Welcome to Alabama, Joe Pa!

***Author's Note 8/31/2012 I am leaving this post in tact, changing no words about it. But at the very mention of Joe Paterno, I must offer my prayers to all the victims in the Sandusky crimes, to all the innocent football players whose football careers will be marred by association with this program, and to all the residents of Happy Valley who simply love football and now question every truth they believed about Penn State University and its "respected" leaders.***

This is a recap of a game from 2 wks ago...yesterday the Morrises traveled to Dalton, GA for a family reunion -- more about that later -- and had to listen to the game on the radio.

Am I the only one who was curious as to what qualifies a lion to be a "Nittany Lion"?  Apparently, "the origins of 'Nittany' are a bit obscure, but most likely the word comes from a Native American term meaning, 'single mountain.' (Since a number of Algonquian-speaking tribes inhabited central Pennsylvania, the term can’t be traced to one single group.) The description applied to the mountain that separates what is today Penns Valley and Nittany Valley, with its western end overlooking the community of State College and Penn State's University Park campus. The first colonial settlers in the 1700s adopted this term, or a variation of it, in formally naming Nittany Mountain."  Thank you Penn State for the answer.

On Sept. 11th, Alabama played host to Penn State U's Nittany Lions.  Head Coach Joe Paterno faced the Crimson Tide for the first time since the '90s.  It's kinda an iconic day--"Joe Pa" coached against The Bear and now against Saban.  Also, there was a famous (knockoff) piece of hardware making the rounds on the Quad:

And who was that football player walking around with the trophy?  See below.  We managed to get a quick photo before he and his trophy moved on to other tailgate sites.

And it was hot!!! We were literally wilting.  We all went from "Hey, we are some cuties," to "can someone get me a napkin so I can dab my sweat?"  I think there was 150% humidity!  The poor fans from Pennsylvania looked like they were going into shock.  Even the most "seasoned" tailgaters started looking a little weak and/or sweaty:

This picture cracks me up!!! Jonathan and Meredith are the only ones "ready"...

Phew, it was a long day of tailgating, but it was finally game time!

Looking straight ahead at the new South Endzone

Here are a couple of shots from the pre-game introduction video and of the Boys of Fall doing their warm ups:

One last happy pose before kickoff:

We had a great time!  The final score was 24-3 which helped #1 Alabama stay at the top of the charts with their 2-0 season start.  And, in the words of Eli Gould, "It's good!"