Men of the Skull Chapter 4: Nickel Tour

This chapter was one of the last ones I wrote for the book.  It's really for people who don't know Penn State.

Of course, many things have changed in thirty years.  The HUB is completely different (and finding pictures of the old HUB is freaking HARD!)   The Lion has a new perch of stone.  Still, in one form or other, all of these landmarks are still there.

I was messaging with a friend this morning. (Hi Jenn!)  I wrote the following:
Our Penn State is long gone.  It lives in memories and fading photographs.  Many of the places are still the same- but WE aren't.  We are no longer the 20 something's inhabiting the fantasy land.

And that's True.  Penn State means something completely different to everyone who ever attended or visited there.  This book is my Penn State story- your mileage may vary.


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Chapter 2.4: Nickel Tour

August 28, 1986   Battles kill 13 and hurt 70 in Soweto

            I knew it had to be nearby.  Somewhere.  I finished class in Chambers building, which was on the extreme north side of campus.  I had some hours to kill before my next class, so I decided to find it.

            I opened the notebook that contained my campus map, figured out where I was, and headed west.  A couple of minutes later, I found it- just past Kern building.  It was behind the Rec Hall parking lot, on the crest of the hill.  It sat atop a large mound covered with wood chips, and the trees behind it framed it magnificently.

            The Nittany Lion Shrine.

Me at the Lion, April 1987

            It’s actually a statue of a mountain lion crouching on a rock.  Many Penn Staters can quote you the statistics:  sculpted by Heinz Warneke out of thirteen ton block of tan Indiana limestone, it was presented to the university in 1942.  I figure it’s about ten feet long and maybe 5 feet high.  However like many things, numbers don’t tell the story.

            This chunk of rock was and is the Heart of the University.  It is the Symbol.  Hell, I’d been on campus less than a week and I knew that. 

So there I stood: in front of this statue I’d seen on TV, in magazines, books, anywhere Penn State was mentioned.  It looked wise.  Impervious.  I put my hand on its nose, warmed by the late summer heat.  I felt drawn to it- like I was being welcomed- like I belonged.  Warm.

I stood there a couple of minutes.  Then, smiling, I turned and headed back to Beaver Hill, a mile away. 

Hell, while I’m at it, I may as well give a quick tour.  The Pennsylvania State University was founded in 1855 as a farm school.  Located in the middle of the mountains of Pennsylvania, the campus and the town that grew around it are in a long valley known as “Happy Valley.”  Really- that’s what it’s called. By the 1980s it was as well known for academics as it was for football.  From its very humble beginnings, the campus had grown to over a mile side to side.  The town of State College is right next to campus, and it has everything a young college student could want or need for studies and/or fun except for strip joints.  It was and is a fantasy land. 

Headed back from the Lion, I passed Pattee Library.  It sits at the crest of the hill, and the top of a long avenue of Elm trees and gardens that extend all the way down to College Avenue.  Pattee is a huge building, columned and solemn.  Stately.  It’s everything a grand old library should be- right down to the quotes carved in its face: “A Library is a summons to scholarship” and “A University is a collection of books.”  In the late 1990s, a large wing was added to the library, donated by Joe Paterno, the football coach.  However, as this wasn’t there when I was, that’s the only mention of the Paterno Library you’ll get. 

Old Main April 1987

Walking down the avenue toward College Ave, the first street I came across was Pollock Road.  Back then it was open to traffic.  Maybe fifty yards to the east of the Avenue along Pollock was Old Main.  Old Main is the building that most people associate with Penn State.  It’s the one with the bell tower that people always see on TV.  Old Main was once a dorm back in the old days.  It burnt down (I think) and the current building was built on the same site with the same stones.  The building houses the university administrative offices.  It’s also supposed to be haunted by a donkey named “Old Coaly.”  Really.

Old Coaly's bones are now in the HUB

            In front of Old Main is a large lawn which reaches all the way down to College Avenue.  Remember that Avenue of Elms?  It boarders the one side of the lawn.  The other side is bordered by another Avenue of Elms.  Some of these elms are over a hundred years old.  When one dies, it is replaced by a sapling grown from one of the original elms. 

            Maybe a hundred yards east of the second avenue, (the one bordering the east side of Old Main lawn- still with me?)  was the Hetzel Union Building: the “HUB.”  It’s the “student union” where people meet between classes to eat, study, nap, or whatever.  In the mid 1990s, the Hub was completely redone, so the building today bears no resemblance to the Hub I knew.  Next to the Hub is the Penn State bookstore.  Bordering the south side of the Hub is the imaginatively named Hub lawn.  On the rare sunny and warm days, people congregated there to play football, Frisbee, or sunbathe.

HUB Lawn  April 1987

            Ok, let’s backtrack to the first Avenue of Elms- the one that heads south from Pattee.  Heading south from Pollack, I passed the Obelisk.  It’s on the west side of the Avenue, maybe fifty yards from Old Main Lawn.  The Obelisk was built in 1896 to mark the Geographic center of Pennsylvania.  Turns out someone fucked up; because years later it was determined that the center of Pennsylvania was out by Beaver Stadium.  Oops.  Anyway, the Obelisk is built out of every type of rock native to the commonwealth in geographic order: “oldest” on the bottom to “youngest” on top, and it’s about thirty three feet high.  Tradition says that if a graduating senior who is still a virgin walks past the Obelisk, it will tumble to the ground.  After over a hundred years, it’s still standing.  I guess we’re all just a bunch of sluts.

Me at Lion  May 2016 (in the rain)

            Of course there are many other places that make up the campus, but these are the best known- aside from the stadium.  That’ll show up soon enough.  Like there are places like Hammond building, which takes up a whole block on College Ave and seems like it was built sideways.  Hell, there’s even a university president entombed on campus: Atherton.  It’s said he rises on nights when the moon is new and black to do shots with the prettiest of the freshman girls in Pollock Halls.  Ok, not really.  Still, every building on campus has a history of some kind, but I digress…

State College skyline, March 1987 from Beaver Hill.  Composite picture

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