Blue White Illustrated

H I S T O R Y FIELD OF DREAMS Beaver, above, was instrumental in helping Penn State acquire the funds needed to build the field that would later bear his name. In 1960, it be- came Beaver Stadium. Photos courtesy of Penn State Athletic Communications and the University Archives One of the university's early leaders laid the foundation for the house that Joe built WHAT'S IN A NAME? mous facility came to being named for a rich donor 120 years ago. A plaque on a big stone outside the W 34 student gate cites sketchy – and some erroneous – information about the man for whom the stadium was named: James A. Beaver. But it would take a larger monument to detail everything M A R C H 2 , 2 0 1 2 ith the intensity increasing to alter the name of Beaver Sta- dium to honor coach Joe Pa- terno, one might be surprised to learn how close the now-fa- L O U P R A T O | B L U E W H I T E Beaver did to earn that recognition. He is the historical 19th century equiva- lent of Paterno for what he did to make the university what it is today. Historian Michael Bezilla, author of the definitive history of the school, "Penn State: An Illustrated History," agrees: "A case could be made that Beaver was the most influential figure in Penn State's first hundred years. In almost every way beyond academics – C O N T R I B U T O R in athletics and in politics and in stu- dent affairs (the students loved him and saw a lot of him, year after year after year) and in cultivating relation- ships with donors – Beaver played a key role. It was Beaver, for example, who convinced fellow trustee Andrew Carnegie to make a gift that helped to create the Blue Band." Lee Stout, the retired university archivist, says Beaver was the most powerful trustee for 40 years and at a time, at the turn of the century, when the college was in crisis. "He was the closest advisor to four presidents dur- ing his tenure, from 1873 to 1914, and a champion of the students. He could get very agitated with the faculty in de- fense of the students, and he is the person responsible for the earliest student aid in the form of senatorial scholarships." Yet, when the name of the original football field was chosen, Beaver al- 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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