Penn State Sports Magazine
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WISH WACK Cheer- leaders wore pink ribbons for the Nit- tany Lions' game against Michigan in 2010. The gesture was in recognition of Penn State's orig- inal school colors – pink and black. countless photo PennStateLive loose and charged the Baylor marching band. Notre Dame's famous gold hel- mets are a big part of its tradition, but that didn't prevent Adidas, the apparel company that outfits the team, from unveiling a new look that the Irish will wear for a neutral-site game next month against Miami. The uniforms feature a helmet with an asymmetrical design that's roughly 66 percent gold, 33 per- cent blue and, to hear many of the program's subway alumni tell it, 100 percent ugly. What made Penn State different from those schools was the feeling that its traditions would remain forever un- changed. There might be a new kid in- side the Nittany Lion costume from one year to the next, but the costume itself would always stay the same. The uniforms might undergo minor tweaks here and there – a stripe added or subtracted, a patch relocated – but they would remain unmistakably plain. Penn State might not be unique in having an array of game day traditions, but it could cling to them with a crazed ferocity, insisting that they never be tampered with in any way, shape or form. O'Brien reinforced those feelings when he said following his introduction in January that he had no intention of changing the uniforms. Players, he said, "are going to learn right away how important the team is to me. So no names on the back of the jerseys, a modest uniform – white helmets, blue jerseys – those are the things that are very, very important to me. I can tell you right now that we are not touching that. That is a huge part of what we are all about." But six months later, circumstances had changed drastically. A succession of awful news – the Sandusky trial, the Freeh report, the NCAA's announce- ment of major sanctions – had created an environment in which Penn State seemingly needed to make a clean break with the past. O'Brien was suc- cinct when asked whether the changes might annoy traditionalists. Said the Nittany Lions' first-year coach, "Turn the page." Turning the page is not an easy thing for Penn Staters to do, especially now. And while the devotion to tradition might seem suffocating at times, it's indicative of the passion that students and alumni have for Penn State. In August, the school finished first in the inaugural College Colors Day Spirit Cup competition. Fans were encouraged to "pledge allegiance" to their school through an online voting effort organ- ized by the Collegiate Licensing Com- pany. Penn State received 44,801 pledges, outdistancing Texas A&M, Missouri, West Virginia and Alabama. Online polling may not be a scientific way of determining whose school has the most devoted fans. But the results of the College Colors poll jibed with those of a New York Times survey con- ducted in 2011 that used a variety of measures, such as Web clicks, online polling and game attendance, to de- termine which college football program had the most fans. Penn State finished third in that survey behind Michigan and Ohio State. O'Brien has been mindful of the need to keep those fans engaged. But he's also been plowing ahead. He was asked recently about the team's ride to the stadium and whether he would be the first one off the bus as Paterno always was. "I might be driving the bus," he said. "Do you need a special license to drive one of those things? People had better get out of the way if I'm driving it."