Snowtober: Day 3

Remember the record-setting snowfall I wrote a couple posts about a couple weeks back? Well, this post is meant to close up that series of posts, as part of my continued catch-up blogging effort.
The snow continued into a third day. Tailgating was banned by Penn State for the homecoming football game vs Minnesota — all the grass lots were closed (4-6″ of slushy wet snow + unfrozen ground + lots of car and foot traffic = MUD PIT). To compensate for the loss of 20,000 parking spaces in the grass lots, they only allowed one car per parking space in the paved lots, and Penn State also arranged for 50 shuttle buses to ferry passengers free of charge from various parking lots all around town (Lowe’s, Nittany Mall, Hills Plaza, high school, etc.) to the stadium and back. When I found out Saturday morning in the CDT that a free shuttle would be leaving from the high school parking lot every 10-15 minutes, my decision about how to get to the stadium became a very easy one, considering my apartment is right behind the high school. Walter & I both wish they had those free shuttles leaving from there every game, it was really convenient!
Up near the stadium, it was really weird not to see tailgaters as far as the eye could see, and instead to see empty, snow-covered fields. The atmosphere was rather subdued. As for the actual atmosphere (the one I study), it unfortunately warmed up to the point that the snow, after falling for 51 consecutive hours, switched over to a cold light rain a couple hours before game time, which continued throughout the whole game. That was unfortunate. I wanted to attend another game while snowflakes were falling (the first was last year vs Michigan State). The snow in the stadium hadn’t melted yet, and OPP didn’t have enough time to clear it out of the stadium, so instead they just shoveled it off the bleachers and into the rows.
The decision not to get rid of the snow entirely caused some issues, though. Namely: snowballs. Lots of them. After Penn State connected on a 47-yard field goal to take a 3-0 lead midway through the 1st quarter, we noticed that there was a vigorous snowball fight happening in the junior and freshman/sophomore student sections (if you look carefully, the photo at left shows a few snowballs flying). Seriously, there were lots and lots of snowballs flying, but they were all staying in the student section, and basically thrown laterally instead of forward (toward the field). And then, gradually, the senior student section started to get in on the action. And then there were some snowballs being tossed down toward the seats near the field, and then onto the field. As soon as a few snowballs landed on the field, the barrage really began in earnest, as more and more idiotic students started launching them. Nobody was safe, including those of us in the front few rows (I got hit by four massive snow/slushballs in row M), the Minnesota ballboys, Penn State’s own players, some of Penn State’s recruits, our cheerleaders, our dance team, our mascot, the chain gang, the line judge, and even Joe Paterno himself got hit (or only very narrowly missed). JoePa immediately turned around and glared at the student section, clearly very peeved. Eventually PSU moved all their players well down the sideline so they were no longer near the student section, and a couple players came down in front of the student section to plead with them to stop throwing snowballs. Eventually the public address announcer got into the act too, reminding fans that the throwing of objects (including snowballs) inside Beaver Stadium was prohibited, and that those caught throwing snowballs would be ejected and possibly arrested and/or possibly have their student ticket privileges revoked. While all this was happening, those of us in the first 20+ rows turned around and started chanting at the rest of the student section to try to get them to stop. All of this was to no avail, and the snowballs kept coming and littering the field. Some of them were landing very near players on the field of play during the game. We thought for sure the officials would call a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct on Penn State because of the snowball-throwing fans disrupting play. In fact, at the end of the 1st quarter, it was to the point that those of us in the rows near the field were begging the officials to throw the flag. We figured that was the only way to get the idiots to stop throwing snowballs. Yet even with that the ref didn’t throw the flag. Never in my life have I ever heard of (much less seen or participated in) a group of fans pleading with the officials to call a penalty against their own team. It was so bizarre. Anyway, the snowballs finally came to a halt in the early stages of the 2nd quarter once campus security showed up and ejected a couple people (finally). I don’t know what took them so long to show up though, because the snowball fight had been going on for probably 20-30 minutes by that point, maybe longer. Also, by the time I got hit by the 4th snowball, some people around me felt sorry for me that I’d been hit by so many, while most everyone else near me hadn’t been hit by any, that they were volunteering to “take one” for me if they saw one heading our way. That was funny.
As for the rest of the game, Penn State’s defense absolutely suffocated the Minnesota offense, and the Nittany Lions cruised to a 20-0 shutout. And despite the 38-degree mist and light rain that fell throughout the game, I wasn’t nearly as cold during this game as I was during the Iowa game, which was at least 10 degrees warmer, but much wetter. I think the key was layers: I had on two t-shirts, a long-sleeve t-shirt, a sweatshirt, a poncho and a jersey. Count ’em, six layers. I definitely wasn’t cold, even when I was being pelted by snowballs! My Minnesota and Wisconsin upbringing, which taught me the necessity of layers in cold weather, served me well. 🙂 I’m definitely getting sick of cold rain though. That made two games this year I’ve been to with it.