![]() The Penn State football culture is a highlighting factor of our university and it is a major attraction for families, alumni, and college football fans everywhere. There is nothing quite like the feeling of being surrounded by over 100,000 people in one place, watching the same game, and rooting for the same team. The show of force brings a different energy level.If you have ever been to a Penn State football game, it is undeniable that you have felt a pure sense of joy and community. ![]() Everyone wearing white is exceptional and a sign of unity. “And for them, we pull out all the stops with the visual show. “It’s a blast for the people in the stadium, but many more people watch on television,” he said. Fowler even called the game his TV director’s favorite broadcast of the year because of how beautiful the crowd looks while decked out in white. ![]() That visual is what stands out to Fowler as one of the game’s greatest facets, especially from a network’s perspective.Īfter all, while more than 110,000 fans can pack inside of Beaver Stadium, more than nine million tuned into the White Out last year. “It’s been imitated a bunch of times and you can do it, but it feels like you’re copying someone else because you are.”įowler noted Ohio State’s black outs specifically as a failed attempt at re-creating the White Out atmosphere, mainly because the visual of an all-white stadium in the night is one of the most picturesque sights. “The White Out is the most successful thing like this because it was organic and rolled out with a lot of marketing savvy,” Fowler said. ![]() For one, having an entire stadium wear black is far from the same as having fans do so in white. But really, no promotion has come close to rivaling the effect. The White Out’s success has inspired plenty of other teams to attempt to replicate it. It took time to engrain that here, but I think the students have taught them how to act with the student-only.” That’s part of the football culture there. “Down south, you always expect it’s going to be rowdy, disruptive, and crazy. It isn’t about the school telling them what to do or what to wear. “Regular fans wanted to be part of it, and now, the fans own it. “The White Out was beautifully marketed and not forced down anyone’s throats,” he said. Instead of the team’s Twitter accounts pushing announcements onto fans and force-feeding them what to wear to the game, the organic approach translated to greater buy-in. That guerrilla effort, which took shape before social media dominated college campuses, is what allowed the White Out to catch on and helped foster a greater change in identity, according to Fowler. By 2007, the White Out had spread to the rest of the stadium for the Nittany Lions’ game against Notre Dame. Somehow, it worked and returned during the subsequent seasons. If you have a subscription to The Athletic, Snyder provides a fairly thorough overview of the White Out’s history and how D’Elia, his team, and a group of student marketing interns led the charge to white out the student section for a game against Purdue in 2004. In an interview with The Athletic‘s Audrey Snyder, D’Elia compared the stadium to “opera crowds” and said that the student section just wasn’t having any fun. It’s definitely the best north of the Mason-Dixon Line.”įowler said that the fanfare that goes into creating the White Out atmosphere is a stark contrast from the crowds he grew accustomed to during his childhood.Īthletics’ former director of communications and branding Guido D’Elia pitched the idea of having fans all wear the same color to the game to Joe Paterno before the season. “In a big-game environment, thanks to the student section being huge, Penn State gameday is as good as it gets. The unity that’s expressed by the crowd wearing white and during the sing-a-longs has elevated the gameday experience. The White Out’s been done well to increase fan frenzy and elevate the passion. “There’s spirit here that’s reflected in the White Out. “State College is such a classic college town,” he said. Although he says he can barely recognize Beaver Stadium from the “horseshoe steel erector set” he grew up watching games at, calling games there still holds a special place in his heart. Having spent part of his life following the Nittany Lions and more than three decades immersed in college football as a career, Fowler sat down with Onward State Friday morning to discuss what makes the White Out so special. Fowler, who spent part of his childhood in State College while his father taught at Penn State, often remembers Beaver Stadium as the place where he fell in love with college football as a wide-eyed middle schooler watching Joe Paterno’s teams throughout the 1970s. ESPN play-by-play announcer Chris Fowler is making his return to Happy Valley this weekend to call the White Out for the fourth consecutive year.
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