Igniting Penn State Spirit at Beaver Stadium

Beaver Stadium was recently named “the best atmosphere in Big Ten football” by 247Sports network. ESPN announcer Kirk Herbstreit took that a step further, crowning Penn State with the title of “the best stadium atmosphere in the country,” while Sports Illustrated has deemed the annual White Out game “the greatest show in college sports.” 

Penn State didn’t earn that kind of recognition by accident. Sure, it helps to have a winning football team. But that impressive electricity that infects the crowd of over 106,000 fans each week is really sparked by the talented and hardworking students of the spirit squads—the cheerleading team, Lionettes dance team, and the Nittany Lion mascot—and the Blue Band.

The next time you’re taking in a halftime show from the stands, impress your seatmates with some of these fun facts about the groups behind many of Penn State fans’ most beloved game day traditions.

PENN STATE MARCHING BLUE BAND

Blue Band graduate assistant Tim Butler provided most of the information below.

The Blue Band is comprised of over 300 members. This encompasses the instrumentalists as well as the “band front,” which includes the Touch of Blue majorettes, the Blue Sapphire feature twirler, and the Silks flag corps. A staff of approximately twenty people support and lead the band, which is directed by Gregory Drane.

The trumpet section is the largest section in the band, with approximately sixty members.

Participation in Blue Band is actually a one-credit course, Music 81.

Students from any major can audition for the Blue Band, including the Touch of Blue and the Silks, by submitting a video recording. Staff then narrows down the field based on those recordings and invites prospective members to band camp in mid-August. Final selections are made after the first couple days of camp.

The band practices together four times per week during football season. 

The Blue Band has been around since 1899. Majorettes joined the Blue Band in 1972, and the Silks became a performing unit in 1974.

Women instrumentalists first joined the Blue Band during World War II while the men were fighting overseas. When the servicemen returned, the Blue Band became all-male again, and remained so until 1973. Today, women instrumentalists make up about sixty-six percent of the Blue Band.

There has not yet been a female drum major at Penn State. There have been two male feature twirlers.

The Blue Sapphire receives a scholarship through The Lori Bowers and David Uhazie Endowed Scholarship for Blue Band Feature Twirler. 

Current Blue Sapphire Mackenzie Bronk was named the 2023 Collegiate Solo Champion at the National Baton Twirling Competition in July.

In addition to performing at home games, the entire Blue Band travels to one away game per season. A smaller pep band travels to all away games and performs at Friday night pep rallies.

The O. Richard Bundy Blue Band Building was built in 2004 and is named after the long-time director who retired in 2015. The building houses the entire Athletic Bands program.

The silver performance instruments the band uses on game days are housed in a large, well-organized instrument room. Big “mega-cases” on wheels can hold many instruments at a time—for example, eighteen trumpets can fit into one case—allowing for efficient transport.

The uniform room is an efficient, impressive operation, run almost entirely by students. One wall is lined from floor to ceiling with rows of white Blue Band hats. The familiar blue and white band uniforms hang from large dry-cleaning-style racks, as do the uniforms for the Silks section. Each piece of the uniform is barcoded, making it easy to scan and distribute to the correct band member before each game. Uniforms are collected and cleaned following each performance. 

The band performs six different halftime shows each season. The directors select the music during the spring, secure copyrights, and hire professional arrangers to customize arrangements specifically for the Blue Band. Each director “choreographs” two of the six marching performances. 

Band members sometimes have only a week between performances in which to learn a new show.

Marching drills and sheet music are accessed via cellphone apps. Band members are each issued a cellphone holder to attach to their instruments. 

Each section has its own ritual for polishing their performance instruments, but most do it right before a game after donning their uniforms.

On game days, the band plays the alma mater together inside the Blue Band Building before marching to Beaver Stadium.

During the football games, band directors are in constant contact with the Penn State athletics marketing team via headsets. This helps to coordinate things so the band doesn’t start playing “chasers” (short pieces of music played in the stands) during times when advertising is set to run or house music plays. 

After football season, many band members join the Pride of the Lions, a group of athletic pep bands that perform at other sporting events, such as men’s and women’s basketball and hockey games. Pride of the Lions is another one-credit music course offered in the spring semester.

Unlike the spirit squads, the Blue Band is not a part of Penn State athletics, but instead is based in the College of Arts and Architecture. 

PENN STATE SPIRIT SQUAD 

The cheerleading team, the Lionettes dance team, and the Nittany Lion mascot all are part of of the Spirit Squad, led by head coach Curtis White, who provided most of the fun facts that follow.

