Blue White Illustrated

BLUE-WHITE GAME PREVIEW | PENN STATE VS. HOUSTON Steve Manuel J 22 Difficult times strengthen the resolve of PSU's star defensive tackle ordan Hill capped his first Blue- White Game as a Nittany Lion in 2009 the way he still does today, at a family tailgate. Though he was held without a statistic in the annual spring scrimmage, his spirits were high. A family-oriented kid, through and through, Hill was with his parents, Sue and Larry, his younger sisters, Janelle and Joslyn, and his high school sweetheart, Cristen, as well as some of her family, all gathered in a parking lot outside Holuba Hall. A P R I L 3 0 , 2 0 1 2 NAT E BAU ER|N B A U E R @ B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M Then, without warning, Larry, a hulking man of more than 6-feet, 300 pounds, collapsed into his son's arms. "My dad was sitting there talking to my girlfriend's uncle and he fell," Jor- dan said. "I was right behind him and I caught him. I'm like, 'Man, look at you falling!' I was laughing about it, but I looked at him and he was actually hav- ing a stroke." Sitting with one of her friends near- A diabetic, Larry had suffered a by, Cristen watched in shock as Lar- ry lost his balance and fell. "Nobody really knew what was going on, and before I knew it, Jordan was there picking him up and sitting him in a chair. It all just happened so fast," she said. "It was so crazy, but all I remem- ber was that Jordan was right there, picking him up and sitting him in the chair and making sure he was OK." He wasn't. stroke that would force him out of work and has kept him largely confined to his home in Steelton, Pa., ever since. Sue, a secretary for the superintend- ent at Steelton-Highspire High School, has been the family's sole income earner, and times are tight. Jordan doesn't dance around that fact. As a freshman, while his Penn State teammates were picking up electronic gadgets for themselves with a $420 Best Buy gift card courtesy of W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M

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