First Night State College is a family-oriented community event that celebrates the beginning of a new year. The event was founded in 1994 and patterned after First Night festivals across the United States that are intended to promote the performing and visual arts as a means to unify citizens on New Year’s Eve.
Memorial Field is the historic home of State College Area High School athletic programs and other community events. Once a farmer’s field with a prominent sinkhole on the edge of the borough, the area around what is now Memorial Field became the home to State College schools starting with a two-story, four-room schoolhouse that opened in 1897.
Jerry Sandusky was convicted in 2012 of sexually assaulting multiple boys both during and after his career as an assistant coach for Penn State’s football team. The scandal led to the firing of head football coach Joe Paterno and the criminal convictions of three top university officials, including President Graham Spanier. Penn State paid more […]
Robert Norman Fisher was an internationally known sculptor and designer who was a pioneer in the use of computer visualization in sculpture. He was a longtime resident of Bellefonte and was a leader in the historic preservation of the borough. His work can be seen in several Centre County buildings.
The Allegheny Front Trail is a 42-mile loop through Moshannon State Forest that roughly encircles Black Moshannon State Park. Completed by volunteers in the 1990s, it is the longest hiking trail entirely within Centre County.
The presence and impact of Native Americans in what is today Centre County is a matter of both history and popular imagination. Evidence indicates that the region between the West Branch of the Susquehanna and the Juniata Rivers was primarily an area of hunting and transit for Native Americans.
The Boogersburg School is a historic one-room schoolhouse in Patton Township where students were educated for 75 years. On May 1, 1877, Moses Thompson, the owner and ironmaster of the Centre Furnace, deeded land on what is now Fox Hollow Road for the schoolhouse. Thompson wanted to provide a school for the children of his […]
In Joe Paterno’s extraordinary career as Penn State’s head football coach from 1966 to 2011, Paterno was the most recognizable Penn Stater and citizen of Centre County. Not only was the longevity of his career at one institution exceptional in the world of intercollegiate football, but his success was unequaled as well: No other NCAA […]
The embodiment of the Penn State spirit for many is the statue of the Nittany Lion, situated in a small grove of trees to the east of Rec Hall. It is quite likely the most photographed place on the campus. Hundreds of thousands of students in caps and gowns at graduation, couples in wedding garb, […]
The Nittany Lion is Penn State’s beloved mascot, “storied in song and legend.” It takes its name from Mount Nittany and the mountain lions that once roamed there and across Pennsylvania. Today, the Lion mascot is ubiquitous across campus for sporting, philanthropic, or any event that inspires the cheer “WE ARE … PENN STATE!”