On Saturday, December 21, Penn State will face off against SMU in the first round of the College Football Playoff. As many folks know, Penn State is renowned for its energetic crowd and classic “We Are Penn State” chant. However, many people do not know the earliest origins of the chant and how SMU was involved in birthing the most iconic chant in the Penn State lexicon.

If you look up the origin of the “We Are” chant on Google, it will point you to the 1970s Penn State cheerleaders who wanted to evoke more energy from the crowd. However, to find the earliest origin of the chant, we must travel back 30 years earlier to the 1940s. 

At the time, the majority of America was still segregated and Wally Triplett, one of the first starting Black players for Penn State football, knew that fact far too well. Triplett grew up in La Mott, an affluent, integrated suburb in Philadelphia.

In 1945, Tripplett received a scholarship offer to play football at Miami but assumed that the school only offered him the scholarship on the pretense that he was white because of living in La Mott. At the time, Miami was a segregated school and when Triplett revealed to them that he was Black, it immediately rescinded his offer.

Triplett went on to play for Penn State in 1945 and when the 1946 season came around, a unique issue occurred. The Nittany Lions were scheduled to play Miami at the end of the 1946 season, making it the first time the school faced the issue of playing a segregated team. With public pressure mounting, the coaches left the decision to play the Hurricanes entirely up to the football players.

The team unanimously voted to cancel the game, which Triplett believed brought the team closer together.

Later in Triplett’s time at Happy Valley, a similar situation occurred. In the 1947 season, the Nittany Lions went undefeated in the regular season and became bowl-eligible. At the time, there were only four bowl games and the Rose Bowl was the only one that allowed black players. Despite this, Penn State was invited to play in the 1948 Cotton Bowl against SMU.

In the lead-up to the Cotton Bowl, it was rumored that Penn State was meeting with SMU to discuss the possibility of playing without black players. The rumor of these meetings did not bode well with Triplett or team captain Steve Suhey. During a conversation about his displeasure with the meetings, Suhey uttered words that would go down in history: “We are Penn State, there will be no meetings.”

Suhey was correct as for the first time in Cotton Bowl history, Black players were allowed to take the field that day. Not only did Triplett play that game, but he scored the game-tying touchdown in a game that ended in a 13-13 tie. 

The home playoff game on December 21 will make the second meeting between the two teams since that day in 1948, as Penn State picked up a 26-21 victory against SMU in 1978.

So when you’re going to Beaver Stadium dawned in all white and chanting “We Are” at the top of your lungs, know that SMU was a direct factor in how that chant came to be.