Despite the rain, scores of alumni, students and locals poured into the Beaver Stadium parking lots Friday evening for Blue and White weekend. Here is a recap of the weekend’s biggest events.
Penn State Idol: Four contestants — Shannon McCoy, Chelsey Pagana, Stephen Millett, and Alexandra Zambanini — sung it out on the Blue/White stage near Beaver Stadium Friday evening. McCoy won the competition with her rendition of Gloria Gaynor’s, “I Will Survive.” She won free Domino’s Pizza for a year and free textbooks for Fall 2010, among other prizes.
“It just feels really good winning the title of Penn state idol. I’m so grateful for all the support of my friends and family. I swear they almost blew my eardrums out with how loud their cheering was on Friday night!”
CATA Bus Reroutes: Because Blue and White weekend’s carnival is set up along Curtain Road CATA buses, Blue Loop, Red Link, White Loop, Green Link were rerouted around the stadium to the shock of many riders. A Saturday morning White Loop was rerouted from its usual path up University Drive to Bigler Road to the confusion of many student riders. The students banded together with shouts of “Stop Here!” and “Turn Here!” in hopes the bus driver would get them as close to Beaver Stadium as possible.
Tailgating: The tailgates around Beaver Stadium resembled Penn State’s fall football season if not for one difference: the April showers. To Ashley Harrison, (junior-kinesiology) Blue and White weekend is about the start of football season, family, alumni, and the end of the school year. This year her tailgate was the first without family, but the void was filled with friends from school.
“I’ve been coming to this for five years because my brother played for the team. My favorite part of the weekend is tailgating because I get to relax with friends and not worry about classes.”
Blue and White Game: The toughest competition for starting quarterback was seen at Saturday’s game with four quarterbacks playing for the position in next year’s line-up. The game ended with a 17-3 victory for Blue and less than half a stadium of fans. With chilly wind temperatures and slight drizzle, fans dispersed to rejoin their tailgates as the game wore on.
