Please explain your PSU fandom

[HikeNatParks]

Slick thread full of cool personals. Mine, not so much. Will only say that our HS didn’t start a wrestling program till my 10th grade (near Pittsburgh), but I joined and enjoyed. Always fascinated with the NCAA tournament, Cael’s move to PSU had me at hello. Selfishly want another 15 years before the goodbye.
Should be all Cael needs for an untouchable legacy of 20-to-25 team titles.

 

[CTStall]

B

I recall watching PSU wrestling Lehigh with Darryl Burley I believe on PBS, back when I was in HS. My HS had good dual teams in the late 70’s/80’s as well. When I roomed with my HS friend who was a room guy, my fate was sealed. Doing two years of grad school at Iowa didn’t hurt either. But before Internet proliferation of coverage there was a lull in the interest.

Burley was awesome. He was a scoring machine. Wrestled one year with basically one hand and made it to finals if I recall .

 

[CTStall]

Aww, thx for posting today, Mrs. Jefe.

El Jefe was AI before AI was developed.

 

[CTStall]

Side note; was in the Philippines between 1985-1988 and if you recall, PSU played at least three championship games, ’82 Georgia, ’85 Oklahoma and ’86 Miami. My brother would send me cassette tapes of the football games in-season and I’d get them 10 days later; would listen to them and then send him back personalized 'letters from the field’.
Would follow Top 20 football in Monday edition of the Manila Bulletin, no stories, just results. Tried to tune into the ’85 Orange Bowl with a boom box on my shoulder as I rotated in a field trying to get Armed Forces Radio signal. Moved from the boondocks to a larger city in time for ’86 Fiesta Bowl and had a friend install jerry-rig a ‘radio antennae’ onto our roof. Got ‘most’ of the game, (13 hours ahead) but can still recall announcer saying on the final play, ‘...and John Shaffer goes down on one knee!’

I drove a Toyota Celica Hatchback 24 straight hours with 3 friends to New Orleans to see the Sugar Bowl in 1982.
I flew down to Miami for 1985 game. I was at The Fountainblu for the New Year's Eve Party until the sun came up.
Wanted to go to the 86 Miami game but I had just gotten married and buying our first house. I was on a "Low Budget" as The Kinks would sing .

 

[SleepyLion]

I started wrestling in western PA when I was in 2nd grade. 50lbs 8 and under. My dad and some cousins would go to tournaments every Saturday for 2 or 3 months.

We moved out of state for 4th grade and that state did not have much of a wrestling tradition. I started wrestling again in 6th grade. Ended up attending Penn State.

In March of 2017 my dad was looking for something to do and I told him to turn on ESPN and watch NCAAs. He called me sometime Thursday afternoon and said I buying tickets for next year. So we have gone each year less 2020, 2021, and 2022.

 

[An Old Pair of Asics]

I always followed and rooted for the PSU wrestlers but we didn’t challenge for titles so i had less interest in team scores than individual results. Rooting for Hughes, Abe, McCoy, Kolat, Hunter, etc to win it was good enough, we always had a horse in the race. Then Cael won the B10 in 2011. From that tournament on, its been ‘game on’.

 

[PSUeng]

Grew up with a dad in the military (he and my mom were both PSU grads). When he would go overseas, we would move to Uniontown /McClellandtown , Pa where my cousins and friends were big into wrestling. 2 of them won PA States. I would practice with them and get my *** kicked. They loved Penn State. when we moved across the United States,it was not like today. You could not watch or even get reports on PSU wrestling. When my dad retired, we moved to the Harrisburg area. He and I would go up to matches. When, I was at PSU 1980-1985 I would go to matches. Just went by myself, because I did not know many that liked wrestling.

Funny story, when I was in my last year, I went to the Iowa match. At that time student got in free. It was packed and I was walking up to the top of Rec Hall and saw a seat open. The two guys next to it were talking to people beside them. So I ask if the seat was taken. They turned around and it was my dad and neighbor. They said no! They called my roommate, but we did not see each other that day.

My following really improved when I found BW Illustrated and the wrestling forum.

 

[lobolion]

Penn State fan by birth (West Grove/Avondale); wrestling fandom arrived gradually. Never wrestled myself. Kerry McCoy's success got my interest. I think 2012-13 was the first time I really followed the team through the entire season. I recall the NCAA team race was tight and Ruth was wrestling for the title at 184. The match was still close with under a minute to go, and then Ed got three takedowns in the last 30 or 40 seconds to get the win and the precious bonus point for a major.

 

[NoVaLion]

I'm generally curious.

Be honest.

So, I was born in 1974, graduated high school in 1993 and college in 1997. I was always a PSU fan. I started wrestling when I was 6, and my dad started taking me to Rec Hall about the same time. I have a cool story that I'll save for later about him taking me to Coach Fritz' office when I was like 11 or 12. I was always a PSU wrestling fan, but, I'd be lying if I said it hasn't been more fun and I haven't gotten more "die hard" after the Cael hiring. To be fair, when I went to college to play football, I kind of stepped away from the sport for a brief period of time. I grew up in Mifflin County, so, I followed Troy Sunderland's career closely and always rooted for him. I've met him several times, and you won't find a nicer guy.

Anyway, answer and provide details, or don't.

Parents are both from the Burgh. My Dad took a job at Penn State when I was 5 and I went to my first football game at 6 in 1961. First wrestling match a year later while Charlie Speidel was still the coach. Been a fan ever since.