Last Wednesday I had the "pleasure" of listening to Penn State football’s communication and media director. He goes by Guido D’Elia and this is his seventh year at the position. He spoke to about 100 students. Read on for some quotes from D'Elia's talk.
It's truly a remarkable contradiction, the Penn State football experience. While other Big Ten teams have embraced change, Penn State, for better or worse, is all about the basics; everything about this university's football team induces nostalgia. Except, that is, for the football atmosphere at Beaver Stadium. While Penn State has remained grounded in its roots on the gridiron, the gameday experience just outside it has lost its soul.
In what comes as a shock to pretty much nobody, Beaver Stadium will be a sea of white when Penn State hosts the Alabama Crimson Tide on September 10th. It was hinted a few weeks ago by Penn State football Communications & Branding Director Guido D'Elia, but a video released yesterday by Penn State football confirmed that Alabama will the first White House at Beaver Stadium since 2009.
I was messing around on Facebook last Friday (what else is new?) and I stumbled across a post by Penn State Football asking for suggestions on songs to play at Beaver Stadium this coming fall. As a marketing major intending on working in the sports industry, this kind of thing is right up my alley, yet I was dismayed when I read the 200+ comments giving their input. Most of them absolutely sucked.
This Friday, November 5, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., the Penn State Blue Band will perform on stage for their "season-in-review" concert with features from the Blue Band Silks, the Majorettes, Feature Twirler Matt Freeman, and Drum Major Ian Kenney. The Penn State Symphonic Band will also be performing.
The "For the Future" campaign had its public launch Friday night in the Bryce Jordan Center with more than 1000 of the university's most loyal supporters. The campaign, which has been in the "private leadership gifts" phase since 2007, has an overall goal of $2 billion by the end of June 2014.
A portion of that money will go towards increasing scholarship funds. The full plan after the jump.