We Are Penn State

An Ed Cunningham Production

The following is a WHYY-TV Press Release.

Contact: Art Ellis
(215) 351-1262
Richard Barnes
(215) 351-0502
November 10, 1998

WE ARE PENN STATE PREMIERES ON TV12 SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 28 AT 8 P.M.

There’s more to a great university than football and ice cream. But those unique campus attractions at Penn State help the sprawling university maintain lifelong bonds with many of its 330,00 living alumni. WE ARE...PENN STATE!, which will have its broadcast premiere on TV12 Saturday, November 28 at 8 p.m., is a nostalgia-filled hour that highlights some of Penn State’s most beloved traditions.

WE ARE...PENN STATE!, a co-production of WHYY/Philadelphia and WPSX/University Park, will also be broadcast on other public television stations across Pennsylvania. The program is the latest in a series of popular history programs produced by WHYY, which has recently formed a history production unit to develop additional local programming.

“WE ARE...PENN STATE! will take graduates of every college back to a very special time in their lives, a time when important life choices were made and when lifelong friendships were formed,” said WHYY producer Ed Cunningham.

From the striking frescoes covering the walls of Old Main to the antics of the famous Blue Band, WE ARE...PENN STATE! explores the campus environment that helps graduates retain what Cunningham calls, “an enormous bond of loyalty and affection for their school.” The Penn State Alumni Association, founded in 1870, is the largest organization of its kind among universities, numbering about 140,000 members.

The program takes its name from the chant of “We are...Penn State,” which the crowd roars at every home game in Beaver Stadium. Fran Fisher, longtime voice of Penn State football, is host of the program. Topics covered include: * Picturesque Old Main on the State College, PA campus, whose walls are lined with frescoes of the school history by Henry Varnum Poor.
* The University’s beginnings as an agricultural school, and the establishment of the system of land grant colleges.
* Football coach Joe Paterno, whose inspirational style has made Penn State football one of the most successful sports programs in the country.
* Old-fashioned, student-run dance marathons on campus today which have raised millions of dollars for cancer research and care.
* Local restaurants and taverns such as Ye Olde College Diner with its famous “grilled stickeys,” the Rathskellar and the Phyrst.
* The Creamery, the campus ice cream plant, purveyor of such confections as “Peachy Paterno.”
* Home economics projects from the 1920s through the 1960s, in which women students cared communally for orphaned babies.
* Homecoming weekend, with its parade, football game and tradition of guarding the Nittany Lion.
* The eating clubs of the late 1800s which evolved into the current fraternity system.

Viewers are introduced to 1948 graduates Joanne and Robert Lyons, who recall the traditional serenade by fraternity brothers for couples who announced their relationship with a pin, and former cheerleader Nancy Wiant Kuchta, who remembers the long skirts and strict conduct rules for her squad. Alumnus Thomas Hill admits to some college pranks, and 1962 graduate Bob Zamboni describes how his radio program one night touched off campus competitions to see how many students could be crammed into a dorm room, a car or a shower.

Penn State has nearly 80,000 students, 21 campuses and 16,000 employees at its main campus alone. Yet producer Ed Cunningham was struck by the loyalty of its diverse alumni. “The main campus is somewhat isolated in the middle of the state, without the diversions of an urban campus,” he observes. “Students tend to form close friendships and stay in touch long after graduation.”

WE ARE...PENN STATE! is the latest in a series of WHYY’s local history productions, including SOUTH PHILLY ITALIAN STYLE and THINGS THAT AREN’T THERE ANYMORE. WHYY’s new local history production unit, coordinated by Cunningham, will next look at the life of former Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo.

WE ARE...PENN STATE! is made possible in part by a grant from The Old Country Clothing Company and by the Pennsylvania Public Television Network.

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Note: WE ARE...PENN STATE! will also be broadcast on TV12 Saturday, November 28 at 11:05 p.m., Sunday, November 29 at 9:30 a.m., Sunday, December 6 at 5:15 p.m. and Tuesday, December 8 at 8 p.m.

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The following is written by Ed Cunningham about his latest program, We Are PENN STATE, and was sent via inter-office e-mail.

WE ARE PENN STATE!

That cry is heard at every home game at Beaver Stadium, home of the perennial powerhouse Penn State Nittany Lions. It is also the title of a documentary special to be produced by WHYY, Philadelphia and WPSX, State College focusing on the life and times of Penn State University.

It is a telling comment that Penn State’s Alumni Association is one of the largest such groups in the world, keeping the university’s more than 330,000 graduates abreast of developments at their alma mater. Penn State grads feel an enormous bond of loyalty and affection for their school and its surrounding community of State College, which was described by CBS-TV’s 60 Minutes as “the ideal college town.” We Are…Penn State will explore the special characteristics that engender this loyalty.

Topics to be covered include the “Old Main” building and its moving frescoes of school history by Henry Varnum Poor; “The Creamery,” purveyor of such frozen confections at “Peachy Paterno” and which offers a short course in ice-cream making; “Ye Olde College Diner” and its famous “grilled stickeys;” old-fashioned, student-run dance marathons which raise money for a nearby cancer center; the famous “Blue Band,” one of the top college bands in the nation; and of course, Joe Paterno, whose inspirational coaching style has made Penn State football one of the most successful sports programs in the country.

All of this, plus the smaller joys of college life, like walking through the elm-tree laden campus on an autumn morning, will be covered in this one-hour documentary special.

“We Are…Penn State” will take PSU alum, and in a larger sense, every college graduate, back to a very special time in their lives, a time when important life choices were made, and when lifelong friendships were forged.

This is the WRTI Old Gang Web Site