Penn State Bowl Tour
Report
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Monday, December 30,
2002
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by Melissa Harris,
Sentinel Staff Writer
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It's Penn State's Larry Johnson vs.
Auburn's Ben Brockman. They're at the line of scrimmage, and there's
the snap.
Johnson is backtracking as Brockman
sprints 10 yards, heads wide to the right and turns toward quarterback
Jeremy Wells. Wells releases the ball. Brockman is covered
well, but he dives and . . . touchdown!
Brockman begins his celebratory
dance, weaving the football through his legs as he saunters through the
end zone.
Then the 8-year-old Brockman walks
right p to Johnson, a Heisman Trophy finalist, and says, "I smoked
you!"
"That's it," Johnson
joked as sweat dripped from his forehead. "Gimme the ball. I'm
going home."
Ben and about 125 other children
spent Sunday afternoon meeting their heroes: Penn State and Auburn
football players.
The two teams, who will face off
Wednesday in Orlando's Capital One Bowl, participated in the event set up
by the Florida Citrus Sports Foundation.
The kids ate cheeseburgers and
Mickey Mouse-shaped Popsicles, took hayrides, played carnival games and
showed off their football skills.
Two players -- one from Penn State
and one from Auburn -- paired up with each child, many of whom were
disadvantaged or disabled. The most controversial question of the
day: Which team are you rooting for?
Ben, already a pro with the media
circus photographing Johnson from the sidelines, gave a slick answer.
"I can't choose between the
two," said Ben, wearing an Auburn visor on top of his Penn State
cap. "All I know is that it's going to be a great game all the
way through."
Ryan Nelson, 4, changes his answer
every time. He's kicking a miniature football, part of the event's
goody bag, with Penn State's Tyler Reed and Auburn's Jonathan Palmer, both
redshirt freshmen.
Ryan says he favors Penn State, but
then Palmer objects.
"Hey, you just told the TV guy
Auburn," Palmer said.
So Ryan changes his answer.
He's back to rooting for Auburn.
George Hopkins, 11, of Orlando was
a bit bummed that his team lost the makeshift football game with players
working as coaches and referees.
Michael Owens, an Auburn fullback,
served as George's offensive coordinator, calling a play where the
quarterback flipped the ball to the fullback, who flipped it to the
tailback, who then passed the ball to a wide receiver.
The ball actually made it to the
tailback, but the pass was intercepted.
Owens blamed the loss on the fact
that the team couldn't get the ball to George, a two-year running back for
the Lake Mann Tigers.
"We just couldn't get the ball
to our playmaker," Owens said. "We didn't give it to
him."
Some kids, however, weren't eager
to play football. Jocelyn Moore, 12, of Lakeland has come to the
event every year to collect players' signatures in her Walt Disney World
autograph book, also a goody-bag item.
She also has autographs from
Michigan and Tennessee players, to name a few.
"I have a whole bunch of
autographs, but I only watch football a little bit," Jocelyn
said. "Only sometimes when my daddy does."
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by David Whitley,
Sentinel Columnist
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It's Day 14 of ESPN's Capital One
Bowl Week, America Held Hostage. Wake Forest is taking on the
Junction Boys in the ConAgra Seattle Bowl presented by PlayStation 7.
All the overblown aspects of bowl
season might be crystallized in one phrase. And the only person
capable of delivering it is the singing ghost of Bert Parks:
"There she is, Miss Humanitarian Bowl."
Bowls have become a cloning
experience run amok. Today really is the Seattle Bowl, featuring the
much-anticipated showdown between Wake Forest and Oregon at Safeco
Field. If Ichiro shags flies at halftime, a King County resident may
actually buy a ticket.
Coming soon: The Raelian Bowl
featuring a squad cloned from every 6-5 team in America vs. Dolly the
sheep.
The bowl business has gotten so out
of whack, you hardly know where to start.
Actually, that's not true.
Most people know exactly where to begin.
Boise, Idaho. Home of the
Crucial.com Humanitarian Bowl, this year featuring Iowa State against
Boise State.
In most informal surveys, the
Humanitarian has replaced the venerable Weedeater Bowl as the leading
cause of laughter during the holiday season. The bowl is too
obscure, too cold, too pointless and has way to goofy a name.
