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.

 

[98lberEating2Lunches]

In my last year, I went to the Iowa match. At that time student got in free. It was packed

Ditto.

Which engineering did you graduate? Ceremony on May 28, 1985, also in Rec Hall (again packed)?

 

[PSUeng]

Ditto.

Which engineering did you graduate? Ceremony on May 28, 1985, also in Rec Hall (again packed)?

Architectural Engineering.

 

[98lberEating2Lunches]

Architectural Engineering.

Building HVAC desgn and such?
Has it served you well?

I was EE, so we likely didn't share anything but engineering weed out courses before being accepted into the college of engineering. A nephew of mine started out in AE, but switched to video production. One of his claims to fame was producing JoePa's funeral.

 

[98lberEating2Lunches]

@BriantheLion If you are Tripper then we've met although I don't expect you'd remember me.

 

[pawrstlersinpa]

Building HVAC desgn and such?
Has it served you well?

I was EE, so we likely didn't share anything but engineering weed.

 

[pawrstlersinpa]

Building HVAC desgn and such?

I know what they taught in that course...
Never take chemical feed systems into account during design. Let the owner and the chemical guy figure out where to put the tanks, feed pumps, and controller, and don't leave enough space for it.

 

[BriantheLion]

@BriantheLion If you are Tripper then we've met although I don't expect you'd remember me.

I was dubbed quite a few nicknames in my youth, but never Tripper…

…and I don’t recall anyone else being called that either… are you referring to someone from AC?

 

[98lberEating2Lunches]

I know what they taught in that course...
Never take chemical feed systems into account during design. Let the owner and the chemical guy figure out where to put the tanks, feed pumps, and controller, and don't leave enough space for it.

So no overall systems engineering then

 

[98lberEating2Lunches]

I was dubbed quite a few nicknames in my youth, but never Tripper…

…and I don’t recall anyone else being called that either… are you referring to someone from AC?

No. Someone else in media production with the first name of Brian..I didn't remember your earlier post. Sorry

 

[BriantheLion]

No. Someone else in media production with the first name of Brian..I didn't remember your earlier post. Sorry

No problem!

Not in media.

 

[PSUeng]

Building HVAC desgn and such?
Has it served you well?

I was EE, so we likely didn't share anything but engineering weed out courses before being accepted into the college of engineering. A nephew of mine started out in AE, but switched to video production. One of his claims to fame was producing JoePa's funeral.

AE had 4 options in the program. HVAC, Electrical, Structural and construction management. I was in the HVAC route. I did anything from process projects for the food industry, building heating and air conditioning systems, process piping, science land hospital rooms, fire protection and site water work. It was a good job as all projects were different. Nothing like pawrstlersinpa suggested

now retired.

 

[OldAndInTheWay]

I wrestled in high school but I wasn't any good. I went to Lock Haven University in 1970 and realized immediately I'd never be able to make their team. But I always loved and followed wrestling. Then as a teacher in 1975 and 1976 I was an assistant wrestling coach at Sullivan county High School in Pennsylvania. Move forward to 1981 and I was hired as the assistant wrestling coach at the D1 Millersville State University that competed in the Eastern Wrestling League. This is where I met Rich Lorenzo and I was very impressed with him and I followed Penn State ever since.

 

[dicemen99]

Have been a PSU fan - football first - since I can remember. Started wrestling in 7th grade as something to do, one sport each season. Was basically a football player wrestling, but got to meet some guys - who were far better than me, they actually stepped on a mat outside of late November to February - that I remain friends with to this day. Two of them run Escape the Rock with me. In HS I was so unaware of college wrestling I’m not sure I even realized PSU had a team. I was aware of Lehigh only because our coach took us to a match one year.

When I was a freshman in college, I visited PSU in early 1983 with my college football teammate to hang out with his buddy who was on the PSU wrestling team - Woody Marcks from Dieruff, not sure that he ever saw the mat for them. Me, my buddy, and Woody went to see PSU wrestle Cleveland State in Rec Hall. Awesome. That started my PSU wrestling fandom.

 

[The Pitchfork Rebel]

Ditto.

Which engineering did you graduate? Ceremony on May 28, 1985, also in Rec Hall (again packed)?

May 18, if you graduated the same 1985 I did. 5/18 Saturday, 5/28 Tuesday.

There were 7 others getting the now defunct BA EC (Business Administration Economics Degree).

Never had a class with any of them.

Weird story: I now work with a guy that also went to Penn State a couple years after me. One day I was telling him about my roommate who was born without a hand. He blurts out the guy's first name and I said "you sure as hell didn't pull that out of the air",

My roomie hated the dorms, but I grew fond of cherry cheese blintzes on Sunday, so I stayed, he moved to Alexander Court. Roomie lived down the hall from coworker. Had I moved to Alexander Court with roommate, would have known coworker 35 years earlier.

That's the second bizarre coincidence I had. The other was telling a guy, I'd known for years at my gym about a girl I had a crush on and epicly screwed up with only for him to hear enough details to ask me where she was from. When I told him, he said the *****in your story is my wife.

