This story originally appeared in the September 2024 edition of Town&Gown magazine.
Penn State has a huge fan base around the world, including ultra-dedicated super fans who make the university a core part of their lives. Read on for the stories of how three of these families express their super-fandom in their hobbies, life events, where they live and even the names of their children.
We Are … Big Collectors
Super fan Ted Brown (Class of 1968, Science) moved back to Centre County 14 years ago to be close to Penn State and Nittany Lions football, and to keep building his immense Penn State collection. He grew up in Delaware County, and 17 members of his family—four generations—are Penn State graduates, including his parents and two of his three daughters.
He is going into his 12th and final year as an alumni-elected trustee of the university and he’s a “huge JoePa fan.” He has been to every Nittany Lions home game and Penn State-Pitt game since he was a student in 1963, except during 1970, when he was on active duty with the Pennsylvania National Guard. He attended Joe Paterno’s first and last bowl games and has season tickets for himself, his wife, Elaine, and other family members.
After retiring from his 30-year career with IBM, Brown founded and still leads a risk management company, State College-based KetchConsulting. As he travels, he is always looking for more Penn State items. “It’s like a treasure hunt for the stuff. … It’s just fun to find it.”
Many fans have Penn State rooms and man caves to display their memorabilia. Going above and beyond this, Brown estimates his own trove at 100,000 items, which he says is the largest Penn State collection outside of the University Libraries.
“My rule is, if it’s connected to Penn State, it counts,” he says. “It has to have a story.
“I don’t buy autographs because they’re mostly forgeries. But I like stuff to be autographed to me. … Then we know it’s real because it’s ‘To Ted.’
“The other fun thing is how much I’ve learned about Penn State by accident, because of collecting stuff and doing a little homework.”
For example, he says the popular Nittany Lion depicted in the Heinz Warneke statue on campus was not the original lion. Brown owns a 1930s bronze statue of the first lion mascot, Old Nittany—an African lion with a mane—and has a photo of the team mascot in costume with a mane.
Brown organizes his collection by specific themes—Joe Paterno, sports, Penn State presidents, Blue Band, the Creamery, students, scientific instruments, ROTC, lions and more. His Greek collection includes his role as president of Theta Delta Chi Fraternity and his leadership in other student organizations.
Some of his favorite items include a defensive plan for Joe Paterno’s last game, signed by coach Tom Bradley; football programs going back to 1908; coaches’ trophies from bowl games; and a personal letter from Joe Paterno after Brown congratulated him on his 100th win.
He also collects larger items—an old wooden locker from Beaver Stadium, the architect’s model of Pattee and Paterno Library, a freezer door from the Creamery, a stairway column from Old Main and a taxidermy-preserved mountain lion.
We Are … Proud Parents
Tina and Kurt Hinton are likely the only Penn State fans who have named their two children—daughter Nittany and son Lions—after their favorite team.
For their first child, they came up with the name Nittany for a girl.
“The more we said it, the more I loved it,” Tina says. “We never told a soul, not a soul, until after she was born. It was original, and I like original because my name’s Tina and there were so many Tinas in my class.”
Kurt picked Lion or Lions for their second child if it was a boy. He gave Tina the choice about whether the name would end in “s.” All her Penn State clothing had “Lions” with an “s,” so that became the baby’s name.
Tina and Kurt have been able to attend Nittany Lions football home games for 35 years by working for season tickets.
“We only missed one or two games,” Tina says. “We grew up always rooting for Penn State.”
Originally from Clinton County, the Hintons married and moved to Bellefonte in 1984, after he graduated from the machinist program at Williamsport Area Community College (now Pennsylvania College of Technology) and accepted a job in State College. He is currently a machinist for Penn State’s College of Engineering, and she works for Ingram Fuels.
Tina says, “When we moved up there, we had friends that went to the games and took us to our first tailgate. We were hooked.
