As a senior in high school, he had no recognition of Penn State, let alone consider it a place to continue his athletic career and further his education.

Now, four years later, Kevin Tan has ended his collegiate career as one of the greatest Penn State gymnasts ever to don the Blue and White, stamping an indelible mark on a program that has already written a history of its own.

"It's been a long time since we've had a gymnast at Penn State with the world championship capabilities that he has," Penn State men's gymnastics coach Randy Jepson said.

Sunday afternoon at the 2004 NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships in Champaign, Ill., Tan won his second consecutive national title on the still rings apparatus and stepped to the top of the winner's podium for the last time as a Nittany Lion.

It was a storybook ending to a career that arguably didn't begin on the same high note.

Tan, who was raised in Fremont, Calif., wanted to be a Stanford Cardinal and follow in the footsteps of his father, who is a Stanford alumnus.

"I loved the weather, I loved where I grew up and I didn't really feel like leaving," Tan said. "I wanted to stay close to home. That was my major concern about leaving for school. I thought I would have a better chance of getting into [Stanford] because my father went there."

The Stanford coaches showed significant interest in the highly touted gymnast and said they would offer him a full scholarship if he got accepted to the school. Tan didn't get accepted there, however, and that's when the window of opportunity opened for Jepson.

Jepson remembers first seeing Tan compete at the junior national championships when he was a freshman in high school. Jepson had tried to recruit other gymnasts from the same gym in which Tan trained, but most of the gymnasts stayed there after high school to train for the U.S. team with coach Greg Corsiglia, someone they felt comfortable with.

However, just as Tan was ending his high school career, Corsiglia, with whom Jepson had developed a strong relationship, was on his way out. A bond between coaches eventually led to Penn State's signing of Tan.

Tan visited Ohio State, Michigan, Iowa and Nebraska, but a late recruiting visit and a highly regarded endorsement by Corsiglia sealed the deal for the young talent's future at Penn State.

"This is the [school] that I felt reflected me the most," Tan said of his recruiting visit. "I felt like I could get along with the team here and with the coaching staff. And the academics all the way to the campus is just amazing out here."

Tan came to Penn State, but he didn't arrive on the campus until the spring semester of what was supposed to be his freshman year. Jepson said that delay put Tan behind the rest of the Lions.

"It was kind of difficult for him physically because he wasn't really on top of routines as much as the rest of the team, but he came in and did a great job," Jepson said.

To say that Tan did a great job was an understatement.

In his debut at a collegiate gymnast in Massachusetts, Tan won the still rings and proved that he was not going to be an average Penn State gymnast. Later that year, he became the first freshman under Jepson to garner All-America honors, taking fourth-place on the rings at NCAAs.

Tan would only get better as a sophomore. He won the first of what would be three consecutive Big Ten still rings championships, on his way to being named All-Big Ten and Academic All-Big Ten for the first times.

At NCAAs, Tan was even more impressive, earning All-America honors on still rings with a second-place finish, but also scoring well enough to gain All-America status on the parallel bars.

As a junior, Tan would once again rule the rings at Big Tens, becoming the first Nittany Lion ever to win a conference title twice. Once again he garnered All-Big Ten and Academic All-Big Ten honors in helping the Lions to their first ever team conference championship. But the conference honors were only a prelude to Tan's appearance on the national stage.

Just weeks later at NCAAs, Tan finally broke through on the still rings to win his first national championship. He narrowly missed being a double NCAA champion when a slight miscue on the high bar led to a second-place finish. Nonetheless, Tan had earned two All-America honors and made a statement as one of the nation's elite gymnasts, especially on rings.

This season was the last chance for Tan to finally get what he really wanted, what was the only thing left to accomplish as a collegiate gymnast.

Of course, Tan continued his dominance on the still rings, beating five of the world's top eight ring men since August and he maintained a streak of nearly two years without a loss on the apparatus. He also continued to improve in other events like the parallel bars, high bar and pommel horse. He even won the Big Ten parallel bars championship this year to go along with his rings title.

However, individual accolades mean little, if anything, to the humble Tan, which is a rare quality in an era of mega-hyped sports sensations.

The only thing left for him at Penn State -- what he yearned for -- was a team national championship.

"I've never heard him say anything that would toot his own horn in any way," Jepson said. "He's all about the team and all about his teammates and he's generally concerned about them doing as well as they can. And he knows if he can be a part of that, then the rest will fall into place."

On Saturday Tan got what he wanted.

His teammates did their best, he did his best and the Lions performed optimally for the first time all year in defeating a strong championship field that was led by first runner-up, two-time defending champion Oklahoma.

However, in an uncharacteristic turn of events, Saturday's team finals saw Tan finish second to Temple's Nyika White on the still rings, 9.675-9.650. Nonetheless, it was merely the preliminary round for the individual event finals the following day.

When asked two days before the NCAAs began about repeating as the NCAA still rings champion, Tan said he wasn't even thinking about it. And he wouldn't until Saturday night after the team finals, or he might even wait until the event on Sunday.

Whenever it was, it was the right time. Tan got his revenge on the field, scoring a 9.812 to win the NCAA title.

Sunday afternoon Tan's collegiate career came to a close in the individual event finals.

It came close to full-circle with his ninth-place finish on the parallel bars and, of course, the still rings and team championships.

One NCAA team championship, one Big Ten championship, two individual national championships, four individual Big Ten championships and six All-America selections -- an illustrious career for an individual that didn't believe Penn State would be in his future.

Tan said that, although the Pennsylvania is a long way from his home in California, it has been nothing but amazing.

What he would never say is just how amazing he has been. But this weekend in Champaign, Ill., it was undeniable what Tan was and has been since he arrived in Happy Valley, whether he cares to admit it or not.

He bid farewell to the collegiate gymnastics scene the only way he knew how -- as a winner.