The spirit program falls under Penn State’s athletics department, but the NCAA does not recognize cheer and dance as official sports.

Because they are not governed by the NCAA, cheerleaders and dance team members were allowed to profit from their own name, image, and likeness long before varsity athletes were granted that right under the NCAA’s NIL rules.

The spirit program, particularly the Nittany Lion mascot, started charging for appearances this year, and will perform at community events and weddings when their schedule permits.

The Nittany Lion Pride Booster Club provides the Spirit Squad with supplemental financial support and sponsors social events for the students and their parents. White helped to create the organization, based on the cheerleading booster club at State College Area High School, where White coached before coming to Penn State.

While the cheerleaders and the Lionettes each have their own coach as well, White himself is responsible for the mascot. Although in many ways the three are intertwined, they each have their own unique attributes.

Nittany Lion Mascot

The mascot audition process is intense. Approximately eight to twelve students end up auditioning each year, after many weed themselves out following an introductory training session. As part of the audition, the Lion must be able to do fifty single-arm pushups, perform skits, and do some improv in front of a panel of administrators and former mascots. 

The mascot receives a full scholarship from the Norm Constantine Fund, endowed by the Back the Lions Club in memory of a former Nittany Lion mascot, the late Norm Constantine.

The student who serves as the Nittany Lion mascot remains anonymous until the end of his tenure.

The mascot appears at 300 to 350 events per year. If the mascot is ever unable to perform for some reason, there are several students who are qualified to fill in. Out of the last 500 mascot appearances, a substitute has only been used eight times.

The student who plays the mascot is issued several identical Lion suits and is responsible for cleaning them and keeping them in good repair. 

The head of the Lion suit is formed around a Penn State football helmet.

For many years, the Lion suits were made by a local family, but this year the suit will be provided by a new vendor located in Chicago. 

Changes to the Lion suit are generally subtle and gradual. The biggest recent change was the addition of a mesh lining in the Lion’s mouth to help conceal the wearer’s face. 

Many of Penn State’s commonwealth campuses also have Nittany Lion mascots. A mascot protocol handbook serves as a guideline to promote consistency in how to walk, gesture, and relate to the public while in the suit. 

A woman has never been the Nittany Lion mascot, but this year a woman was among the top three finalists.

Several recent mascots, including the current one, have also served in the ROTC program at Penn State.

The Nittany Lion consistently finishes in the Top 10 in the Mascot National Championships, placing sixth in Division IA in 2023.

The Lion is assisted by a small group of students known as the Lion Troop, who help with skits, props, and videos.

Penn State University Cheerleading Team

In addition to White, the cheerleading team is coached by assistant coach Daryl Green.

Penn State cheerleaders first introduced fans to the famous “We are … Penn State” call-and-answer cheer in the 1970s. 

Mandatory practices for cheerleading begin in mid-August.

There are three separate cheerleading teams. Two of them—a large co-ed team made up of thirteen men and ten women and an all-woman team of twenty-four—alternate cheering at football games. New this year, a small co-ed team made up of three men and nine women will not cheer at football games, but will cover other events.

After football season, the cheerleaders are busy cheering at many other Penn State sporting events, including men’s and women’s basketball, hockey, and wrestling.

Coaches select members of the teams to compete in the UCA national championships each year in the Game Day and Traditional divisions. Game Day cheering is about engaging the crowd from the sidelines through cheers, fight songs, and pyramids, while Traditional is more focused on entertaining the crowd through tumbling and exciting stunts.

The cheerleading teams rotate among several different uniforms, including a mostly white uniform used for White Out games and a traditional halter top uniform that has stayed the same for about twenty years. 

Each cheerleading team member is responsible for cleaning their own uniforms. They are allowed to keep the halter top uniform upon graduation.

Lionettes Dance Team

The Lionettes dance team has a new head coach this year, Jackie Hovis, a recent Penn State graduate and former Lionette.

The 2023-24 dance team is comprised of twenty-four members.

The Lionettes’ signature move is a synchronized jump split at the end of every routine, so it is a requirement for prospective members to be able to perform both a left and a right jump split. 

The Lionettes made the Division IA finals in two divisions, Pom and Jazz, at the UDA College Nationals competition in January.

The Lionettes team was formed as a club in the mid-1990s. Members paid dues to be a part of the club and were relegated to performing on the concourse level during football games. White and former dance team advisor Sue Sherburne gradually incorporated the Lionettes more and more into the game day experience. Today they are officially part of Penn State athletics.

Generally, no more than three dance team members attend each away game, since the Big Ten limits the number of spirit members permitted to do so. T&G

Karen Walker is a freelance writer in State College.