Fathead released its fall catalog, which will include three college football stadiums, including Beaver Stadium. The others are Notre Dame Stadium and Ohio Stadium (“The Horseshoe”). So, if you miss the big Beave, you can have it right there on your wall.
Archives for July 2009
Lift for Life
As I write this, Lift for Life is kicking off at Penn State. This fun charity event benefits kidney cancer research, and features members of the football team. As of the time this is being written, nearly $52,000 has been raised with much more expected during the auctions and events. Last year’s total was over $70,000.
Top fund raisers thus far:
- Penn State Uplifting Athletes — $20,954
- Mickey Shuler — $4,290
- Brett Brackett — $3,685
- Jeremy Boone — $3,065
- Ryan Gmerek — $2,910
From the press release:
Members of the 2009 Nittany Lion football squad are set to participate in the fun-to-watch Uplifting Athletes “Lift For Life” event scheduled for Friday, July 10, from 2:00 — 7:00 p.m. at Holuba Hall. Last year, more than 90 Penn State football players tested their strength and endurance in this 11 exercise competition that raised more than $70,000 for the Kidney Cancer Association.
Lift For Life is open to the public with a suggested donation of $5 per student or child and $10 per adult. Donations can also be made in advance and credited to your favorite player’s fund raising total by visiting www.upliftingathletes.org. Fans will have a chance to meet and get autographs from current and former members of the Penn State Football team. Exciting improvements to this year’s event include a “fun zone” with kids’ games, a silent auction and onsite credit card processing.
Uplifting Athletes events are organized by current football student-athletes. The Penn State Football chapter of Uplifting Athletes is run by members are on the Penn State football team including officers Brett Brackett, Jesse Alfreno, Patrick Mauti and Ryan Gmerek, as well as Brennan Coakley, Mike Farrell, Josh Matzkin and Matt Stankiewitch. More than $300,000 has been raised to benefit the Kidney Cancer Association in the first six years of the “Lift For Life” event. The group is looking to continue their success with this year’s edition. Other events hosted by the Penn State chapter include the intercollegiate College Football Video Game Challenge (vs. the Maryland Football Chapter of Uplifting Athletes), Blue and White Game carnival activities and a fall donor appreciation luncheon.
“Uplifting Athletes is a group of Penn State football players working together in an attempt to raise awareness and funds for rare diseases,” said Brackett, the Penn State chapter’s president. “These rare diseases affect fewer than 200,000 Americans and consequently little attention is paid to them. As college football student-athletes, we believe we are in a position to make a difference. Lift for Life is one way a small group of people can make a big impact on the lives of others.”
Holuba Hall is located directly across from the East Area Locker Room and adjacent to the Lasch Football Building. Uplifting Athletes has worked hard to accommodate the growing number of fans who attend this annual event, including a more fan friendly set-up for “Lift For Life.” The members of the football team will be put through 11 grueling physical tasks such as bench press, leg press, and less conventional events such as the tire flip and the iron cross. This event will be a test of strength and endurance as well as mental toughness.
Founded by Penn State Football teammates in 2003, “Lift For Life” continues to build awareness and raise funds for the Kidney Cancer Association. Uplifting Athletes is 501(c)3 national nonprofit organization that aligns college football with rare diseases and raises them as a national priority through outreach, research, education and advocacy. For more information about Penn State Football Uplifting Athletes or to make a tax-deductible contribution, please visit www.upliftingathletes.org or contact Deloris Brobeck at 814-865-1946 during normal business hours.
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Hatch Says BCS Violates Antitrust Laws
This is the story of the week, as far as this Turkey is concerned, so I’ll continue to beat it to death. I think Senator Orrin Hatch (R, Utah) has finally flipped his sparsely populated wig. He’s been the driving force behind this weeks Senate subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights hearings on the subject of Bowl Championship Series fairness. Appropriately, Hatch has been the only member to have attended all the sessions from beginning to end.
Hatch believes that the system of assigning bowl games and determining the national champion is unfair — not because it leaves the true national championship issue in doubt, but because of the inequity he and other fairness advocates perceive in the way the BCS tacitly allocates money. Of course, the University of Utah is one of those institutions being slighted by the BCS, thus the particular interest by the school’s home state’s U.S. Senator.
“You have 50 percent of the schools who are the elite schools. They get almost all of the money, and the other schools, no matter how good they are, don’t even have a chance to compete for the national title,” said Hatch.
Interestingly enough, Hatch’s comments came a day after BCS officials rejected a proposal by the Mountain West Conference (Utah’s conference) that would replace the present system by an eight-team playoff. The Mountain West, having waged the fight for six months, capitulated. Following is an excerpt from the statement by the Mountain West:
The Mountain West believes it has no choice at this time but to sign the agreements. If a conference wishes to compete at the highest levels of college football, and the only postseason system in place for that is the BCS, no one conference can afford to drop out and penalize its football programs and student-athletes.
Of course, if the Mountain West hadn’t agreed, they would have been cut out of more than the national championship picture. They would have lost the ESPN television revenue as well. Their capitulation means that they’ll lay low for the next four years.
Meanwhile, Hatch is not giving up. He continues to amp up the rhetoric, calling for antitrust proceedings by the Department of Justice.
“I think there are definite antitrust laws being broken here, and we should do something about it,” said the senator.
But the DOJ hasn’t really been doing much trust-busting lately, and furthermore, they and Congress would be subjecting themselves to public ridicule for pursuing something as frivolous as fairness in sports when they have much bigger fish to fry.
As for this Turkey and other Penn State fans, well, hell — we’re already in that 50 percent that Hatch mentioned, so best to leave sleeping dogs lie.
Now, as to the issue of fairness in deciding the national champ, that’s quite another thing.
Will the Nittany Lions have a shot at that championship this year? I have my doubts, mostly centering on the inexperienced receivers and the mostly new defensive secondary, but that’s another subject for another story for another day as we approach the sweet days of autumn.
