Josh Hull and Mickey Shuler were flipping through channels and tuned into a classic Penn State-Northwestern football game.
Linebackers coach Ron Vanderlinden was on the Wildcats sideline then, and when the player bios popped up on screen, Hull noticed one recurring trend.
"They all had mustaches," said Hull, owner of the football team's most extravagant facial hair. "We just kept joking around about, 'Of course he can't grow one.' So, I was the only one that could grow one, so I just stuck with it."
Hull's mustache is trimmed Wild West style, and it's quickly giving him notoriety in the locker room to go along with his play at middle linebacker.
"People have gotten used to it by now," said Sean Lee, who said he cannot grow a mustache. "He's gotten the porn-'stache, the Wild West-'stache. I don't know if the girls like it, but I like it. He should keep it."
The 'stache is here to stay.
Hull is keeping the razor and shaving cream in the medicine cabinet until after the season, and the two-year starter grew the upper lip fuzz just to have fun and relax during his senior season.
The stubble has caused quite a stir among players. Imitations -- but never duplications -- fall short of the standard Hull set.
"I always trim [mine] to keep it nice," quarterback Daryll Clark said of his thin, straight 'stache. "It's ugly on Josh. I tell him all the time. He tells me it's staying on. But he's playing lights out, so he can have it."
Hull made 15 tackles and one interception through two games.
"I think it adds to his game," Lee joked. "It's made him a better football player."
Coach Joe Paterno does not allow long, bushy facial hair but does permit mustaches.
Paterno said he hasn't really noticed Hull's mustache, but his outstanding academic record may give him some leeway.
"Geez, [reporters] must think I go around like that old M.A.S.H. guy," Paterno said. "The guy that was a major in M.A.S.H; call him out and have him review them every morning.
"Hull is a good kid, great kid, not good, great," Paterno said. "Playing well, heck of a student. He's an engineer, 3.5 grade point average, so if he wants a mustache, that's OK. Somebody tells me [Paul] Posluszny's got hair coming down to his ears. Boy, wait till I see him."
