There is no ticket misprint this year. Beaver Stadium will be a “White House” once again.
The Penn State Athletic Department announced Tuesday that the Nittany Lions’ Sept. 10 home bout against Alabama will be an all-stadium “White House.”
As in seasons past, all fans are encouraged to wear white when the Lions welcome the Crimson Tide to Beaver Stadium for the first time since 1989.
After a 2010 home slate that didn’t include an all-stadium “White House,” Paternoville President John Tecce (junior-marketing) said he couldn’t be more excited to bring one of Penn State’s most recognizable traditions back to Happy Valley.
“The Alabama game is something that we’ve been talking about since we were freshmen,” Tecce said. “This just adds kind of a hype to it.”
It was important for the university not to promote a “White House” last season, Tecce said, because none of the Lions’ match-ups truly deserved the honor — notably not the Lions’ Sept. 25 game against Temple that was the cause of much confusion due to a mistake printed on tickets.
The newfound tradition means more than simply the entire crowd dressing in white, Tecce said. When nearly 110,000 fans are white-clad and cheering on the Lions, it brings even more unity to a stadium that prides itself on having some of the best college football fans in the nation, Tecce said.
“It’s not necessarily something that you just do just for the sake of doing it once a year,” Tecce said. “And after having basically a two-year hiatus, it’s going to be pretty crazy.”
The first-ever, all-stadium “White House” came in 2007 against Notre Dame in a 31-10 Lions’ win. Subsequent whiteouts have come in 2008 in a 38-24 Lions victory over Illinois and in 2009 in a 21-10 loss to Iowa.
Paternoville Vice President Mike Higgins (junior-industrial engineering) said he expects the 2011 “White House” to be the largest Paternoville campout seen in quite a while.
Against the Hawkeyes two years ago, Higgins said there were close to 1,000 campers, but he’s expecting that number to be easily surpassed this season.
With the anticipation building since the game was officially announced, Higgins said making the game a “White House” will only increase how incredible the atmosphere will be.
“It’ll be packed,” Higgins said. “I think the campers will feed off knowing that they’re going to be in a full-stadium whiteout — 110,000 plus in Beaver Stadium."
