Imagine Beaver Stadium filled with fans in tie-dyed shirts and 1960s apparel. Crazy as it sounds, that's a mere two Saturdays away from becoming a reality.
Starting with their Sept. 12 game against Syracuse, the Nittany Lions will play six of their seven remaining home games before a "themed" crowd.
In addition to traditional gameday themes like the Whitehouse, Champions' Day, Homecoming and Senior Day, two home games this year will be designated "Classic Day" and "Favorite Jersey Day."
Guido D'Elia, the director for communications and branding for Penn State football, said the athletic department decided to try new concepts after fans reacted so well to past promotions.
For the Syracuse game, D'Elia is excited to turn back the clock.
"Syracuse is a 1960s rival, so we went with the Classic Day theme," he said. "Sixties music and clothes will be all over the stadium."
The other new theme for the 2009 season, Favorite Jersey Day, has been on the minds of the athletic department for quite some time, D'Elia said.
On Favorite Jersey Day -- the Sept. 19 game against Temple -- fans are encouraged to wear the jersey of their all-time favorite Nittany Lion.
"Life-size cut outs of fan favorites like Michael Robinson, Larry Johnson and Curt Warner will be placed around the stadium for fans to take pictures with," D'Elia said.
In addition, about 40 people stationed at Beaver Stadium's gates will count how many of each jersey enters the stadium. The top 10 fan favorite jerseys will be unveiled at halftime.
Some students responded positively to the new themed game days.
But while Dan Devine (senior-biology) is looking forward to the unity gameday themes could inspire, he's skeptical about having too many of them.
"Having so many themed game days might cause students to not want to participate in some of them," he said. "Plus, I expected they'd do something unique for Ohio State. I'd without a doubt expect a student White Out."
The Ohio State game wasn't given a theme because there is already so much anticipation for the game, D'Elia said. That said, the athletic department is planning big things for Ohio State, he said -- 40,000 white shakers have already been ordered.