 

[mcpat]

Grew up on Penn State football. Fond memories of listening to the games on the radio from hunting camp in Potter County.

Wrestled from 6th grade through three years of college (D3).

Graduated and moved to/worked in State College for a bit.

Have sent two kids to University Park thus far, one of whom was a varsity athlete (and All-Academic Big Ten).

Season tickets to football; been on the waiting list for wrestling forever.

Always been a PSU wrestling fan but all the winning definitely brought me more into it.

 

[Hlstone]

AE had 4 options in the program. HVAC, Electrical, Structural and construction management. I was in the HVAC route. I did anything from process projects for the food industry, building heating and air conditioning systems, process piping, science land hospital rooms, fire protection and site water work. It was a good job as all projects were different. Nothing like pawrstlersinpa suggested

now retired.

I wish I knew you when I ran the kitchen at Dugan's. It would get up to 120 in that sucker during the summer.

 

[J-007]

I became a Penn State fan at birth. Don't know if I had a choice. My father had a blue white news paper sub. He would let me read them as a youth. My first stop when the new paper came out was the wrestling article. Loved that paper back in the day. It was difficult to get wrestling info then so I only followed the Nittany Lions wrestlers.

 

[Shifty15]

I was involved in lots of sports but not a wrestler. Fortunately I had quite a few high school friends who were wrestlers so I would go to matches. My father and his good friend used to go to PA States and would take me along (have to assume that it was my mother making that decision to have me go along!). I really enjoyed the sport and had the opportunity to be in attendance for the Chatman/Schalles match that ended with the loudest crowd roar I ever experienced. We also skipped school to attend States where I saw Jay Hockenbrock win the title over Brian Hills. Moving to college I went to a PA State school where I played another sport but was able to see some good wrestling including when York came to wrestle and Jeff Bell wrestled that night (Jeff only has one arm) and did a phenomenal job! Attended PSSA tourney at Bloomsburg one year and watched Don Rhon absolutely destroy the competition. Grew up as a Penn State football fan and wrestling follower with Andy Matter as my favorite to watch. Followed PSU through Lorenzo and Sunderland but definitely more closely under Cael. We’ve gone to NCAAs in NYC, Pittsburgh and Cleveland and had tix for Minneapolis but that was all for naught. Not playing the NCAA money-making scheme with tix unavailable to the common folks anymore unless you go through Ticketmaster or whatever so we’ll just watch on TV. Did one B1G tourney trip to MD and all sessions for $50 was a steal and a great time.
Have enjoyed reading stories of others!

 

[BigFella235]

A little addition, a kid I was friends with in highschool who was very good for my home area,Cody Copeland from Greenville pa ( well conneaut lake area but Greenville got him), wrestled one of the Alton twins at the Jersey shore duals. He got a take down to start it and all of us were like holy ****, maybe he can hang! Then he got demolished and I saw the levels to wrestling talent. So when I started watching PSU the Alton's not demolishing everyone opened my eyes to even more levels to this.

I remember Cody dominating kids around that 2011-2012 timeframe with his patented cradle. Sat and BS’d with him and a couple other Greenville kids before the medal rounds at the Southmoreland Tournament. I wrestled one of the Gentile brothers/cousins (Tyler maybe?) in the 220lb quarterfinals that year. I think Cody still holds the record for the fastest pin in the history of the state tournament at something like 9 seconds.

 

[BigFella235]

Can’t really put an exact date or timeframe on when I became a PSU wrestling fan, but I think it was somewhere around 2008-2009 because that’s roughly when I started wrestling. I didn’t follow the team closely because I was still learning the sport. I can remember my stepdad excitedly telling me about the news that they had hired Cael. Again, didn’t really register with me because I was still super new to the sport.

My first interaction with a PSU wrestler or even PSU wrestling was at a summer wrestling camp at the State College Ramada run by Ken Chertow. Quentin Wright was a clinician there and it was the summer after he made it to nationals as a freshman if memory serves. Super cool dude. He hung out with my younger brother and I and our roommate a couple of times, played Xbox with us and even went live with my younger brother after my brother badgered him about it enough.

I ended up wrestling for PSU DuBois in college which deepened my fandom. Got to watch guys like Jordan Conaway, John Gingrich, Bo Nickal, etc. live and in person at various tournaments when our schedules overlapped. One of my good friends in college went to HS with Gingrich and spoke highly of him.

Since then, I’ve become an even bigger fan. I follow the NLWC guys at the senior level, PSU guys throughout the seasons and the recruits at the HS level. I got to watch the OTTs with my wife at the BJC where she thought she met Greco Roman () and I watched PSU beat on Michigan in the BJC dual a few years ago.

One last, brief addition: the school I coach at now has produced two PSU wrestlers who competed for them back in the 90’s. Neither did much of anything that I’m aware of as collegiate wrestlers. One was a middleweight and the other was Kerry McCoy’s drilling partner in the room. The middleweight wound up giving his PSU warm ups to the kids of my assistant coach. The other is the treasurer of our booster club. Both are still huge PSU fans. Heck, our AD is a huge fan. His sons are named after Cael and Cyler. Cael is the starting 184 for Lock Haven. Cyler was a pretty decent basketball player from what I understand.

