John Hook
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Hook: The End of Summer and the Start of a New Era
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Labor Day has come and gone, meaning summer is now unofficially over. But that unofficial line of demarcation of summer – Memorial Day to Labor Day – has lost the meaning it once had. Both Penn State classes and the local school districts start before Labor Day. And although Penn State’s spring semester ends before…
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Hook: Weather Wonders and School Stress
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Six days a week, my wife and I like to get out for a walk around the neighborhood. We skip Sunday – a day of rest and all – but otherwise we try for 3 miles a day. We have a standard set of “courses” we use for our walks, but depending on weather we’ll…
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Hook: Keeping the ‘Penn’ in Penn State Athletics
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We Are… Pennsylvania! OK, OK, I know, that’s not how we roll. Of course our iconic cheer is We Are… Penn State! And we’re soon going to have the chance to get back in that We Are cheering spirit. In less than three weeks Penn State’s football team will be on the field against Marshall…
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Hook: Why Soccer Can Be a Long-Term Revenue Growth Opportunity for Penn State
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Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock the last few years, you are eminently aware of one thing here in Happy Valley: Penn State’s athletic department wants your money! From sponsorships to donations to tickets to fees and beyond, it seems like everything associated with Penn State sports is now monetized. Why, even our beloved…
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Hook: Reflections on an Intriguing and Expensive World Cup
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According to media reports, the FIFA World Cup final is the most-watched sporting event in the world, and although as I write this the viewership numbers have not been released for this past Sunday’s final match between Spain and Argentina, the belief is more than 1.5 billion people on the planet likely watched. Now, many…
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Hook: A Welcoming Education at Penn State’s Breazeale Nuclear Reactor
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When I arrived at Penn State in the fall of 1977 as a 17-year-old – what is now referred to as a “first-year student” – I moved into Beam Hall in the North Halls dorm area. North Halls was, and is, the smallest dorm area on campus, and at the time it was the primary…
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Hook: A Belated Spring Cleaning to Clear Out Column Ideas
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In honor of the last day of spring passing by, I’m going to do a little belated spring cleaning and clear out a few column ideas that are interesting to me, but don’t have enough “meat on the bone,” as it were, to fill out a full 1,000-word column by themselves. Here goes… * *…
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Hook: Maybe a Big Ten-SEC Super League Would Be Best for Everyone
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If you’ve been paying even the slightest bit of attention to sports news lately – outside of the current NBA and NHL Finals, that is – you’ve heard that everybody has an opinion on college athletics. The president, Congress, coaches, athletic directors and all sorts of media members have weighed in on the current state…
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Hook: Let’s Import Some Irish Driving Habits
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It’s late May in State College, most of the Penn State students are gone, and we locals have the town to ourselves again. It’s also a time when seemingly all the drivers who wouldn’t normally take to the roads of Happy Valley decide it’s OK to go out and cruise around at 10 miles an…
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Hook: Getting Ready for Penn State’s Adidas Switch, and a Concession Stand Request
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The day of reckoning we have all been waiting for since last September is now less than two months away. Of course, I’m talking about July 1, 2026 – the day when all Penn State athletic team’s uniforms will showcase an Adidas logo. Penn State jerseys, hats, shorts, pants, shirts and equipment will henceforth be…