Humanitarian? What, the
Dudley Do-Right Bowl was taken?
It's easy to bash Boise's
contribution to bowl madness, but it's also wrong. The Humanitarian
actually is a blueprint of what bowls should be.
The Continental Silicon Hotels GMAC
Gaylord Tire bowls may scoff. So did Iowa State linebacker Kyle
Knock last month, when he said it would be a disgrace if his team ended up
in the Humanitarian Bowl.
He'll probably end up like Clemson
players and fans did last year: amazed at how good a time you could
have in the dead of an Idaho winter.
Who needs windswept Jacksonville
Beach when you can snowmobile? The Humanitarian Bowl turns a frozen
negative into a fun positive. And unlike bowls from Mobile to San
Francisco, the community actually embraces the game. All 30,000
seats will be sold out Tuesday at Bronco Stadium, home of the world-famous
blue turf.
As for the name, it comes from
Boise's own World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame. A guy named --
seriously -- Byron Finkbeiner founded it to honor charitable
athletes. It sounds a bit corny, but it's sincere and adds to the
event's charm -- which brings us back to Bert Parks.
What does the Cotton Bowl Queen
believe in? Tariffs? The Silicon Valley Bowl Queen probably
gets free implants. The Humanitarian Bowl Queen is the kind of girl
you'd take home to meet even Byron Finkbeiner's mother.
Darcie Harris is a member of
Queen's court and one of the finalists for this year's big honor. A
high school senior, she tutors at an elementary school, volunteers at a
hospital and does church work.
"I really like to see positive
changes in the community and the feeling I get when I do this kind of
service," she said.
They judge you more on character
than the swimsuit competition in Boise. Darcie doesn't even get
defensive about potato jokes. She plans to attend Seattle Pacific
University to study nursing. Alas, there may not be a Seattle Bowl
to not attend by then.
New NCAA rules are going to make it
harder for bowls to stay accredited. With any luck, we may
eventually get down to, oh, 25 games.
Laugh if you want, but the
Humanitarian will still be standing, reminding us that not all bowls are
jokes disguised as TV programming.
In the holiday bowl pageant, every
game should want to wear that crown.
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In this section of today's report
you'll see pictures from Orlando's Progress Energy Super Holiday
Parade. What a mouthful! Also included are some miscellaneous
pictures taken during President Graham Spanier's remarks during the
Welcome Reception.
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Virtually all of the 1,500 Penn Staters on the Bowl
Tour were bused to the parade site. Pre-parade entertainment was
provided by juniors and seniors of Penn State's Musical Theater
Department, College of Fine Arts. Shown here is the finale of their
singing and dancing act, which included selections from South Pacific and
West Side Story.
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Pictured here is the lead float of the
parade. Our grandstand location here is the corner of Orange Avenue
and Anderson Street.
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The two pictures above are of the Centerville
(Ohio) High School band, known as "the world's biggest jazz
band." They put on a great show, and we yelled "Yea,
Centerville" as loud as we could. We were very proud to tell
the folks sitting around us where Centerville is located in Ohio.
Other high school bands from Ohio included those from Elyria, Canal
Winchester, Defiance, and Delphos.
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Leading Penn State's parade contingent were the PSU
Cheerleaders, shown here exhibiting their energetic acrobatics and
whipping our crowd into frenzied excitement.
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Seen next were the comely Penn State majorettes,
marching smartly down the street and adding a welcome measure of feminine
pulchritude to the proceedings.
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One picture says it all -- The Penn State
University Marching Blue Band! A thunderous cheer arose and
continued unabated for several minutes as the band marched proudly by.
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Always a crowd favorite, our beloved Nittany Lion
mascot made an appearance in the parade too. Here's he's cavorting
for the spectators and raising the bar on enthusiasm.
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Here are our new friends, Glenn and Sally Kilburn
of Sidney, Ohio. They are looking forward to joining our Dayton
Chapter. This picture of Glenn and Sally was taken during President
Spanier's Welcome Reception.
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Pictured here is President Spanier, addressing Penn
Staters during his Welcome Reception.
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We're going to finish this report with a picture of
us enjoying dinner at Dux, one of several restaurants
located within the Peabody Hotel. As you might surmise, the food and
service were unexcelled.
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