If you attended the Penn State football game against Indiana this past Saturday, you probably saw the growing group of shirtless guys in the stands. The phenomenon has swept the country after Indiana started the trend a few years ago. It represents continued support of your team even in the dark times.

We met with the guy who started this trend, freshman Michael Zarrella, to talk about what started it all.

Onward State: So, why did you start this shirtless group of guys?

Michael Zarrella: I’m not gonna lie, I was online and some guy at Oklahoma State University did it, and I told all my friends before the game that I was gonna start it.

I just showed up to the game shirtless, and there were a couple of guys in my section, and we saw the empty section and just said we had to do it. We just wanted something people could kind of rally behind.

OS: Was there a certain reasoning behind doing it?

MZ: I want to say that there was a deep meaning behind it, but I just thought it really embodied Happy Valley. At the beginning, it was just about being positive, because so many people are being negative with the “Let’s fire the coaches.”

People in my comment section were saying that people in the stadium kind of fed off our energy, and I think it was awesome that, in the beginning, it was just a group of four kids.

OS: Did it live up to your expectations?

MZ: I think so. I played football in high school, and hearing the crowd cheer you on and knowing they’re still behind you goes a long way, and I think we helped feed into that.

OS: Why the Indiana Game?

MZ: Indiana is number two in the country, so it’s a huge game. We were also trying to get their coach, and then obviously, the biggest thing is that we haven’t won a game in so long.

Everything kind of just flipped on its head with the White Out, so we just kind of wanted to finish the season strong.

OS: Did you guys get cold?

MZ: I personally was not cold, and I don’t think anyone was cold around me. Everyone was so focused on getting hype.

Also, I’m not gonna lie, probably with all the people being so close together, the body heat contributed. Then, when the team started turning it around, no one was really thinking about the cold.

OS: Were there any friends that were made that came out of this?

MZ: I would say I did. I see it in my comment section on TikTok, a lot of people who were saying, I just think it was so awesome, and people were coming up to me. We are all kind of connected behind the fact that we were at Penn State.

There’s a whole thing of negativity nowadays, and everyone that day was so focused on the fact that we are Penn State. The coolest thing you would see is little kids come up and they would do the “We Are” chant, and then you would also see some guys saying they were the class of ’86 needed to get a video for their wife.

There were so many people, and I’ll remember that for my life. I made a lot of friends.

OS: How many people ended up joining?

MZ: I’m honestly not sure. I want to say that it was definitely in the high hundreds.

OS: What was the coolest part of the experience?

MZ: I thought that the coolest part of it was that even though it was a big thing for everyone, the group of guys were always like, let’s not make it about ourselves, we’re just shirtless guys.

There were little kids, and we were like, “Let’s get them on the jumbotron.” I just thought it was awesome that no one had a selfish demeanor behind it. It was all for the greater good of Penn State.

OS: Are you planning on doing this again for Nebraska?

MZ: I am going to the Nebraska game with the full intention to do it.

I’m also going to Pitt for College GameDay, so I might try to get Pitt to do it too.

OS: Per Onward State tradition, the last question is, if you could be any dinosaur, what would you be and why?

MZ: What’s the one that can fly? Pterodactyl.

Pterodactyl, definitely, I want to fly.