Last Saturday night was certainly a thrilling night for Penn State Athletics. While the wrestling team put up a historically dominant national championship performance, given the team’s current national title run, the wrestling team’s continuing dynasty was not that surprising.
The night’s surprise belonged to the relatively new Division I Penn State men’s ice hockey program’s Big Ten tournament victory. It was surprising because Penn State’s young team came into that game having played Thursday and Friday (a 2-OT win) to face Wisconsin who’d only played one game. It was surprising because in the end an unlikely hero rose. Freshman Liam Folkes scored the game winner in the second overtime (bringing his season totals to 6 goals).
The freshmen are everywhere. In the title game, goalie Peyton Jones kept Penn State alive making 51 saves from the routine to the sublime. Freshmen Denis Smirnov and Nikita Pavlychev are giving Big Ten teams a reason to complain about “Russian contacts.”
But for Penn State Coach Guy Gadowsky, Saturday’s story began six years ago.
Penn State had a $103 million gift and an idea for Division-1 ice hockey. Penn State needed a unique individual, a coach able to see a future beyond the horizon.
During his on-campus interview process Guy dropped into my Lasch Building office with Ben Bouma, a Penn State Icers hockey alum and consultant on the project. Guy pointed to the wall behind my desk and said “That is what I want to be a part of.”
Everyone in the room looked at the oversized field level photo of the Nittany Lion and cheerleaders standing during the Alma Mater in Beaver Stadium. Guy wasn’t pointing at that picture but rather below it at a small sheet of paper taped to the wall. It was my young daughter’s drawing of a football player with the words “We Are Penn State.”
“We are Penn State. That is just something I want to be a part of — that spirit.” Guy said.
That evening we caught up after dinner to talk. The themes Guy kept coming back to were so familiar. This wasn’t a “destination job” at an established hockey school like Michigan, Minnesota or Wisconsin. This was only a destination job for someone with a wild imagination who could envision the big picture and was willing to work to make it a reality.
Guy talked about family — wanting to be a part of Penn State’s and this community being a great place for his family. This was a place where he believed he’d coach true student-athletes and a team that was built on Success with Honor.
There was no talk of big money, or contract demands. That evening Guy seemed to be the person at the table who was most excited about the future of Penn State ice hockey. Guy wanted to be here for the same reasons so many other coaches came and remain here — not because they’re paid the most money, but because he understood the unique culture of integrity and success that has always been here. He could grasp the Penn State spirit, familial bonds of pride that unite so many.
He could envision it. In town that night he saw college students walking around in NHL hockey jerseys from their favorite teams.
Ben Bouma looked at Guy and said “This is a hockey school waiting to happen. There are Flyer bars and Penguin bars. There are seven NHL teams within a few hours from here, but soon enough they’ll all own Penn State hockey jerseys.”
Well, it is a hockey school now. Saturday night’s thrilling win drove that stake into the ground. Certainly there is more to accomplish this season, but now the rest of the country can see it. Penn State is now an established program, one that given its location, fan support, facilities and coaching staff will ascend to and remain in the top echelon of the sport.
Over the course of the weekend, as Penn State neared clinching an NCAA tournament berth, writers and commentators kept saying that no one around the program expected the hockey team to get so good so fast. One suspects that is not really the case.
These things don’t just happen. The team’s leadership could see it and believe in it.
If you gave the players and coaches truth serum, they’d probably admit they expected Penn State to be something special, they expected to be here already and that they see even greater things just beyond the horizon that other may not be able to see.
But as the night ended and the Big Ten Network asked Guy what the win meant and what he was feeling he responded “I’m just honored to be a part of Penn State University.”
In what is so far the biggest moment of what all Penn State hockey fans hope will be a long career here, we saw what this place means to Guy. His answer wasn’t about “I” or “me”, rather it honored the moment and the people who make this university unique.
