tailback, was injured. It was a routine play. Projected as the starting tailback, the 6-foot-1, 234-pound Zwinak had run for 16 yards on the first play of the game and then caught a pass for 14 yards before being tackled by safe- ty Malik Golden. The result was a seri- ous wrist injury that limited Zwinak's participation in summer workouts. He recovered and went on to lead the team again in rushing. But with Penn State's GAME RESET O'Brien changed the spring game's scoring format and mulled discontinu- ing it altogether due to PSU's scholar- ship limitations. Photo by Bill Zim- merman

• Cover