In case you don’t believe in fate, or destiny, or divine intervention, then you should sit down over a “Cup of Joe” with me sometime (pun intended).

You see, I am one of those people who do not just confess to bleeding blue and white… I actually do! I was so pre-destined to be a Nittany Lion that my parents knew to name me Joe so that my nickname would be “JoeBa” by design. I have a lot in common with JoePa -- we are both Italian, have big noses, wear funny glasses and our voices screech when we start to yell.

My closet is 90 percent full of blue and white clothing, causing great angst for my “chief wardrobe critic.” That would be my wife of 20 years, the former Ms. Heidi Smith, the pride of Erie McDowell High School and a double Penn State graduate from the Class of ’81 (B.S., Geology) and the Class of ’83 (M.S., Environmental Pollution Control). In other words, she is the “brains of the outfit.” Oh, by the way, both her parents were PSU grads as well!

But I digress. My first-ever PSU home football game was the fall of 1978 at the newly renovated and expanded Beaver Stadium (a then-record crowd of 77,000!) on a beautiful fall Saturday. I was sporting my oversized Afro (not the fake kind you buy at the store; I really did have a huge Afro! …Come on, it was the ’70s, man!). This was back when whiteouts were just weather-related storms that we drove through to get from Western PA to Happy Valley during the winter on the old two lane Route 22 that took four hours on a clear day!

My fellow freshman and I from the distinguished “Pottstown House” showed up in our black and gold intramural football shirts (so we would stand out in the crowd and our parents might catch a glimpse of us on the PSU Football Story). We stood right along the tunnel and witnessed firsthand JoePa leading Matt Millen and Bruce Clark down the walkway and onto the Beaver Stadium turf. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen!

By the way, Pottstown House was the 7th and 8th floors in the infamous Pinchot Hall. Infamous, because it was the dorm where some overzealous engineering student (No, it wasn’t me!) set the elevator on fire in the middle of the night, sending all of us into the frigid air while Findlay Commons was locked tight.

No late night commons functions in those days. Yes, I actually lived in East Halls and walked across the wind-scorched tundra that was once known as “Parking Lot 80” -- which, ironically, is where my new office in the Smeal Business Building is located!

But I digress. We beat up on Rutgers 26-10 that day and it was at the celebratory party that night that I first recited the “Echo Cheer” and put in my own “touch” much to the delight of the howling crowd. You see, I was blessed with both a “face that was made for radio” as well as a rather very distinctive voice. So when I started off the Echo Cheer everyone at the party joined in…

When I say Penn…you say State!

When I say Blue…you say White!

When I say Team…you say Fight!

When I say JoePa…you say Terno!

When I say JoeBa”…you say “Tista”

Huh? Well, it made perfect sense to me!

That was the humble beginning, and to this day the “echo cheer” has been “my” cheer. I actually got to lead over 25,000 Penn Staters in the cheer at the pep rally this past January at the Rose Bowl while serving as the executive director of the Nittany Lion Club. I called my brother and told him that for a few minutes I felt like a rock star!

By the way, no disrespect intended to the “Mic Man” on the cheerleading squad, but the echo cheer is supposed to fire up people, and somewhere along the way the tempo slowed down as to render the cheer ineffective! Put some heart into it, you guys!

But I digress. The week after the 1978 Rutgers game, we shut out the “Evil Empire” in Columbus 19-0 in a rare early season Big Ten non-conference game. We went on to win 11 straight games before losing to Bear Bryant and Alabama in the national championship game in the Sugar Bowl.

It would take me four more seasons and a change of major from nuclear engineering to marketing to allow me to graduate in 1983 and be a part of the first national title season. Along the way I survived sitting in the Pitt student section at the old Pitt Stadium when the Panthers were undefeated and ranked No. 1, and Dan Marino led them to an early 14-0 lead. My high school and college buddy Clark Dexter and I withstood the “FA-Q PSU” taunts that suddenly went silent when we roared back to score 48 unanswered points

Truth is, I grew up a rather confused football fan in the Pittsburgh suburb of Penn Hills. Sunday morning was church followed by the Pitt, Penn State, and Notre Dame football highlight shows.

When it came time to pick a school, I was told that I was good at math and science, so I should be an engineer. I said, “Great, when do we drop the puck?”

I was a budding high school hockey star (at least in my mind), and I was going to go play varsity hockey at Notre Dame. Problem is, they didn’t think too highly of hockey kids from Pittsburgh in those days (That has changed dramatically over the years, as in 2008 Christian Hanson was a team captain at ND and signed a pro contract with Toronto of the NHL). I was put on a wait list and told I could walk on if I got in on my own. Thankfully, my mother was a lot smarter than me and she made me apply to Pitt and Penn State as back-ups.

Well, I was broken-hearted. The decision between Pitt and Penn State was simple. Friends just don’t let friends go to Pitt! So Mom and Dad dropped me off at Pinchot Hall in August of 1978.

Other than a three-year stint as assistant marketing director for the Pittsburgh Penguins (Wait ’til you hear how JoePa and football connections helped me land that job in a future column!) and two years coaching hockey at Kent State and Culver Academy (which is, ironically, just down the road from Notre Dame), I have been blessed to call Happy Valley my home since 1987.

Getting to raise a family of five with my best friend and love of my life, Heidi -- that’s a whole different story as well -- has been almost too good to be true.

I get to wake up every morning and look out my window to see the sun rising over Mt. Nittany. OK, not every morning, because as anyone knows we have our share of cloud-filled days (The sky is blue and white for a reason.).

Over the next few months I hope to share some light-hearted stories and anecdotes from my time here in Happy Valley as a student, PSU ice hockey player, Lion Ambassador, THON volunteer, Second Mile friend and volunteer, Icers coach, executive director of the Nittany Lion Club, development officer in the Smeal College of Business, community volunteer, youth coach, father and husband.

I am proud to be a Penn Stater and to call State College my home! We are…!