“We started parking cars back when they gave you $15 cash and a ticket into the game,” she says. “That’s why we started, because we wanted to go into the games, and when you’re newly married, you don’t have money to do that kind of stuff.”
The Hintons parked cars from 1985 until five or six years ago and were eventually promoted to parking supervisors. Their kids worked for them, doing parking, when they got old enough so they could earn their own tickets.
Football isn’t the only Nittany Lion sport the Hintons follow. Kurt started going to Penn State wrestling meets with Tina and friends in 1985. Now their kids join them. “I’m a huge wrestling fan,” he says.
The Hintons live in the Walker Township burg of Nittany, in a white house with navy blue shutters decorated with paw prints, and whose doors sport big lion heads. Their house is decorated with Penn State items inside and out. Tina’s car is navy blue with a WE4PSU license plate.
“Everything in our house has Penn State somewhere,” she says. “We get a lot of gifts. People say, I saw this and thought of you. … When you drive past, you know it’s our house.”
They often wear Nittany Lion and Penn State clothing. The red of Ohio State is banned from Kurt’s closet. He says, “It’s a conversation starter when we go on a vacation because I’m always wearing Penn State clothes. We bleed blue and white.”
Tina says, “We love to go on cruises and have met so many people from so many different places. … It’s so much fun getting to know other Penn Staters.”
We Are … Getting Married
Roxanne Cisneros (Class of 1985, Animal Bioscience) lives near Nashville, Tennessee, and had a Penn State super-fan wedding. “I had this idea—hey, why don’t we get married at tailgate?”
Her then-fiancée, Armando Cisneros Jr., didn’t attend Penn State. But he was all for it.
“It’s a second marriage for both of us,” Roxanne says, “so let’s do something different. Since he was Army retired, I said, hey, Army is playing Penn State. Let’s do this.”
Cisneros had attended Penn State after growing up in rural Bradford County and was the first in her family to go away to college.
Relocating to Nashville in 2002, she worked as a chemist and project manager for an environmental lab and became very active in the local Penn State alumni chapter. “My fandom didn’t become so great until I moved away.”
A friend, local chapter President Paul Anderson, was happy to host her October 3, 2015, wedding at his tailgating spot outside Beaver Stadium, near the corner of Park Avenue and Porter Road. He set up a big tent and chairs, and a Centre County judge officiated.
Cisneros wore a white dress and carried blue and white pom-poms. Her husband dressed in Army blues. Her two sons and maid of honor stood up with her wearing Penn State football jerseys.
She recalls, “We did the ceremony. I threw my pom-poms. My husband threw a football. What he did was take a garter off my leg and put it around a football. The football says ‘you’re next’ on it.”
Anderson arranged to have Penn State cheerleaders and the Nittany Lion come by. The bride, groom and maid of honor rode around the tailgating areas in a Penn State golf cart, and people cheered because the couple had just been married.
The newlyweds wore Penn State and Army football jerseys for the game, and she wore a headband veil with lion ears. Penn State won.
“Our marriage certificate cites ‘Beaver Stadium, University Park, Centre County’ as where we were married,” she says.
The Cisneroses come to one game a year and hope to buy season tickets when they retire. She also attends the women’s football clinic.
Roxanne has a Penn State bedroom, more décor in storage, a navy-blue Mazda CX5 with bright while leather interior and “every article of clothing that you can think of with Penn State on it. If it’s got Penn State on it, I probably have it. My husband constantly buys me stuff.”
They are building a home in Port Charlotte, Florida. They were able to buy a building lot on Nittany Street by writing to current owners until one decided to sell. Roxanne says she thrives on connecting with Penn Staters wherever she goes.
“I like the camaraderie, especially being physically removed from the area. When I go up there it’s everywhere. … But when you’re away physically and you meet people, you’re family. You automatically know them and can talk to them. … All my best friends are Penn Staters.” T&G
Karen Dabney is a freelance writer in State College.
