Search This Blog

Saturday, October 04, 2008

This Tallahassee Crowd Cheered as Joe Paterno Passed Bobby Bowden

Last week when Joe Paterno passed out Bobby Bowden as the winningest college coach - we attended a big celebration in town. No - we weren't at the home of a local Gator fan - we were at Hobbit Hoagies near Park Avenue where the Northwest Florida Chapter of the Penn State Alumni meet.

Every Saturday - the groups meets to watch the Nittany Lions play football on the television. They have a large loyal membership. When I wrote the article about the weather delay at FSU's opening game - Larry DiPietro wrote to me and invited me to their meeting. We were having house guests - two teachers from West Palm Beach. They are big Penn State fans so we thought they would enjoy the meeting with the PSU Alums and swapping stories.

Check their website at - www.psutally.org


Back when I taught in the Pennsylvania public schools for 33 years - I enjoyed the good natured ribbing from all of the Penn State grads in the faculty room. The ratio was pretty unbearable - about 35 PSU fans to 1 FSU fan - me. Lulu had gotten her doctorate at FSU in 1990 - and we have been staunch Nole fans ever since. Lucky for me - in the 1990's Florida State was hot - and Penn State was not and fans were going through a few years of "fire JoePa - he's too old."

At first -when we entered the bar with our Seminole game shirts on - the locals reminded us that most of the tables were reserved for the Penn State Club. When I reminded them that we were all born and raised in Pennsylvania - and that we were invited by Joey Dee - they let us join in any reindeer games. Anyone transplanted in Tallahassee from Penn's Woods would enjoy listening to the old Pennsylvania dialect as they share a Yuengling or two.

Our two house guests - Matt and Allison - are special to me. Years ago - they were students in my 7th grade Earth and Space Science classes in the coal regions of Pennsylvania. They became friends for life when they wrote to Bobby Bowden and asked for a signed photo for my birthday. Even in 7th grade - they were pretty smart students. Every year they make the 7 hour drive up from the Gold Coast to see a Seminole game and visit their old school marm. Matt got his teaching degree at Penn State University.

Unfortunately they saw a disappointing game where Wake Forest tacked its third loss in a row on FSU. But it was fun seeing them cheer for Joe Paterno and the Nits as the near-sighted old English professor from Brown University became the winningest college coach of all time. And they celebrated in Tallahassee.

No comments: