Well, my four plus years here in no way equal that of Coach Paterno's more than half a century, but Penn State has come to mean a lot to me.

Even more than when my father tossed me batting practice on the IM fields just hours before football games we had traveled to see when I was 12-years-old.

Penn State just keeps finding ways to get closer to my heart. It's not just the institution or my supposed classroom education. It's what I learned from the people I've encountered and what I've learned out of the classroom.

So now I'm here to say goodbye, and I'm thinking about what I'll most remember about Penn State.

Maybe it was playing for the Worthington Scranton baseball team. Coming in with the bases loaded and one out and striking out the first college batter I faced on a cold early March day. It meant a lot because I didn't play much in high school and my first love is the greatest game ever played, baseball. It doesn't get better.

Maybe it was my first at-bat. I won't lie; I batted a fat .000 for my high school team. I came in with the bases loaded and noone out to face a kid who sat me down five times in summer ball meetings. So I wasn't expecting much.

Up three and oh, I watched a fastball almost hit me in the ribs get called a strike. The next pitch was a beauty. A real pitcher's pitch. So, being a pitcher I slammed it to left field for a two-run single. I went 3-for-9 with four walks that season.

It might have been that thumping the Lions gave Nebraska. Sure I wasn't on the field and I'll never suit up for Joe Paterno but that single game was worth this season to me. It didn't right the wrong from '94 when the Lions were unjustly kept out of a share of the Cornhuskers' national title, but it felt good.

But my favorite Penn State sports memory is from last summer when my older brothers and sisters brought their families to State College to hang out for a quasi-family reunion for the weekend. We played softball it seemed twice a day. We didn't keep score. And the games felt like they lasted forever.

Just like when I was 12.

My father is 64 but that didn't stop him from diving for a quickly falling liner. My then 4-year-old nephew smiled every time he had the bat in his hand, and my Godson and I turned a doubleplay.

That's what sports are about.

So now I've reminisced, and its time to give my wishes for Penn State's future in athletics.

I hope the students who cover the sports for The Daily Collegian go into their beats with fairness and integrity. They usually do, and better keep up the good work.

Someday, the campus locations, like Worthington and Berks, will be able to field teams that can compete at high levels like UNC Charlotte. Maybe it's a pipedream but there was a time when Penn State couldn't convince Pitt to travel to State College.

Now we look at Pitt and in a great Nelson imitation say:

HA HA.

Tim Curley and Graham Spanier, I wish you would realize the Icers deserve to be D-I. Let coach Battista realize his dream of coaching at the next level here in Happy Valley.

It would be great to see Ed DeChellis turn the Men's Basketball team into a powerhouse not only in the Big Ten but the nation.

I hope Joe goes out a winner. National Championship. Two years in a row. No more off-field troubles and many more Academic All Americans.

And I hope all of the coaches and those who are in position to lead the athletes on this campus make sure those athletes are treated as people and not just a means to championships and meal tickets.

Every day we see how sports are becoming so business oriented. The stories about individuals pushing their barriers are tainted by steroids and performance enhancing drugs. It's a sad thing when we see a 7-year-old cry because his or her batting average dropped by going oh-for-four. It's totally hypocritical of what sports is supposed to be about.

Its not winning, it's about the competition. That's what drives athletes and fans--not the result, but the process.

I hope Penn State is a place where people win the right way.