 

[Misalorales]

I remember Cody dominating kids around that 2011-2012 timeframe with his patented cradle. Sat and BS’d with him and a couple other Greenville kids before the medal rounds at the Southmoreland Tournament. I wrestled one of the Gentile brothers/cousins (Tyler maybe?) in the 220lb quarterfinals that year. I think Cody still holds the record for the fastest pin in the history of the state tournament at something like 9 seconds.

I remember a Tyler gentile. Remember his sister a little better. I didn't go to Greenville but hung out with a bunch of of kids from there.

 

[PUR158]

I played basketball my whole life until my senior year when I had enough of being the only moderately good player on an atrocious A farm schools team. I wrestled as a senior to help get in shape for basic training and hang with some friends and ended up loving it. Fast forward a year, 2011/2012, and I'm stationed in Nebraska at Offutt AFB and some locals are yapping about Nebraska being THE WRESTLING state because of Burroughs. So I talked some **** back about PA highschool wrestling and as a Penn State everything fan I decided I would start watching or following college wrestling so I could talk **** to my new friends...Lucky for me, I sorta started somewhere between 3rd base and home plate. Couldn't have picked a better time to start watching PSU wrestling .
A little addition, a kid I was friends with in highschool who was very good for my home area,Cody Copeland from Greenville pa ( well conneaut lake area but Greenville got him), wrestled one of the Alton twins at the Jersey shore duals. He got a take down to start it and all of us were like holy ****, maybe he can hang! Then he got demolished and I saw the levels to wrestling talent. So when I started watching PSU the Alton's not demolishing everyone opened my eyes to even more levels to this.

Hooyah D10. Conneaut Lake and Greenville used to be in our section (Cochranton) before they re aligned everything in the mid 2000s.

 

[Misalorales]

Hooyah D10. Conneaut Lake and Greenville used to be in our section (Cochranton) before they re aligned everything in the mid 2000s.

Oh yea gotta love cock town. Love fishing French Creek where little sugar runs in behind the highschool. I think D10 is a really good representation of what highschool sports were intended to be.

 

[PUR158]

Great fishing, definitely a different pace, but it has its charms. Athletics, especially wrestling were big. We would pack 1,000 into the gym for a dual meet on a Tuesday night, we have maybe 800 in our town lol. A genuine sense of community in the small towns.

 

[Misalorales]

Great fishing, definitely a different pace, but it has its charms. Athletics, especially wrestling were big. We would pack 1,000 into the gym for a dual meet on a Tuesday night, we have maybe 800 in our town lol. A genuine sense of community in the small towns

My main memory of Cochranton athletics was that your girls volleyball team was incredible. I Also enjoyed the bird in the cage painted on the wall in the gym lol

 

[PUR158]

My main memory of Cochranton athletics was that your girls volleyball team was incredible. I Also enjoyed the bird in the cage painted on the wall in the gym lol.

Our high school cross country coach did the bird cage, he was a graphic artist. Almost all of the signs around town are from him. Haven't been back in years... Navy brought me to Virginia. Small world, cheers and Happy Holidays!

 

[BigFella235]

Our high school cross country coach did the bird cage, he was a graphic artist. Almost all of the signs around town are from him. Haven't been back in years... Navy brought me to Virginia. Small world, cheers and Happy Holidays!

Cochranton has some pretty good individual wrestlers now. A lot of them do Freco in the offseason so they’re not afraid to take someone for a flight on Air Cardinal. Cash Morrell is probably their best kid right now. He should be a AA state medalist for them this year

 

[PUR158]

Cochranton has some pretty good individual wrestlers now. A lot of them do Freco in the offseason so they’re not afraid to take someone for a flight on Air Cardinal. Cash Morrell is probably their best kid right now. He should be a AA state medalist for them this year

Boozers and Morrells have always been some tough farm boys. I wrestled with Cashs' Dad. The first generation of Boozers, Ben made the blood round at Edinboro, he was a volunteer assistant when we were in school.

 

[BigFella235]

Boozers and Morrells have always been some tough farm boys. I wrestled with Cashs' Dad. The first generation of Boozers, Ben made the blood round at Edinboro, he was a volunteer assistant when we were in school.

They’ve put out a few tough kids over the years. I know Rick Hogue is still around the program. Cash is fun to watch wrestle because he’s just a tough SOB who can and will throw people out of nowhere

 

[RBOld]

I'm just a frontrunner. I plan on being a PSU fan until F&M inevitably become the best team in the country.

 

[PAgeologist]

I know what they taught in that course...
Never take chemical feed systems into account during design. Let the owner and the chemical guy figure out where to put the tanks, feed pumps, and controller, and don't leave enough space for it.

One of our treatment plants is like you describe. The plant has 2 long screw pumps that the operator needs to remove the exterior wall panel to get them apart.

They also made the pipe runs long from the hydrated lime silo to the treatment tank. They plug up fairly often.