Blue White Illustrated

in Washington, D.C., and he applied for Lehman's vacant position as assistant secretary and editor of alumni publica- tions. On April 1, 1970, John started his own long career in the alumni office, of- ficially retiring in 2001 but continuing to write the Football Letter. Many of today's younger alumni don't realize how vital the Football Letter has been through the decades. When Ridge began writing it in 1938, the letter was the primary source for information about the Nittany Lions for alumni who lived outside of Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh's KDKA was just beginning its radio broad- casts of games, and television was nonex- istent. The early issues of the Football Letter were hand-typed, one to three pages long, mimeographed and mailed. Nowadays, the print edition of the newsletter only goes out to a small num- ber of subscribers, with most Alumni As- sociation members receiving the digital edition that is published every Monday in the fall. A personal style Although Ridge is generally believed to have created the Football Letter, it was actually conceived by Ralph Hetzel, Penn State's president at the time. Hetzel had heard about a weekly football publication that was being sent to University of Wis- consin alumni, and he asked Ridge to produce a similar letter for Penn State. Ridge made his letter more personal and in his own style. "His wit and ability to go beyond facts to capture cheers of crowds and smells of the locker room made the Football Letter interesting, informative and entertaining," wrote Marian T. Glosky in her Town & Gown article. "His personal style was that of one loyal alum personally talking to another about the football team and how the players represented the University," said John Black. "His closing of every letter was 'Faithfully, Your Correspondent,'." An example of that style showed up in his first letter, a preseason look at the team that was dated Sept. 26, 1938: "This Nittany Lion team of ours won't have a defeatist attitude even against the tough- est opponent on the schedule – you can be sure of that. … Most encouraging thing we have noticed is the manner in which the boys dig in and work." That 1938 team finished 3-4-1, and Ridge never saw an- other losing season because Penn State went the next 50 years without one. John Black began writing the Football Letter in the 1976 season and he remem- bered how the annual Ridge Riley Award in football was conceived that year. "Dick and Arlene Small were the own- ers of a travel agency that Ridge had worked with to develop our bowl tours in the early 1960s, and that expanded into a half-dozen other alumni tours over the course of a year," John said. "They be- came close friends. When he passed away, they wanted to do something to show their appreciation of him and his connection to the football program with his name carried on in a meaningful way. They talked with Joe and [athletic direc- tor] Jim Tarman and hit on this idea of a sportsmanship award, and they put the money up to endow it." Among the best-known winners of the award are Paul Suhey (1978), Mike Guman (1979), Leo Wisniewski (1981), Scott Radecic (1983), Lance Hamilton (1985), Al Golden (1991), Wally Richard- son (1996), Tim Shaw (2006), Sean Lee (2009) and Matt McGloin (2012). Wrestling's Ridge Riley Award is gen- erally credited to Rich Lorenzo, the sec- ond-winningest head coach in school history after the legendary Charlie Spei- del. Lorenzo coached the Lions for 14 seasons after taking over for another Penn State legend, Bill Koll, in 1979, winning 188 matches compared to Spei- del's 191 over 33 years. "I'm one of the people who came up with the award, but there were others in the wrestling [booster] club," Lorenzo said. "Ridge was such a strong supporter of wrestling going back to Charlie Spei- del. I used to see him in Rec Hall when I was a young wrestler and I got to know him when I was an assistant coach for Bill Koll. We thought a lot of him and he went to a lot of away matches. So we wanted to thank him and honor him for us." Connie Christiansen, the historian for the wrestling club, traced the origin of the award: "Rich met on May 21, 1981, with about 20 loyal fans and 're- founded' the PS Wrestling Club. Galen Dreibelbis was first president, Larry Reilly headed the publicity committee, Joe Stach was the first membership chairman, and Ben Neibel chaired a committee aimed at clarifying Club by- laws and operational procedures. … This award was formed in those early years by the suggestions of the above mentioned early club officers with Rich directing the importance for having it named the Ridge Riley Award. [The] award identi- fies 'the wrestler who was recognized as having outstanding performance at each home meet.' This wrestler is identified by the PSU wrestling coach." Now you know about the namesake for the football and wrestling awards. So, the next time you're on campus, pay homage to the man and take a walk on the Ridge Riley Bridge. His spirit might be looking over your shoulder. ■

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